Responsible tourism has been a subject of study over the years. Wilkinson (1992) addressed the question on how tourism can be managed more socially and environmentally. Most tourism organisations have adapted to initiatives into their business operations and in their market operation to engage in responsible tourism practices, especially those private sector organisations that consider this opportunity as a competitive advantage in order to increase profit revenue (Garay and Font, 2012;Zanfardini, Aguirre and Tamagni 2015).Responsible tourism supposed to bring more few visitors of high value. In support, there are various tourism businesses that offer responsible holidays as well as encouraging consumers to behave responsibly (Penz, Hofmann and Hartl,2017). For example, UK tour operator responsible travel.com sold holidays over £20 million in 2016 and this sales volume continues to increase by 40% each year (responsibletravel.com, 2017). However, Lee et al
(2017) arguably believes non-experienced tourists do not have any high decision-making levels in purchasing responsible holidays.
Currently in the United States, there are 30 million responsible tourists visiting every year. The main aim of responsible tourism is to benefit the local communities, minimize negative effects to the environment and help in preserving culture. In 2014 alone, the value of responsible tourism raised to $400 billion, which consisted of 33% of the total tourism in the United States. Adventure tourism, which was valued at $263 billion consisted of 65% of the responsible tourism. The form of tourism registered use of $3000 per person while average trip per person was estimated to be 20 days. According to the responsibletravel.com (2017) the top destinations totalled 39 million who chose destinations depending on the activities available. Other tourist came to learn about tourism and dining experiences in the United States.
Tourism tend to favour most European countries than any other continent. France seem to be the most preferred country with the highest average number of over 82 million tourists. Other countries in the same category as France include the US, Spain, China, Italy, the UK, Germany, Mexico, Thailand, and turkey in the top ten positions. They have an average number of visitors ranging between 40 to 75 million ("The 10 Most Popular Countries for International Tourists"). African countries that attract many tourists include Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania among others. Countries which have ever been recognized for practising responsible tourism include South Africa, Venezuela, Brazil, Scotland, Norway, New Zealand, and the United States ("Destination Award In The World Responsible Tourism Awards, Organised By Responsible Travel. Helping Dreamers Do.").
Works Cited
"Destination Award In The World Responsible Tourism Awards, Organised By Responsible Travel. Helping Dreamers Do.” responsibletravel.com. N.p., 2018. Web. 1 Mar. 2018.
"The 10 Most Popular Countries for International Tourists." ThoughtCo. N.p., 2018. Web. 1 Mar. 2018.
