Plenary Lecture
Tourism-Environment-Sustainable Development and Crisis
Professor Mirela Mazilu
University of Craiova
Faculty of Social sciences
Department of Geography
Romania
E-mail: mirelamazilu2004@yahoo.com
Abstract: "Mainstreaming sustainability" means to rise to the challenge of the mass tourism market. It is a well-known fact that tourism involves commercial exchanges, commitments, development and cultural sustainability, towards the tranquility and the satisfaction of the people's aspirations. The world crisis means a moment of incertitude, but opens, also, immense possibilities. It is true that we face one of the highest economic deficits from the last half a century, with an economic disorder, with the increase of the unemployment and the decrease of the trust in the market, all these generating a recession whose end is not entirely known. The fact that this crisis overlaps the problems caused by the climate changes determines increased difficulties in the creation of new workplaces, in the imperious attempt to reduce poverty. This crisis places, at the same time, a constant pressure on tourists, but also on the employees from the tourism industry and the tourist market, considerably threatening the policies and the actual practices. But, as Phoenix bird that rises again from its own ashes, tourism has constantly proved a remarkable capacity of recovery and it has done that even more powerful, proving that it is a perfectly viable sector. Post-crisis challenge for Romania is the organization and development of its natural and cultural resources in a range of tourism products with a wide appeal to the public, and transforming these attractions in a flow of tourists and benefits for the country. This requires an integrated product development and strategic marketing approach, and more attention to the environmental problems and sustainable development of tourism and environment. This study uses a framework developed from the industrial ecology literature to assess the impacts of the tourism industry on the environment. Three categories of impact are discussed: direct impacts, including impacts from the tourism to a destination, the tourist activities in and of themselves at that destination, and from the creation, impacts, resulting from travel service providers’ ability to influence suppliers; and another category impact, where service providers can influence the behavior or consumption patterns of customers. Educational efforts to promote environmentally responsible tourism should be framed in accordance with the targeted audience (e.g., tourists, industry sectors). Tourists may be more receptive to educational efforts that focus on the environmental benefits of altering their behavior than to regulatory prohibitions per se. The greening of tourism, which involves efficiency improvements in energy, water, and waste systems, is expected to reinforce the employment potential of the sector with increased local hiring and sourcing and significant opportunities in tourism oriented toward local culture and the natural environment. Green tourism embraces all aspects of sustainable tourism, based on four basic principles (UNWTO): environmental, social, economic and climate (i.e. the “quadruple bottom line” of sustainable tourism). Green tourism minimizes the environmental impact of tourism and maximizes its adaptation to climate change. However, educational efforts geared towards industry sectors seem most effective when cost savings and the marketing benefits of “being green” are emphasized in this article.
Brief Biography of the Speaker:Mirela Elena Mazilu is professor of the University of Craiova,Social Sciences Faculty,Department of Geography, Romania. She has many national and international researches naming 14 books which were published as a single author; 6 university manuals especially in tourism; over 187 articles which were published in the volumes of the national and international Congresses, symposiums, conferences and seminars and also in prestigious magazines with CNCSIS range and over 194 participations to scientific events. Also, she published over 44 articles in international magazines in different fields such as: Sustainable tourism,European integration, ecology, environment protection, tourism and 46 articles in national journals CNCSIS,etc. She has 36 articles published in International Journals of specialty with ISI range and 12 in Naun Journal and many others international journals. Her papers are cited in International Data Bases (42).With multiple preoccupations in the field of tourism, organizer of 2 Euro-regional fairs of tourism(with participation of Mondial Travel Organization) and 3 International Conferences(2004,2006,2009) and in the 4th Conference organized the Special Session "Sustainable Tourism" in collaboration with WSEAS, Plenary Lecturer in Conference :Economy, Management and Transformation 2010 (EMT' 2010) ,ICAB ‘2012 Montreux,CUHT,2011,Corfu,organized by WSEAS, President Organizing Committee of TED’2011, Chairman in many national and international conferences, reviewer in 4 Journals of Tourism, coordinator of over 21 research grants, member of doctoral commissions, winner of many diplomas of excellence on tourism and prizes for the researches made in tourism, member of many national(16) and international(22) tourism organizations (AIEST,CIRET,TIES,SUSTAINABLE TOURISM,TTRA,REZOTOUR, SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE MOUNTAIN RESEARCH NETWORK, CEDIMES, etc.). Also member of Editorial boards of national and international journals on tourism, President of 2 NGO, in Tourism, reviewer in 6 international Journals.