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Dr. Harold Goodwin spoke about the concept that problems with sustainable tourism can be
of ‘Responsible Tourism’, its meaning, benefits remedied by setting concrete sustainability goals
and how it can be put into practice, especially at the local level where it can be defined in terms of
in Odisha. concrete parameters, a central tenet of responsible
Dr. Goodwin stated that while eco-tourism has tourism. Sustainability is the abstract long-term
several benefits - it brings employment to rural goal which has to be achieved by taking smaller
regions, etc.- there is no evidence to show that it concrete responsibilities. Dr Goodwin, at this
is more sustainable in any manner than regular point, also spoke about Odisha’s tourism policy
tourism. Governments in all places subsidise and how it had impressed him by its emphasis
tourism to some level, in order to ensure that upon sustainability.
tourists do not have to pay the full cost and thus Implementation is key to this and also the
enabling economic growth in these regions. inclusion of the tenets of responsible tourism in
Further, tourism is highly polluting, has negative the regulatory framework governing tourism in
social impacts and imposes costs that are borne by each place. In all of these endeavors, it is critical
the locals. that the goals sought to be achieved through
Therefore, there is now a move towards “sustainable tourism, the means to achieve the same and the
tourism”. The issue with sustainable tourism is limitations of what can be achieved with tourism
that it ‘defies definition’ and therefore, is a vague
aspiration that cannot be assessed on concrete
parameters at a policy level. This means that even
ostensibly sustainable tourist sites are often not
sustainable in practice. This can be remedied by
the move towards ‘Responsible Tourism’.

Simply put, responsible tourism is about using
tourism to enhance the well-being of local
communities. In Dr Goodwin’s view, the use of
responsibility is key because “nobody wants to be
seen as irresponsible”. Dr Goodwin also posited