Introduction To Hospitality And Tourism Essay For Vanuatu Tourism.

Ethical issue in Vanuatu tourism

Discuss about the Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism for Vanuatu Tourism.

The purpose of this report is to identify range of hospitality and tourism related issues and their ethical implications. The economy of Vanuatu’s is mainly dominated by the tourism sector as it contributes to near around 65% of Vanuatu’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and employment. Cruise tourism has injected to about $34 million into Vanuatu economy in the last year. Over the last few decades, tourism industry in Vanuatu’s have driven its economic growth. Vanuatu’s tourism industry is one of the vital source of foreign exchange. However, this provides a way by which this nation pays for its imports and attain self- sufficiency level of which other small island nations are envious (Cheer, Reeves and Laing, 2015). Still there are certain ethical problems in Vanuatu tourism that are discussed in this study. This study also focuses on the role played by the Vanuatu government in resolving these issues. Furthermore, recommendations for overcoming such problems in future are also provided in this study

Vanuatu has majorly emphasized on its tourism sector as a source of foreign exchange and way to economic development. The growth rate of tourism sector in Vanuatu has been quite strong in the last decade as the total number of tourist arrivals double as compared to previous decade. This country possesses few features that also marks it as one of the attractive destinations for the tourists. Vanuatu boasts striking array of cultural as well as natural attractions, which in turn opens this nation to both varied niche markets and mainstream tourists markets (Dornan and Cain 2015). The growth in Vanuatu’s tourism sector has enhanced mainly due to increase in total number of cruise ships visiting this nation. It has been evident from recent study that tourists visits this country more via cruise ships rather than by air. However, growth in Vanuatu’s cruise tourism is rapid as compared to that in other nations. 

While the tourism industry has been performing well in this country, foreign domination of some segment of this industry as well as lack of  few backward linkages have constrained several opportunities regarding job creation and income generation (Klint et al. 2012). Even though the tourism sector in this county has been highly successful to generate foreign investment, the development of this industry is still uneven partly due to challenge created by geographic dispersion and few ethical issues. One of the main ethical issues is that corruption in tourism industry has been depriving local people from the tourist money. Over the last ten years, there has been less development in local region owing to corruption in its tourism industry (Sharpley and Telfer 2014). An evidence of development in one of the islands in Vanuatu over the past ten years is water system.  The local people along with tourists have been facing several problems as there is no electricity, gas, proper toilets and no public health system in some region of this nation. However, the local people of few regions of Vanuatu wonders where thousands of dollars from luxury liners usually end up. The prime minister and few local people are of the opinion that the civil servants are corrupted for which such issues occur.

Allocation of responsibilities for ethical issues identified

Even though there has been rapid growth in the cruise tourism, it led to several negative environmental as well as social effect in the industry. The adverse effect that the local people have pointed out includes- overcrowding, cultural commodification, demonstration impact, increase in drug- use and so on. Few researchers have found out that there has been monopolisation of income which is generated by the cruise tourists. At present P&O tour agent monopolise as well as control tours sold on boarding the ships that indirectly impacts where tourists spend their money. In the past few decades, the cruise tours were mainly handled by tour operators of Ni Vanuatu but the passengers of P&O cruise have complained over reliability of tour Vanuatu regarding offering of high service standard (Hall, Scott  and Gössling 2013). This in turn also resulted in P&O terminating its contract and providing it to “adventures in Paradise”. In this case, P&O cruise have act ethically in this case as they moves away from Ni- Vanuatu tour agent in order to provide better standard of service to the tourists.

The government of Vanuatu and The National Tourism Development Office (NTDO) should be mainly responsible for rectifying the ethical issues that have been identified. These two governing bodies should take the responsibility in order to promote as well as improve tourism development in this country. In order to rectify corruption in this industry, these two bodies must implement proper principles, policies and enterprise framework. In addition to this, these two governing bodies must take the responsibility in introducing quality services relating to tourism development. Moreover, they should also take the responsibility to assists the tourism operators mainly Ni- Vanuatu tourism operators who are new to this sector in order to tune their prospects of tourism into certain ventures and reduce any kind of unethical practices (Smith 2015). Furthermore, the NTDO must also establish tourism accreditation system for rectifying the identified ethical problems as it will provide opportunity to the tourists and other local people to make confident as well as informed choice about quality of product.

