FOREWORD

Tourism traditionally has been viewed as largely beneficial to and compatible with the entire process of economic development. Tourism is an industry employing more than 100 million people around the world and provides all governments with over hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues. Tourism is currently one of the fastest growing sectors in the world and many APO member countries, in fact, have given tourism a high priority in their development plans.

As the demand from tourists to visit natural scenic area increases, developers have resorted to developing tourist attractions in and around natural scenic sites, including some in the ecologically sensitive areas. This has, however, resulted in severe environmental degradation, and thereby diminishing the value of the site or feature that attracted the tourists in the first place. The tourism industry is thus also faced with criticisms for the negative impacts on the cultural heritage and the environment of an area. Therefore, there is a need to balance the needs of tourism development with the environmental constraints to ensure both economic and ecological sustainability.

Green Productivity (GP) signifies a new paradigm of socio-economic development aimed at pursuing economic and productivity growth while protecting the environment. Therefore, application of the concept and practices of GP is deemed to be a very appropriate strategy in the context of ecotourism for the socio-economic development.

Recognizing the importance of ecotourism for the member countries, the APO has organized a number of ecotourism-related programs since 1996. Specifically, a Workshop on GP and ecotourism in Bali, Indonesia in June 2000, attempted to systematically apply the GP principles, practices and tools for ecotourism. This was followed by a study mission to France on ecotourism under a project jointly organized by the APO and ACTIM, France in October 2000. This book is primarily based on the papers presented during these two events.

To commemorate this International Year of Ecotourism, the APO is pleased to present this book “Linking Green Productivity to Ecotourism: Experiences in the Asia–Pacific Region”.

This book is the result of an initiative taken by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) to promote within its member countries the concepts and principles of ecotourism and link these to the practice of green productivity. Green productivity has been a major thrust of the APO’s environmental program for some years.

Green productivity (alternatively known as cleaner production or eco-efficiency) has become a well-known tool in the Asia–Pacific region as a consequence of the APO promotion. The link between ecotourism and green productivity becomes obvious once both concepts are defined. This was the task undertaken by the APO at a workshop on Ecotourism and Green Productivity, held in Bali 26–30 June, 2000.

The Bali meeting involved a wide range of typical workshop activities, including the presentation of scene-setting and overview papers plus reports from participants on relevant activities in their home economies. In addition to participants from APO member economies, a number of resource persons attended the workshop on behalf of APO. There were also APO Officers from the organization's secretariat .

The resource persons all made significant contributions to the workshop. Papers by two of these people are included in this book. In Part A, where general principles are discussed, the keynote paper, titled “Green Productivity and Ecotourism” by Liana Bratasida, is presented. In the Part B, where country reports are presented, an analysis of ecotourism in Indonesia by Anak Agung Gde Raka Dalem is included.

The majority of APO member economies were represented at the Bali workshop and most representatives presented written papers which are included in this book, a total of 14 papers. For some economies more than one paper was presented at the workshop. In this case all papers are included as each has its own special merit, little duplication is involved, and the papers are complementary.

Following the Bali meeting, the APO held a study meeting on ecotourism in France between 2 and 13 October, 2000. A number of country papers were presented at this meeting and subsequently made available for this book (10 are included). Combining the two APO meetings, all member economies are represented with papers except for Hong Kong and Sri Lanka.

Part A of the book comprises an “Introduction” which highlights the potential global benefits of tourism if it is undertaken in a sensitive and responsible manner. People who meet and eat together must surely become friends. People who travel with their eyes wide open must surely come to love nature and appreciate its fragility.

The Introduction is followed by a chapter titled “The Changing Nature of Tourism”. Brief mention is made of the history of tourism leading up to modern tourism, which is the world’s largest industry. Tourism is evolving into nature-based tourism, cultural tourism and ecotourism. This process is briefly explained before the general principles of ecotourism are presented.

Chapter Three highlights the need for a partnership between tourism, particularly ecotourism, and nature conservation, as well as between tourism operators and managers of National Parks and World Heritage properties. This chapter was written by the late Bing Lucas. It is a very lightly edited version of a keynote address he presented to the 2000 National Conference of the Ecotourism Association of Australia. As mentioned, Chapter Four, which is the contribution by Liana Bratasida, links ecotourism to green productivity.

 Part B of the book comprises the edited versions of the selected country papers.