Unit 3. Quality systems in tourist destinations
3.1. Fundamentals of quality systems applied to tourist destinations.
QUALITY should be understood as the dedication of the municipal administration and private institutions to optimize benefits based on greater efficiency in the provision of services in order to obtain the satisfaction of the visitor and the resident of the destination.
Each of them raises
The need to take into consideration a series of variables that require greater attention when these people have a mobility restriction.
The development of the tourism activity today generically poses three main variables to achieve the satisfaction of the demand:
Quality of services, tourist products and affordable prices.
During the development of tourism activities, we must mainly consider the quality of services in the five main parts of the tourism system:
Contracting the service with the different tour operators:
Transportation
Gastronomy area
Lodging area
Recreation area
This process allows us to distinguish five stages summarized in the following items:
Quality perceived by demand
Quality focused from the supply side
Quality focused on demand
Quality Awareness
Excellence in Quality
3.2. Quality and environmental systems
The main objective is to achieve a balance between production processes and environmental protection.
Quality and respect for the environment are indispensable requirements in the priorities of the company's business horizon.
The phases to be followed consist of:
Diagnostics
Identification and analysis of documentation
Staff training
Action plan
Implementation of the Quality and/or Environmental system.
Quality and/or environmental audits
Preparation for certification by the certifying body
Tourism companies must provide services with a level of quality and respect for the environment that makes them sustainable and appropriate to the needs of their customers.
For this purpose, Quality and Environmental Policies must be established, consistent with its scope of competence, which contemplate the following principles of action:
• Prevent, control and minimize pollution through the application of appropriate and feasible organizational and technological measures, within the framework of its competence.
• To understand and meet the requirements and expectations of tourists, in order to ensure the sustainability of tourism services.
• Allocate human, technological and financial resources to achieve the environmental and quality objectives set.
• Integrate environmental aspects in the planning, management and conservation processes of the public domain, promoting the environmental improvement of the Service Zones.
3.3. Tourism and environment
Environment
Medium
element in which a being lives or develops.
Environment
circumstances surrounding people or things.
The environment constitutes the set of natural, social and cultural factors, elements, processes and relationships that compose and sustain the development and reproduction of life.
Thus, we should evaluate tourism from at least three axes of interest that need to be conceived and reconciled interrelated, so that its development is 'environmentally' sustainable:
1) The economic relationship planned and carried out by technicians, operators, service providers and the network of products and services of their industry.
2) The recreational and/or educational relationship carried out by society in its exercise of recreation and relaxation.
3) The relationship of both with the use of natural and cultural resources as raw material and attractions, a matter of competence of the heritage managers and of the communities where the enterprises are located.
OMT has adopted the sustainable approach to tourism and applies sustainable development concepts in all its planning and development studies.
It defines it:
"One that aims to meet the needs of tourists as well as tourism destinations, protecting and increasing opportunities for the future."
Sustainability is now applied to numerous activities (industrial, agricultural, etc.) and also to tourism, an important economic activity that has significant environmental and social implications.
In order to effectively develop sustainability, the "Code of Good Environmental Practices" proposes the application of two instruments:
- An environmental audit.
- A social participation plan.
Poorly planned tourism causes damage to the very resources on which it depends. Degradation can be avoided with proper planning measures.
Positive and negative environmental effects of leisure and tourism
All activities condition the environment (agriculture, livestock, mining, etc.).
The effects of actions on the environment can be detrimental or beneficial.
Maximum compatibility must be achieved between all activities/natural environment, between tourism development/natural environment.
Environmental impact is the effect of human activities.
3.4. Waste management and environmental management of tourist destinations
Waste management seeks to promote better conservation and use of the natural and cultural resources that make tourism possible, based on a key concept: EDUCATION.
The tourist destination must establish and register programs for the verification of proper wastewater management.
A program should be established to reduce the generation of solid waste at the tourist destination.
The tourist destination must classify and store solid waste separately and properly manage it for reuse, recycling and final disposal.
The communities where waste management programs are developed will benefit from the results obtained, since in the medium and long term, learning to keep a site clean will result in:
The reduction of expenses in terms of waste management or urban maintenance,
In a better image of the site that assures or propitiates a constant or greater affluence of tourists, with the socio-economic benefits that this entails.
Poor waste management alters ecosystems and at the same time affects the flow of visitors to the tourist destination.
3.5. Tourist practices in areas of natural interest
Various facts confirm the growing interest in tourism practices in nature (increase in the number of publications, magazines and guides on natural areas and itineraries to explore them; growth and emergence of new sports modalities based on natural resources; etc.).
This importance has generated positive and negative effects, for example, it has made possible the approach to the natural environment and the knowledge of ecosystems, the increase of environmental awareness among the population or the creation of new markets for local and national economies, however, the negative effects, mainly caused by the uncontrolled practice, have also been noticed and have led to the environmental degradation of certain ecologically fragile areas.
At present, the principle of "sustainability" is imposed in the development of any type of activity, seeking not to degrade or deplete the resources that make such development possible. Based on this idea, the implementation of any tourist activity in nature must ensure a potential and orderly use of the resources that support it, being essential to carry out an adequate territorial distribution of these activities.
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