The W. SyCip Graduate School of Business (WSGSB) and the Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism (ALT-CFT) of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) held the first day of the weeklong Sustainable Tourism Management course for students of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) on October 19. Participants include students from Yale School of Management, Sauder School of Business – University of British Columbia, and the Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore. 

Dr. John Paolo R. Rivera, program manager of the ALT-CFT, introduced the course. In this session, students were given a brief overview of the entire course, sites to visit, resource speakers to meet, and the details of their capstone project—a business plan for the promotion of sustainable tourism in Iba, Zambales, and Mangro Grove at Bancal River. Just like in the previous Global Network Weeks, this weeklong course aims to introduce principles, theories, business models, and case studies in the responsible development and management of tourism destinations.

After the course orientation, Dr. Fernando Y. Roxas, executive director of the ALT-CFT, gave a lecture on sustainable tourism. In this session, it was established that ecotourism is a form of sustainable tourism—the triple bottom line strategy. The global ecotourism market has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the tourism industry with an estimated annual growth range of 5% to 50%. Given this growth rate, ecotourism has the capacity to create eight billion visits per year to protected areas. The reasons for this global ecotourism growth are environmental awareness and interest, media exposure to natural areas, satisfaction with traditional tourism, and increased connectivity to ecotourism destinations.

Aside from a lecture, students were given the opportunity to exchange ideas with industry practitioners (including resort owners and tour operators) and representatives from the local government units and non-government organizations from different parts of the Philippines—Boracay, Puerto Princesa, Leyte, and Davao. Issues ranging from the sustainability of business operations of small and medium enterprises to the role of the government in fostering sustainability were discussed.

Maria Cristina M. Aguilar, ALT-CFT program coordinator, led a session on the Philippine tourism industry from a global perspective. Students were introduced to the Philippines’ sights and sounds, the peculiarities of Philippine society, and the performance and direction of the Philippine tourism industry.

To cap today’s classroom sessions, Dr. Michael Angelo A. Cortez, associate professor from the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, delivered a lecture on the different models of sustainability in manufacturing and the automotive industry and the sustainability portfolio (clean technology, pollution prevention, sustainability vision, product stewardship). The students were also introduced to the environmental accounting standards in Japan. 
 

 

One important lesson from today’s session is that the private sector, local government, and non-government organizations occupy a vital role in advancing sustainable tourism. In the midst of climate change, there is a need for stakeholders to engage in socially responsible undertakings—pursuing profit maximization together with environmental protection, maximizing tourists' experience, and promoting community benefit.