Career In Sustainable Tourism: Scope, Requirements, Job Roles

A hill station like Mussoorie in the 90s was a beautiful place to visit. The sights, food, restaurants, mall road, library and quaint cemetery were beautiful and close to nature. 10 years later, it turned into a nightmare with traffic jamming all the roads, clutter, and overcrowding during the peak summers. The recent years have seen a series of measures to curb traffic, littering, use of plastics and crowd management so the hill station breathes. All these measures are due to the movement towards sustainable tourism.

Growing concern for the earth, global warming, pollution, over-crowding of holiday destinations has brought the focus towards sustainable tourism. This article helps you understand this trend, its genesis, and how this can offer promising career avenues in the years to come.

What Is Sustainable Tourism?

Sustainable tourism is described as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, environment, and host communities.”

Importance Of Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism tries to increase the positive impact of tourism and reduce the negative impact.

The positive impact of tourism includes job creation, economic benefits, landscape restoration efforts, etc.

The negative impact of tourism includes damage to the natural environment, overcrowding, misuse of land, etc.

Responsible Tourism Behaviour

The focus of sustainable tourism is to increase “responsible tourism behaviour” of individual travellers – encouraging behaviours and choices that align with sustainable tourism practices, minimise negative impact, and maximise positive impact. Some examples of responsible tourism include — avoiding plastic waste, keeping air travel emissions minimal, staying longer in one place to get a feel of the area, reducing water consumption, skipping travel size toiletries, buying hand-made local goods and supporting local markets, walking instead of using gasoline and cars, etc.

Building A Career In Sustainable Tourism

A career in sustainable tourism is focussed on promoting and ensuring responsible tourism and infrastructure in hotels, tours and travel, and destinations. Most senior professionals working in this area are trained in the travel and tourism industry and have obtained additional certifications and training in sustainable tourism and practices.

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Education And Training

As a fresher, you can pursue a career in sustainable tourism by obtaining any of the following degrees:-

• Undergraduate degree in any subject followed by a postgraduate diploma or degree in sustainable tourism.
• Undergraduate degree in Travel and Tourism followed by a postgraduate diploma or degree in sustainable tourism.
• Undergraduate degree or diploma in Tourism, followed by certifications in sustainable tourism and specialised internships.
• Certificates and specialised training programs are also conducted by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) for managing the GSTC criteria, global standards for sustainable travel and tourism; as well as providing international accreditation for sustainable tourism certification bodies.

Universities And Institutes

There are numerous universities and institutions in India that offer courses in hospitality, travel, and tourism. Undergraduate degree courses are available at Ambedkar University, Delhi College of Vocational Studies, Delhi University, Narsee Monjee University, Christ University, Bangalore, Stell Maris College, Chennai, etc. It would be beneficial to pursue a postgraduate level diploma / degree or certification to learn about sustainable practices in travel and tourism.

Some of the Indian colleges that offer postgraduate and certificate levels courses in sustainability, travel and tourism include:-

• Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal (postgraduate diploma in Sustainability Management)
• Amity School of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, Noida
• Ambedkar University, Delhi
• TERI, Delhi campus

Certificate courses and training programs are available at GSTC Sustainable Tourism Training Program (STTP)

Job Roles In Sustainable Tourism

This is a developing area and jobs/roles are evolving as the country and world focus on eco-tourism. Some of the more well-known job profiles and roles are listed below.

Tour guides have the responsibility of showing tourists the key attractions and heritage sites.

Sustainable Tourism Consultant

Sustainable tourism is becoming a prime goal and focus area of the government. A number of hotels, resorts, tour operators are not aware of how to make their services sustainable and eco-friendly. A sustainable tourism consultant can help a hotel/resort or tour align with sustainability requirements and norms and help in encouraging responsible tourism behaviour. A few years of experience in the travel and tourism industry followed by certifications and experience in sustainability are required for this role.

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Sustainable Tour Guide/Operator

Tour guides have the responsibility of showing tourists the key attractions and heritage sites. A sustainable tour guide will promote behaviours like buying from the local market, reducing plastic waste, reducing carbon footprint in travel etc. They are also likely to help you enjoy a meal with the local community, reside in homestays and absorb the “feel” and “culture” of the place instead of cramming many destinations and flights into a short time span.

Sustainable Tourism Educator

Once you are trained in sustainable tourism and have experience in the field, you can become an educator, trainer and provide budding hoteliers and travel entrepreneurs the necessary knowledge to establish a sustainable tourism business.

Hospitality Manager

Post Covid, a large number of homestays, working vacations, and staycations have become popular. People are opting to stay in resorts or hotels for months while they work remotely. This is an excellent business opportunity for the enterprising hotelier and resort manager. It is also a great way to build and offer sustainable stay experiences and encourage responsible tourism in visitors and travellers.

Apart from the above roles, all roles like reservation, housekeeping, customer services, marketing, social media outreach, finance and ticketing and roles related to running a hospitality business will also be needed in resorts that promote sustainable tourism.

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Skills And Qualifications

• Interpersonal skills, communication, and love for curating experiences for people
• Love for nature, love for local culture and cuisine
• Marketing, social media skills to increase visibility and encourage responsible tourist behaviour
• Good physical fitness levels, even training in conducting treks, camps or adventure sports is useful
• Apart from the above, there may be specific skills based on the role you undertake like culinary skills, financial accounting etc.
• An environmentally conscious heart that is aligned with nature
• A degree or diploma in tourism with a focus on sustainability and a “love for nature” and “travel” will help you succeed in this field of work.

If you are thinking of a career in sustainable tourism, a good first step will be to experience this yourself as a traveller or consumer. Try to locate treks, resorts, homestays that are eco-friendly and engage you in experiencing the local culture and cuisine. Try to become conscious of your own behaviour as a tourist and reduce your carbon footprint while you see the attraction points. Develop a sensitivity towards this area of work and understand the likely resistance you may face with tourists used to luxury and comfort travel. Check if you have good people skills, are patient, like to stay in nature or find your purpose fulfilled in “saving the earth”. If you feel this area is “right” for you, get the necessary skills and training.

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The starting salaries in hospitality vary in the range of 3 to 4 lakh per annum and grow steadily at higher levels. As the country’s focus in this area increases, the earning potential will also rise.

Dr. Srividya is a Career & Life Coach who works with teens, adults and returning professionals to help them find joy and alignment in their careers and lives. After working for over two decades, she founded LifeVidya in 2019 and has worked with hundreds of students, professionals, and women. She can be reached at www.lifevidya.in.