Tourism and nature:

Environment

By Sean Weaver and Brian King

“TOURISM should be made to work around the environment without damag ing the natural beauty in any way”, said one tour operator. Another said “there needs to be more information on the environment to make people aware of what is happening. There needs to be more initiatives from government to enforce environment laws and to halt pollution and damage to the environ ment before it affects all of Fiji further”.

And the same one argues ... “we need more marine parks especially high quality ones like Taveuni’s Rainbow Reef’. It appears that many of Fiji’s tour operators make no bones about the need for more cooperation between groups involved in environmental protection and the tourism industry.

A survey of operators in the Fiji tourism industry was recently under taken by the National Environment Management Project in association with the Tourism Studies Section of the University of the South Pacific. The survey, entitled The Impact of the Environment on the Fiji Tourism Industry aimed at giving members of the industry an opportunity to have their say in the debate concerning the benefits (or other wise) of linking environmental planning with tourism.

Tourism is the single largest industry in Fiji but its success relies on the marketing of a clean, friendly, relaxing and exciting place to visit with a wealth of unspoiled natural attractions. There are substantial links between the state of Fiji’s natural environment and the on going success of this industry, although many are implicit. On the one hand conservationists have often asserted that tourism could be used to justify the protection of natural areas that would otherwise be used for extractive develop ment purposes such as the logging of a native forest. But on the other, little has been said by the tourism industry on the issue. This is unfortunate because the linking of environmental protection with tourism ventures would obviously re quire their involvement.

In order to ascertain the current state of tourism industry views in Fiji the authors mailed questionnaires to 87 operators and received 29 responses. The questionnaire consisted of eight sections which sought answers to the following issues: • the significance of the environment to the current business operations of the

respondent; • the current state of environmental protection in Fiji; • the potential for nature tourism in Fiji; • national parks and reserves; investment in nature tourism; • marketing and the environment; • the role of the respondents in the tourism industry as a whole; • additional comments.

Results In general, respondents acknowledged a significant relationship between the visi tor experience provided by their businesses and the quality of the natural environment in the immediate area. 55.2 per cent described the relationship as very strong, with a further 34.5 per cent selecting fairly strong, making a codec -

Tourism’s success relies on the marketing of a clean, friendly, relaxing and exciting place to visit

tive response of 89.7 per cent. When asked whether the same visitor experi ence was dependant on the quality and sound management of the natural en vironment in the relevant division of Fiji (ie. north, central, east or west) the feeling was still strong (62.1 per cent said very strong, 13.8 per cent strong) but 24 per cent answered neither weak nor strong, fairly weak or very weak.

Opinions diverge more when broader, regional environmental issues are ad dressed. Almost all respondents agreed that there was a critical importance of environmental quality in the immediate vicinity of their tourism operation. This tends to reinforce the notion of a direct relationship between the success of tour ism ventures and environmental man agement from the perspective of existing tourism operations.

The Current State of Environmental Protection in Fiji A total of 72.2 per cent described the current state of environmental protection in Fiji as “unsatisfactory” or “very unsatisfactory”. A much smaller 17.2 per cent responded with satisfactory (13.8 per cent) or very satisfactory (3.4 per cent).

When asked whether poor environ mental practice was causing problems for

their own business, slightly more (51.7 per cent) agreed than disagreed (44.8 per cent). A much larger group (69 per cent) suggested that poor environmental man agement was causing problems for the tourism industry in general. 24.1 per cent disagreed.

Perhaps not surprisingly, most respon dents think of environment in layman’s terms and not immediately as a scientific issue. When asked about deficiencies in environmental management, a surprisingly high number of respondents (48.3 per cent) identified a “lack of cleanliness” as being a significant prob lem. A smaller number identified land mismanagement (17.2 per cent), and smaller still, a lack of environmental awareness (6.9 per cent) as key problems, 82.8 per cent indicated that improve ments in environmental management would be of benefit to their business. 17.2 per cent did not.

The largest single improvement in environmental management sought by respondents was “clean up the foreshore” (34.5 per cent) suggesting that the consciousness about lack of cleanliness is focused on the coastline and is confined to visible forms of pollution. This is not surprising considering that the coastline is currently regarded as a major asset to the tourism industry. Should other natural areas become more important to tourism such as native forests, concern for the appearance and sound environ mental management of these areas is likely to grow as well. 17.2 per cent wanted more local involvement in environmental protection programs suggesting that part of the responsibility for a clean and healthy environment lay with the local people. 17.2 per cent supported the development of more environmental attractions.

The Potential of Nature Tourism in Fiji When asked about FijPs international competitiveness as a destination, 72.4 per cent described natural beauty as the country’s primary drawcard.

National Parks and Reserves Respondents were asked to name five parks or reserves in Fiji that they knew existed. Three were able to name five parks, eight named at least four, 15 named at least three, 16 named and two and 20 named at least one. Seven were unable or unwilling to name any parks or reserves. The parks and/or reserves most frequently mentioned included the Sigatoka Sand Dunes

National Park (which had nine men tions) and the Kula Bird Park (10 mentions). The Colo-i-Suva Forest Park gained eight mentions and the Bouma (Tavoro Falls) Forest Park got five mentions. 82.7 per cent of respondents agreed that the number of national parks and reserves in Fiji should be increased (58.6 per cent responding “strongly agree”). 6.9 per cent disagreed and 10.3 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed. This re sponse indicates a willingness of at least a segment of the tourism industry to support the establishment of an adequate national parks and reserves system in Fiji. When asked if an increase in the number of national parks and reserves would benefit their business operation, 72.4 per cent said it would. The main reason given was that such developments would enable the enhancement of visitor enjoyment (44.8 per cent) though a further 27.6 per cent suggested because it would help protect the environment.

