Case Study – Sustainable Tourism in Lagos, Portugal

pic College of Commerce Catering and Tourism sustainable Tourism Case read on the touristry cogitate capers of Lagos, Portugal pic Rebecca Zug 19. 11. 2012 Table of confine 1. Executive Summary 3 2. Findings 4 3. Discussion 5 4. induction and Recommendations 8 5. performance 8 6. References9 Case study Lagos, Algarve, Portugal 1 1. Executive Summary The power why I choose Lagos for this upshot study is beca single-valued function I was life story in that location from May 2012 October 2012 and I think it is a cracking precedent for around problems which whitethorn give muster on-of- sacque to touristry.How constantly it is non an example for the typical mass touristry associated problems, because the reputation of tourism in the Algarve is water sports relate and on that pointfore reflects a different life style and attitude to the topical anesthetic environment. Lagos Lagos is a comfort townsfolksfolk in the Lusitanian Algarve coast. The dower Lag os has well-nigh 30000 constant inhabitants, provided due(p)(p) to the fact that Tourism brings 3 mavin million million million pack to the Algarve e truly year the add together of inhabitants whitethorn be tripled at current conciliates of the year. Further to a strikinger extent(prenominal) than it has the broad(prenominal)est shargon of residents with overseasers in the unit of mea sure as shootingment country.It is probably the intimately best-selling(predicate) cultivation in the Algarve, because it offers a vast diversity of activities for the whole family tho in general the younger coevals (water sports shoping, kiting, wake lineuping, diving, kayaking, as cropboardace(p) as a broad gastronomical repertory with count little side actuality nursing billet firms, stickaurants ( principal(prenominal)ly contradictory cuisine), however still kept its senior flair in the carless out of date town due to its 2000 year old history. at that pla ce atomic turn 18 several(prenominal) beaches, champion km long sandy beach and to a greater extent sm e precise last(predicate) bays, which ar although it is quite a big town still non the typical city beaches. in that respect atomic turn of events 18 yet sepa wanderd single restaurants directly at the beaches, keeping the original coastline, while buildings be b bely few hundred meters behind. As you rotter see the problem is perspicuous as tourism caused kind of an attack of conflictingers on Lagos. A s truly tough example I did non use the Lusitanian language ones because at that place were more externalers around in town than Portuguese and even off them adapted the side language so salubrious (in the to the highest degree important daily functions) that it was absolutely non necessary.This overcrowding of internationalers orchestrates to a couple of tensions with the topical anesthetics simply in that respect be some opportunities arising of tourism in that respect as puff up which I am red to explain in the fol number one- fling offing study. frontmost of all I am release to analyze all the problems occurred by tourism differentiated by their nature. First the problems occurred by the amount of foreigners (- socio cultural impacts) and thus the environmental impacts and their economic consequences. what is more I am going to point out the opportunities which atomic number 18 already presumption but non used in this bea.These opportunities lead to the solutions I may suggest to flog the problems and finally I am going to write about the implementation, how the solutions may be adopted. 2 2. Findings The primary(prenominal) problem of Lagos is that the tourism sector and because the main condescension sector is govern by foreigners. most(prenominal) hotels, circuit breakerboard camps and water sports providing facilities as tumefy as bars atomic number 18 nourish by foreign multitude, mostly English and Germans which is the reason why most of the tourists atomic number 18 English and German too.Other than in most other vacation nones the tourism facilities atomic number 18 not but owned but run as hygienic solely by foreigners. The reason for that is the impudent fashion of meshing foreign interns rather than local anesthetic anesthetics for any department in hospitality and gastronomy, because they are even more cheap (mostly board and lodging and a little pocket property) than locals. This phenomena is not used in start out gauge accommodation but, as I lastd in former internships, in up to 5 star hotels as healthy.Of blood line it is a profitable authority for the owners, because interns are highly motivated to learn, on that pointfore they accept e rattling kind of be given for a precise low compensation. Furthermore they are usually highly meliorate, analyse in the field of doing and intercommunicate more languages. This is why owners of in this sid e surf camps and hotels employ mainly interns for the periods. some other advantage of interns is to avoid the problems of annealality, because they tin washstand earlier work in semester breaks or afterward high tutor graduation merely in the time when the (high) season is.However this sounds correct for accommodation facility owners it is a huge problem for the local hunting lodge. Like this the despotic impact of tourism in generating jobs for the association is missing due to the fact that even the lower prime(prenominal) jobs are given to foreigners. As well with the low engage for interns it is impossible to in truth live a normal life in the battleground. My experience was that ONLY if it was surely necessary (end of the season when bothbody has gone infrastructure) owners are go outing to employ locals for a couple of weeks as well on a high wage ( roughly double), but solely if there is no other choice.Another problem arising of this is that most of these interns are not registered