Impacts of Sustainable Tourism on the Economy of Albania - Research Proposal Example

Impacts of Sustainable Tourism on the Economy. A Case Study of Albania.

Introduction

Tourism has mostly been associated with people's movement from one destination to the other for entertainment or social, cultural reasons. Many nations and countries worldwide have associated tourism with economic growth in current and modern times due to the revenue received in this sector. The establishment of tourism has been a process that has existed for about 90 years. This has been facilitated by people who have been traveling around the world as historians, militaries, or anybody with interest in a different geographical area other than where they reside.

The country Albania is located in the Balkans. Europe has witnessed an increasing development in the tourism sector, which has made it one of the rising destinations for tourism. The country has exhibited the measures and policies in enhancing sustainable tourism through its sector in the cultural, environmental, and social aspects. This sustainable development is a model that ensures that tourism development respects the environment in that it respects the conservation and protection of nature, therefore limiting tourism developments and activities to the environment. In Albania, tourism has taken a particular trajectory that has seen growth being catalyzed by; transport, development of education, and culture, which has, in turn, led to the growth in the economic sector. This paper will focus on establishing the different impacts that tourism has sustainably had on the economy of Albania.

Purpose of the Research

This research proposal aims at establishing the impacts of sustainable tourism on the economy. The research proposal will tend to summarize the known research on the topic and also about Albanian tourism and its economy. This will help consolidate and achieve an overview survey of the different countries involved in the tourism industry.

Literature Survey

As its being outlined in Albania's country, most unexplored countries have taken on exhibiting more developments and expansion in the tourism-based industry than the developed countries in terms of their economies. This has been as a result of the tourism ability to Impact on the global economies. Therefore, this chapter aims to review the different works of literature associated with this topic; the objective is to summarize and combine the different authors' different concepts.

Tourism as an industry is one of the biggest and great growing and expanding industries in the global economy, which has greatly experienced expansion outdoing other industries and, in turn putting in the open a post-industrial society (Eadington and Redman, 1991). Impacts of the economy associated with tourism are increasing in broad latitude within the evolution of the globalization process (Sugiyarto, Blake & Sinclair, 2003), which helps contribute to the industry's expansion around the world.

The current strategic singularity of tourism economic growth and development has seen many governments, organizations, policymakers, and several stakeholders of the global economies shift their attention towards it. The contribution of tourism has been pivotal towards the GDP of the developing and developed economies of different countries. Moreover, it has received worldwide recognition due to its ability to eradicate discrepancies between the balance of payment (BOP) conditions by positively contributing to the services account of the BOP. Due to the increased development of the tourism-based sector, it has been distinguished as the major and fastest rising industry, both from a country's or world perspective. The tourism sector has experienced major expansion over time because many developing economies have included it in their national economic plan of development.

Archer (1985) examined the economic effect of tourism on the Mauritius economy in 1980. The outcomes exhibited that the overall productivity multiplier was 0.9639, and the employment multiplier was 49 per 1 million Rs (Rupees). The disparity in effects produced by tourists of individually inbound nations demonstrating that tourists from West Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, and the UK made a deep impact on the economy per visitor. Among the tourists' origin markets, the lower impact was found to be produced by tourists from France. Archer emphasized that the high rank in the total number of visitors did not necessarily mean the largest economic impact. For instance, visitors from Reunion occupied the largest proportion of total visitors (about 23%), but they generated the lowest income per visitor except for Malagasy. Archer concluded that target markets generated a reasonably higher economic impact through higher expenditure on Mauritius' tourism-related businesses. Therefore, the study suggested that tourism should be promoted in maximizing income, supporting more employment, and generating vital foreign exchange revenue from global tourism.

While the literature on the importance of the economic impact of sustainable tourism has been on the rise, the impact on the local and host communities has not been agreeably recognized, preserving that either industrial classification as a separate industry or the national accounts system (Fletcher, 1989).

Blake (2000) estimated the effect of a 10% expansion of tourism in Spain using the CGE model. The author estimated that a 10% increase in tourism would result in a 0.05% increase in GDP, a 0.61% increase in the real exchange rate, and a slight increase in household consumption, investment, and domestic tourism. The author found that the benefit received from a 10% tourism expansion would offset any increase in imports and decrease the value of other exports.

It recognizes the above literature; it's self-proclaimed that economists and planners have used diverse modes and procedures for computing the economic impacts of tourism on local, regional, and country economies. The methods and models that are to be applied to a specific state rests on the purposes of the region, analysis, the location of the region, availability of data, and the study conditions. It has also been showcased in the literature quoted above that the input-output model is a major model that dominates in the measure of output multipliers. This model has become mostly renowned and adopted in many countries and globally since it's cheap and very modest compared with other models in existence. (Kasimati, 2003).

Motivation

This research focusses on the impacts of sustainable tourism on the economy. The economy sector of every nation is always the backbone of every society. The economy helps us run the everyday aspects of life, which involve different activities. Therefore, any factor that contributes to the economy is a significant aspect to be paid attention to. This research aims to establish how tourism has impacted the economy, from the definition that states that tourism always involves the movement of people from one place to another. This, therefore, strengthens the fact that we are all involved in touristic activities mostly. How we carry out our activities is what determines the responsibility we portray towards our environment; this defines how sustainably we are in tourism. The payment for the touristic activities is the revenue to the economy; therefore, it's of interest to us to know how this revenue impacts our economies and how we can be able as a community or nation be able to contribute to the economy positively through sustainable tourism sustainably.

