Page 29 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 2016, 5(1): 18-34 19
colleagues requiring a lot of trust building and
social capital, the result has been twin effects on community is paying the cost of tourism
the tourism industry. The first, in response to
increasing tourist arrivals and the resultant
demand for various services at the destinations,
a large number of SMEs are emerging, most of
which lack coordination and operate in isolation
(Novelli, et al., 2006). Secondly, with the mush-
room growth of enterprises, the common pool
of resources (water, sewage treatment facilities,
solid waste management, parking, and roads) at
the destinations experience serious capacity
strain, leading to problems often associated
with unsustainable development. Unplanned
development and operation of such enterprises
with little or no infrastructural support affects
the local environment.
In whatever form tourism is developed, infra-
structure facilities for the tourism industry
usually require significant tracts of land and
building materials. Tourism development often
takes place as a result of demand for tourism
services to be supplied by the private sector. It
is often rapid and unplanned, resulting in total
transformation of the landscape in a very short
time (Smith, 2006). Tourism services are
supplied by the SMEs, resulting in huge growth
of SMEs at the destinations (Michael, 2003).
While some literature on SMEs and tourism is
available (Michael, 2003; 2004; Seaton, 1996;
Smeral, 1998), studies on successful experi-
ments on cluster formations and institutional
arrangements relating to SME development,
operation, and destination development are
relatively scarce. Few studies (Michael, 2003;
Nordin, 2003; Tinsley and Lynch, 2001) address
the implications of SME development in the
hospitality and tourism industry in more depth.
However, relating this framework to sustain-
able tourism development at the destination is
an area that is still unexplored. This paper is an
attempt in this direction. It examines the
impacts of unplanned growth of tourism SMEs
on civic infrastructure and the environment in
Manali - a major tourist destination of Himachal
Pradesh.
Using an indicator’s framework, the impacts of
tourism on the economic, social, and environ-
mental aspects are studied, and it is seen that
SMEs working in isolation are damaging the
environment at the destination. While the local
development in the form of degradation of
environmental resources, commercialization of
landscape, and congestion, the majority of the
economic benefits are flowing to the expatri-
ates, making tourism at the destination unsus-
tainable. A Community Benefit Tourism Ini-
tiative (CBTI) model is proposed to achieve
sustainable tourism development at the desti-
nation through public-private partnership.
2. The Study Context
Notwithstanding the disagreement over a
precise definition of sustainable tourism (ST)
(Butler, 1991; Sharpley, 2000), the basic ideas
and principles of sustainable development have
been applied to tourism (Hunter and Green,
1995), and ST has been broadly defined as
“tourism which is economically viable but does
not destroy the resources on which the future of
tourism will depend, notably the physical
environment and the social fabric of the host
community” (Swarbrooke, 1999:13). The focus
of the sustainable tourism approach is on
connecting with the needs of people and the use
of natural and cultural resources in a way that
safeguards the resources for the future (WCED,
1987). Protection of the environment, especially
in a nature-based tourism destination, is the key
element in the sustainable tourism strategy. A
review of literature indicates (Erdogan and
Baris, 2007; Mensah, 2005) that while large
hotels (especially the international chains and
star classified ones) are more likely to pay
attention to the environmental protection to
gain competitive edge, getting the SMEs to
follow environmental protection programs is
very difficult (Cummings, 1997; Kirk, 1998).
Besides, having environmental concerns and
following best environmental practices in day-
to-day operations are two different things
(Erdogan, 2003). Thus, it is important to study
the environmental practices followed by SMEs.
One of the key challenges in SMEs and sustain-
able development is overcoming a lack of
coordination among the SMEs at the desti-
nation. The problem of lack of coordination is
often addressed through adopting a cluster
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