The government of Vanuatu plays a significant role in the development of tourism industry in this nation. The policymakers have been focusing on improving their tourism industry as it is the main backbone of the Vanuatu economy (Pratt and Harrison 2015). The Vanuatu government has been undertaking several anti- corruption measures for resolving several ethical issues in the tourism industry. These anti- corruption measures include-

• taking action on those individuals who are involved in corruption
• providing new training and education programs to the tour operators so that they do not get involved in any kind of unethical practices
• Introducing anti- corruption policies and practices
• Adopting new workshops regarding anti – corruption policy
• They also plans for port to serve islanders and launch microfinance cooperative in order to motivate small business (Smith 2015).

The recommendations are given to the government of Vanuatu for overcoming several problems in future. These are discussed below-

• Regular monitoring as well as enforcing relating to environmental regulations as needed. This practice will help the policymakers to identify and rectify problems in future.
• Raising the awareness among the tourists about this nation so that they becomes responsible visitors who respect environment, sensitive to culture and make proper ethical choices (Klint et al.2012). This increasing awareness will be specifically vital for the tourists coming via cruise ship.
• This government of Vanuatu is also suggested to increase its environmental sustainability despite assuming that all activities and practices are good. This in turn will also facilitate them to have remedy for the ethical issues when they occur. For example, cruise enterprise as well as Air Vanuatu must take into account providing of carbon offset scheme as option for passengers as money might move into protection on islands (Lovelock and Lovelock 2013).
• Tourism which benefits less population is not considered as sustainable. However, it is recommended that huge support in terms of investment is required mainly in peripheral areas including few outer island locations, to assists large number of the community members for maximizing economic returns from the tourism industry. As a result, this will aid the policymakers of this country to overcome any kind of such ethical problems in future (Trau 2012).
• Introduce new campaign for the Ni- Vanuatu in order to assure that they remember what is vital for them regarding their wellbeing, culture, social well- being and environmental integrity. However, this will result in reduction in unethical practices and resolve ethical problems.

Conclusion

Over the past few decade, tourism sector in Vanuatu has been bringing huge range of economic benefits such as – large revenue to government, direct as well as indirect opportunities of employment and opportunities for the suppliers of different products and services.  It has been evident from the discussion that corruption has adversely affected the tourism sector of this country. However, the government of Vanuatu has been implementing numerous practices and anti- corruption policies for resolving ethical problems in tourism industry. In addition to this, the Vanuatu government has also started to take action on those individuals who are involved in corruption. In fact, the policymakers have also strategized to monitor the activities or practices occurring in the tourism industry in order to identify the people who are involved in corruption. The Vanuatu government is also making business partnerships in order to attract more tourists in the nation and attain more economic benefits from this tourism industry. Moreover, NTDO also has been playing major role in resolving ethical problems and improve the tourism sector of this nation.

References

Cheer, J.M., Reeves, K.J. and Laing, J.H., 2013. Tourism and traditional culture: Land diving in Vanuatu. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, pp.435-455.

Dornan, M. and Cain, T., 2015. Tourism and economic diversification in Vanuatu. Retrieved May, 20, p.2017.

Hall, C.M., Scott, D. and Gössling, S., 2013. The primacy of climate change for sustainable international tourism. Sustainable Development, 21(2), pp.112-121.

Klint, L.M., Wong, E., Jiang, M., Delacy, T., Harrison, D. and Dominey-Howes, D., 2012. Climate change adaptation in the Pacific Island tourism sector: analysing the policy environment in Vanuatu. Current Issues in Tourism, 15(3), pp.247-274.

Klint, L.M., Jiang, M., Law, A., Delacy, T., Filep, S., Calgaro, E., Dominey-Howes, D. and Harrison, D., 2012. Dive tourism in Luganville, Vanuatu: Shocks, stressors, and vulnerability to climate change. Tourism in Marine Environments, 8(1-2), pp.91-109.

Lovelock, B. and Lovelock, K., 2013. The ethics of tourism: Critical and applied perspectives. Routledge.

Pratt, S. and Harrison, D. eds., 2015. Tourism in Pacific Islands: current issues and future challenges (Vol. 48). Routledge.

Sharpley, R. and Telfer, D.J. eds., 2014. Tourism and development: concepts and issues (Vol. 63). Channel View Publications.

Smith, M.K., 2015. Issues in cultural tourism studies. Routledge.

Trau, A.M., 2012. Beyond pro-poor tourism:(re) interpreting tourism-based approaches to poverty alleviation in Vanuatu. Tourism Planning & Development, 9(2), pp.149-164.