or on a no-payment base for what the owners do not harbour to pay valuees. This induces a acquireiness of income for the community as well. In higher quality hotels it also creates an image of not instruct staff (intern flair) which degrades the quality of services. just not solitary(prenominal) the accommodation facilities are run and owned by foreigners, nearly every single bar in town as well. excessively because of the majority of outgoers are foreigners the barmen and waiters are 90% foreigners, youngsters work the seasons, who only need money for their next trip.My observation was that only some restaurants but rather bistros and breakfast cafes are owned and run by Portuguese. The lack of jobs (un drill rate in the Algarve is the highest in the whole country 20%) leads to crime generation of the locals, who as kind of a visit rob and break into foreign-owned bases. Other socio-cultural problems arising from the impacts of tourism a re due to the above mentioned the normalisation and commercialization of the Portuguese culture. A very common phenomena is the building of outlets or well ben chains in gastronomy or commerce sector (e. . McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Aldi, Lidl). The gastronomy of Lagos is ruled by all imaginable foreign The Green Room (Mexi bath Restaurant) in the old town of Lagos countries cuisines (Italian, Japan, Thai, English, Turkish, Romanian, Mexican) but a very small part of real Portuguese nutriment. An economic disadvantage is moreover that there are loads of foreign supermarkets as well like Aldi and Lidl, which are cheaper and more familiar to tourists and the massive(p) number of English residents in this area.This means that the lordly impact of the multiplier effect of tourism is missing, because foreigners do not go grocery store shopping in local shops. As already mentioned the Portuguese language is showtime to get lost due to the number of foreigners not resulting to learn an d not forced to learn it because everybody speaks at least(prenominal) the necessary communicative English essential to manage everyday life. This adoption of tourist demands leads to a slow but very significant decrease in Portuguese culture. Environmental ImpactsThe problem of defilement is loaded everywhere where people are and of tend more people create more pollution and exhaust, this put ons it to a fundamental problem of tourism. Water consumption in wet gardens of hotels, camps as well as pools and play menstruates is an essential problem in the dry months of the summer. Moreover is there no enactment for recycle in Portugal. Waste is put in in one huge net ton for every street. There is no deny show for every house, however there are quite a traffic circle recycle stations but this is only volunteer.Seasonality as in almost every tourism destination is an issue in Lagos as well. Low season starts in May + June, July + August are high season and September + O ctober are low season again. From November End of April most of the hotels, camps are neard or operate only partly. This provokes an even higher un art rate and of course lack of income. 3 3. Discussion The main problem of the foreigners stealing the jobs of the Portuguese is a very serious issue and can not be solved without the fundamental fundamental interaction of the local regime.In my opinion there should be a regulation, setting a special percentage of employees, who must be local. There are several examples where this governmental interaction lead to advantageous outcomes (GCC member states). In the Oman for example, the government set a guaranteed employment quote of locals, called Omanization, aiming the lessening of the portion of foreign employees. This way the unemployment rate would be decrease and therefore the tensions between locals and foreign patronage owners would be trim down as well.Difficulties may arise with the European spousal relationship, whose four main aims (free movement of people, capital, goods and services jobs) are in contradiction with not allowing foreigners to work in a country different to their home country. But realizing the forged financial agency of Portugal and the statistical data has a kitty to commend it. Also is employing locals a very important cultural aspect in the guests satisfaction, who lacked the involvement of Portuguese culture during their preventative. As well do people living their whole life on the spot of course engender a split knowledge about natural conditions, which are very important for water sports.Furthermore there should be a tax reduction for employers hiring locals, to give birth the employment of them attractive and efficiently advantageous. Due to this business owners are hope broad(a)y keen to officially reinvolve locals rather than foreign interns and therefore pay taxes on them. As well development in Lagos must be enhanced. There is only one University in the Alg arve (in Faro) with an extension to the nearby Portimao which is overt, all other higher education institutes are hugger-mugger.Furthermore most of the international schools are closed-door as well and there are except high quality state-run utility(prenominal) schools. This means that mostly only the children of foreigners are getting a good education in this area, locals mainly have to go further forth (Lisbon) and when they are already gone, they most of the times are not coming back, being aware of the bad employment situation in the Algarve. So even if the youth has the opportunity to be educated quite far away, they afterwards go abroad (a phenomena we can feel in Hungary as well).My suggestion would be to make the access to higher and good quality education available for everybody (mainly with European Union tenders) and put an effort in the education of occupations needed in this area Tourism and water sports. economically surf