The response of this sample of industry to the concept of “user pays” access to national parks and reserves was surprisingly favourable. 72.4 per cent favoured the user pays approach whilst 10.3 per cent opposed the idea.

Investment in Nature Tourism Respondents were divided as to their perceptions of the constraints to invest ment in nature tourism in Fiji. The only constraint which rated highly was “land owners”, with 44.8 per cent described it as a very great constraint. This may partly reflect a lack of understanding of landowners (their culture, social struc ture, needs and aspirations) by operators in the tourism industry. It indicates the iced for improved liaison and mediation ;>etween landowners and investors. Two )ther possible constraints to investment uggested by respondents were a lack of existing facilities and infrastructure.

Marketing and the Environment Operators were asked about the market ng of Fiji with particular reference to lature tourism. Respondents showed no l reat confidence in the quality of current aarketing activity. The largest single ategory (24.1 per cent) described pred ict quality as the major marketing

trength, with co-operative marketing

be only other significant category (20.7 er cent). Lack of cohesion in marketing fas seen by some (20.7 per cent) as the reatest marketing weakness. The lack of irect flights to Fiji by international irlines was indicated as a significant eakness by 17.2 per cent of respondents, t should be noted that the survey was

conducted before the launch of the “See The Fiji You Don’t Know” campaign.

Mutual Benefits The segment of the tourism industry surveyed showed considerable support for cooperation between the tourism sector and environmental management interests. In the eyes of many operators in the tourism industry a mutually beneficial relationship between environ mental management and the tourism sector is possible in Fiji. But how might

this happen?

There is growing agreement that Fiji’s tourism industry is currently in need of diversification. At the same time nature tourism (or ecotourism) is proving to be one of the major growth areas for tourism internationally. Fiji supports countless untapped nature tourism jewels which the tourism industry could exploit as part of a diversification manoeuvre. Fiji has the safest tropical rain forests on the planet. Imagine that as a marketing line it’s a winner. Without diversifying the attraction and marketing base, the building of more hotels, as is currently happening, is only going to increase the number of empty beds.

The economic advantages of linking environmental management to tourism exist at various levels. At the micro economic scale are the direct cash receipts from tourism in natural areas.

Environmental management also pro vides significant contributions that may not be measurable through micro economic analysis. Examples of such external benefits can be seen in many diverse locations around the world in cluding New Zealand, Queensland, Ne pal, Kenya, Costa Rica, British Col ombia, Colorado, Norway, and Brazil.

One of the principal reasons that tourists are likely to target these places as destinations is because they have, or are acclaimed to have, areas of substantial natural beauty. A large proportion of tourists arriving in New Zealand go there because of its international reputation as a clean, green landscape with world class national parks and wilderness areas.

Any economic analysis using available data that is based solely on receipts from operations within or near national parks, severely under-estimates the significance of national parks to tourism in those countries. This is because a significant proportion of receipts are collected at a great distances from the national parks.

Such receipts are often attributable to the international reputation that these destinations have in terms of their natural attractions.

If Fiji’s tourism sector were to utilise natural areas as part of its diversified attraction base and market them accord ingly, then a national parks and reserves system would provide both direct and indirect benefits to the industry. Once Fiji opens up to a segment of the tourism market that it is not catering for, more tourists are likely to target Fiji as a destination. In this way the establish ment of national parks and reserves could help to fill many empty hotel beds.

Tourism interest in natural ecosytems also helps to provide a commercial justification for the establishment of reserves in areas that would otherwise be damaged by some other form of develop ment. In terms of supply and demand, tourism and environmental management are complementary in creating a demand for each other’s services. The tourism sector may help bring about a commer cial demand for environmental manage ment services through the need for a clean backdrop for tourism activity and a diversified attraction base. The envir onmental management sector concurrently engenders government sup port for the establishment of protected areas and pollution control measures.

This situation of mutually beneficial demand and supply creates a planning environment where the independent interests of two seemingly unrelated sectors can be satisfied simultaneously by linking them together.

Opportunities Fiji government has an ideal opportunity to foster a mutually beneficial relation ship between tourism and environmental management. The responsibilities for achieving this lie both with the tourism and environmental management sectors.

Cooperation will require significant liaison and dialogue between the two.

The tourism sector will need to become more active in its support and promotion of environmental management in Fiji.

The environmental managers will need to accommodate appropriately planned and managed tourism activities in suit able reserve areas. Both parties will also need to demonstrate a commitment to serving the needs of landowners as part of any program of resource management involving the use of tribally owned resources.

The Fiji tourism industry has shown, in this survey, to be a significant advocate for conservation and an ally of environmental protection programmes.

The results of the NEMP/USP research project indicate that the Fiji government has an opportunity to build cross sectoral collaborations between tourism and en vironmental interests, and thereby move Fiji closer to the achievement of

ecologically sustainable development. □