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Local communities play an indispensable role in managing the social impacts caused by
tourism. Direct involvement of locals in the management of tourist activities can help manage
social impacts caused by tourism. By enlisting locals in discussions about tourism management
strategies,organisation and the implementation of the tourists activities, the local community
can express their preferences in the content and frequency of tourists activities. Given that they
have resided in that area since young and interacted with the culture rich community on a daily
basis, not only are locals well versed with the culture, it is also something that they are very
passionate about. Therefore, locals can directly teach the tourists about their culture and way of
life, enhancing tourist’s understanding of the rich culture, allowing them to appreciate it,
preserving the significance of their culture, ensuring that it is not watered down in order to be
commercialised to tourists. A prime example is the integration of community-based tourism in
Candirejo Village, Indonesia. Since 2003, villagers in Candirejo established a cooperative with
the Government, receiving support and resources which helps to manage the various tourist
related activities that are carried out. Through consulting the village chief, youth groups and
various cultural and arts groups in the village the cooperative organised appropriate activities to
educate tourists about their culture. The cooperative then worked with businesses and planning
authorities to bring the activities to fruition. For example, the cooperative helped to set up
homestay and farmstay accommodation for tourists to experience an authentic day in the life of
a local, trained locals on how to effectively teach tourists to make traditional handicrafts and
clothing as well as how they can guide the tourists around to create a more authentic and
enjoyable experience. This gives locals the autonomy to protect their own culture, effectively
minimising the erosion and appropriation of their own culture, while at the same time, ensuring
that the source of income that tourists provide for the local community does not diminish,
effectively managing the social impacts caused by tourism.

Non-governmental organisations (NGO’s), specifically environmental groups, play an

important part in managing the environmental impacts of tourism.NGOs are formed when many
like-minded citizens who feel strongly about an issue, come together to find solutions to the
issue and enact change. NGOs help to serve as the bridge between all stakeholders involved in
tourism, including tourists, tour operators, the government and local communities.Certain
groups may lack the reach and resources large, multinational NGOs have, like the United
Nations World Tourism Organisations. Moreover, given that NGOs are a significant organisation,
they are able to effectively raise the awareness of the locals, businesses and the government on
the potential negative implications that tourism may have on the environment, and share
solutions as to how they can counter it, through research that they conduct and guidelines that
they come up with. This may motivate the locals, businesses and government to enact change
and take up and support the solutions that they have proposed. A prime example is the
International ecotourism society (TIES), that has been established since 1990, and has been
instrumental in achieving sustainable ecotourism, ensuring that the natural environment is not
damaged due to tourism. They have worked with conservation groups, businesses and
governments to draw up guidelines, conduct training courses, provide technical assistance and
write research papers.TIES organised a professional training course for local tour operators Cat
Ba Island, Vietnam in 2005, equipping the locals with technical expertise on the basic principles
of ecotourism, offering insight into various methods in which they could conduct tourist activities
sustainably while protecting the local community, wildlife and economy. Through the Vietnam
Coastal Biodiversity Support program, they also developed monitoring and certification
programs based on criteria like waste management, resource consumption and energy
conservation, to certify sustainable tourist businesses.
These were done to relay the local’s concerns of the implications of tourism on the natural
environment to the government, proving that it is indeed a legitimate issue through scientific
research, and then coming up with solutions through proposing guidelines and equipping them
with the skills to do so through training. This way, the governmental, who has the final say, will
make a more informed decision when it comes to tourism, increasing their likelihood of choosing
the solution that will mitigate the implications that tourism has on the natural environment.
Therefore, NGOs play an indispensable role when it comes to managing the environmental
impacts of tourism.

Planning authorities in the government play an important role in managing the social and
environmental impacts brought about by tourism. Planning authorities have the political authority
to enact strict regulations, laws, values and principles to ensure that tourism is being carried out
in a sustainable manner when it comes to the environment. Specifically, the planning authorities
have the ability to restrict the number of tourists that are entering a specific site and impose
strict regulations, sometimes completely closing off sites out of fear of extensive irreversible
damage. For example, since 2016, the Thai government closed off 4 islands to prevent further
bleaching of coral reefs caused by tourists who touched and walked on the corals whilst diving
in the vicinity. This allows time for the corals to recover and minimises the damage to the
oceanic ecosystem and aquatic organisms who depend on the corals for food and shelter. As a
result, coral bleaching has been reduced greatly in 2019, with only 25% of the reef with severely
bleached corals, as compared to close to 90% in 2011. The government can also impose strict
regulations in the form of fines and laws to enforce the tourist’s sustainable interactions with the
environment, they can also manage the allocation of revenue from tourist activities to
conservation and maintenance of the various sites and environments. For example, in Angkor
Wat, Cambodia, the government made a collective decision to reinvest almost all the 63 million
dollars from entrance fees, to restore and repair the temple, comprising the reconstruction of the
temple’s facade and reinforcement of the structure. It has also enabled them to increase
manpower to prevent tourists from desecrating or vandalising the site, effectively preserving the
cultural significance of Angkor Wat This limits the damage tourists and tour operators inflict to
the built and natural environment of the area, while also preserving and improving the condition
of the attractions, therefore planning authorities manage the negative sociocultural and
environmental impacts of tourism

I believe that the planning authorities play the most important role in managing the impacts
brought about by tourism. It is only planning authorities that have the political power and
authority to pass laws and regulations to actually enforce people to interact in a sustainable
manner with the environment, ensuring that the negative environmental impacts of tourism are
mitigated. On the other hand, both the local communities and NGOs do not legally have any
authority to enforce people to behave in a way they want them to, neither do they have the final
say when it comes to making large scale decisions that require large amounts of the nation’s
resources and manpower. Instead, all the local community and NGOs can do is to either work
on a significantly smaller scale as compared to the government, i.e. in their communities or on
social media, or only advise the planning authorities as to what course of action the planning
authorities should take. Therefore, it is evident that planning authorities play a much more
crucial role in managing the negative impacts brought about by tourism.