Sustainable tourism – an overall perspective in Fjord Norway

Abstract

This research is to examine the level of interest, understanding and implantation of sustainable tourism and practices at destination level. It’s a qualitative study exploring how sustainable tourism is perceived among destination managers and their attitudes regarding sustainable tourism. The main stakeholders in tourism planning and development are the destination managers as they often set the good examples and they are the promoters of what kind of tourism development one wishes for .It was conducted nine in depth interviews with destination mangers from the region of Fjord Norway. To sum up one concludes that the destination mangers all agree on a basic definition of sustainable tourism which included environmental, socio-cultural and economical sustainability. The main benefits are also the barriers including the long term perspective is good for the resources but difficult from a business perspective when it’s a struggle to survive from day to day. Some benefits are cost savings, better image, consciousness, destination development and quality and the involvement, pride and economical gains to the local community. On the other side it seems like a pervasive issue the difficulties in defining and decide what’s included in sustainable tourism. It’s also mentioned the fact that its too demanding to get those certifications. Further, the destination managers define nature based projects at sustainable tourism on an operational level and some mentioned eco-certifications, knowledge and the national pilots program of Innovation Norway. When it comes to who’s responsible for initiating sustainable tourism the most of the destination mangers thinks it should be on a national level by the government or Innovation Norway and some thinks it should be at the business level or interdisciplinary projects.