Economic Impacts of Sustainable Tourism in Albania

The major potential is entailed in the tourism industry and plays a crucial part in achieving the important macroeconomic goals associated with socio-economic development, sustainable economic, and employment creation. This sector of tourism is a significant segment that impacts the global growth and development of the economy. Global returns attained from tourism in the globe in 2012 increased to $ 1030 billion, which was due to the movement of 1035 million tourists. In 2012, Albania's GDP from direct tourism contribution was approximately 83.2 billion or 6.1 % of the total GDP. The expected target for the GDP growth in 2023 will be 153.7 billion, Lek's direct contribution to the tourism industry.

The tourism impacts on the economy do contribute not only directly but also indirectly, whereby the total represents the summation contribution of the tourism industry in the economy. Therefore, the overall contribution of this industry to the GDP during the year of 2011 was 6.3 trillion dollars for the whole world, and the GDP was 7.9 %.

The Albanian tourism industry is perceived to be among the highest growing industry with a very high level of growth. Sustainable tourism has been considered to have significant potential towards Albania's economy, social well-being, sustainable development of economy, and creating an economy for society. Its direct contribution to the economy has greatly improved and boosted economic growth, which greatly contributes to the country's stability.

Albanian tourism champions a significant role in the gross Domestic Product as compared to the regional countries. This fact gives the evidence to conclude that Albania is focused on tourism specialization similar to Croatia and Malta.

Methodology

The research will use dynamic comparative analysis for the indicators to collect data for Albania and other Mediterranean region resorts, including other ancient destinations, which are; France and other specialized in tourism-oriented destinations, e.g., Croatia. The research will be conducted in contemporary literature to investigate the impacts of sustainable tourism on the economy of the world's countries. Mostly the research will focus on the developing economies and also the countries that are tourism destinations.

The statistics will be collected from the World Tourism and Travel Council, these impact indicators of tourism will be analyzed in Albania and the regions around. This data will be analyzed using the multiplier effect. The data will be collected from; GDP direct contribution that will be directly or indirectly contributed, the direct employment contribution, and total GDP contribution, including the total revenue from the tourism supporting facilities.

The current strategic singularity of tourism economic growth and development has seen many governments, organizations, policymakers, and several stakeholders of the global economies shift their attention towards it. The contribution of tourism has been pivotal towards the GDP of the developing and developed economies of different countries. Moreover, it has received worldwide recognition due to its ability to eradicate discrepancies between the balance of payment (BOP) conditions by positively contributing to the services account of the BOP. Due to the increased development of the tourism-based sector, it has been distinguished as the major and fastest rising industry, both from a country's or world perspective. The tourism sector has experienced major expansion over time because many developing economies have included it in their national economic plan of development.

Archer (1985) examined the economic effect of tourism on the Mauritius economy in 1980. The outcomes exhibited that the overall productivity multiplier was 0.9639, and the employment multiplier was 49 per 1 million Rs (Rupees). The disparity in effects produced by tourists of individually inbound nations demonstrating that tourists from West Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, and the UK made a deep impact on the economy per visitor. Among the tourists' origin markets, the lower impact was found to be produced by tourists from France. Archer emphasized that the high rank in the total number of visitors did not necessarily mean the largest economic impact. For instance, visitors from Reunion occupied the largest proportion of total visitors (about 23%), but they generated the lowest income per visitor except for Malagasy. Archer concluded that target markets generated a reasonably higher economic impact through higher expenditure on Mauritius' tourism-related businesses. Therefore, the study suggested that tourism should be promoted in maximizing income, supporting more employment, and generating vital foreign exchange revenue from global tourism.

While the literature on the importance of the economic impact of sustainable tourism has been on the rise, the impact on the local and host communities has not been agreeably recognized, preserving that either industrial classification as a separate industry or the national accounts system (Fletcher, 1989).

Blake (2000) estimated the effect of a 10% expansion of tourism in Spain using the CGE model. The author estimated that a 10% increase in tourism would result in a 0.05% increase in GDP, a 0.61% increase in the real exchange rate, and a slight increase in household consumption, investment, and domestic tourism. The author found that the benefit received from a 10% tourism expansion would offset any increase in imports and decrease the value of other exports.

It recognizes the above literature; it's self-proclaimed that economists and planners have used diverse modes and procedures for computing the economic impacts of tourism on local, regional, and country economies. The methods and models that are to be applied to a specific state rests on the purposes of the region, analysis, the location of the region, availability of data, and the study conditions. It has also been showcased in the literature quoted above that the input-output model is a major model that dominates in the measure of output multipliers. This model has become mostly renowned and adopted in many countries and globally since it's cheap and very modest compared with other models in existence. (Kasimati, 2003).

Motivation

This research focusses on the impacts of sustainable tourism on the economy. The economy sector of every nation is always the backbone of every society. The economy helps us run the everyday aspects of life, which involve different activities. Therefore, any factor that contributes to the economy is a significant aspect to be paid attention to. This research aims to establish how tourism has impacted the economy, from the definition that states that tourism always involves the movement of people from one place to another. Read More