camps can help as well in producing inc ome for the local community, for example in trusting their guests to nearby cafes to have breakfast there. These breakfast possibilities are around almost every corner and owned by locals, because locals love to eat breakfast remote and combine it with a casual confab with friends.Thus guests have the opportunity in acquire about the culture and habits as well as add to the local economy. economically this wont affect the camps, because breakfast is absolutely not the main income source and rather eases up the work in camps and helps to concentrate on the major activities. Discounted firm prices may be negotiated, sometimes even with a commissioning for the camps. Problems would occur for camps outside the city center, there are a few camps (Algarve Watersports, The glide Experience) which are located far away from the old town and therefore do not have the opportunity to send guests away for breakfast.The standardization problem of the local restaurants, who barely serve typi cal Portuguese food occurred due to the fear of local business owners. There are a few Portuguese restaurants (e. g. Casinha do Petisco) with great Portuguese cuisine, enormous portions and good prices. both single night this restaurant is full of people and there is barely never a less waiting time than 45 minutes to get a table. Although it looks quite unimposing it is the best going restaurant in town (even in the off season) full of a confection of locals and tourists as well.This means that the demand for Portuguese cuisine is present and a great opportunity, which only has to be captured. Here the camps powerfulness help again, due to the fact that they ordinarily do not serve dinner. making agreements with local business owners serving Portuguese food, will probably emphasize others to at least serve Portuguese food as well, because numerous guests complained about not being in Portugal regarding the food supply. The environmental threats may be solved due to small inter actions of the government again. For example the recycle of waste should be indispensable.As it is seen in several European countries since decades (Germany, England), those guests and foreign residents even do it voluntarily in Lagos. We made it bounden in our surf camp, but every time I brought the separated waste to the recycling stations, I only dictum Recycling station in Lagos foreigners, who did the same. This is a good opportunity of tourism to aid recycling. It may be made obligatory intern by single camps, but there is a need of governmental intervention to make locals recycle as well.Due to the fact that there is no regular garbage collection for every house making it very difficult to bidding who is throwing his waste how away. Therefore it should be (e. g. as in Germany), that there should be a garbage collection for every house and every household gets different recycling tons on a annually payment. Thus if people do not recycle his waste wont be taken away. As a matter of course this is combined with enormous costs, but may be covered by e. g. higher annual payment of foreigners and European Union contributions.It would furthermore create jobs, because the garbage collection of every household requires more people. The pollution due to water sports activities is in coincidence very low, because the main activity of surfriding comes with an environmental friendly lifestyle. This green close to nature way of life is promoted and educated in the surf camps in back up their guests to be very careful with the environment, recycling, low water consumption etc. and campaign to respect the locals (with t-shirts for example).In a surfing society these things are so evident, that people play off very upset on people ignoring these unwritten laws. (Leave zippo but footprints and take nothing but memories) breaker camps and locals know that the beaches Beach of Zavial are their main income source, this is why they are absolutely protected, no waste is left there and they are almost totally untouched, mainly only one restaurant. Even the beach boys and lifeguards use surfboards and not motorized lifeboats in cases of emergencies.This educational activity is as well proved by the fact that even robberies hardly ever occur on the beaches, it is possible to stay hours in the water while null looks after ones belongings and nothing happens, but if one once do not lock the windows in his apartment, it is 99% sure that he wont find his apartment as it was left. The only thing which could be reduced are the daily long drives to the west coast. Every surf school in the Algarve has only one or cardinal licenses (only The Surf Experience (first surf school in the Algarve) has the pay off to go to almost every beach) to teach surfing at a beach.This is actually a very good thing, so the carrying capacity of the beaches is match anf there are never to some(prenominal) schools, people at the beaches. But many schools have lic enses for far away beaches (e. g. Algarve Watersport in Lagos has a license for the beach in Monte Clerigo 40 km away) they have to drive there every day. for certain the possibility of surfing must be secured, but there are geographically closer beaches for the differently located camps as well. Also the public transport opportunities should be enhanced. Currently there are barely busses to the beaches, only to the major cities.As well the availableness of Lagos from the airport after 20. 00 is poor, only with private shuttle busses. Due to the extension of the public transportation air pollution may be reduced. The problem of seasonality, in Lagos due to the climatic variations of a continental area, are that serious that most of the tourism related businesses have to close down the operation for the winter months, to avoid financial deviation. Resulting in Lagos becoming a ghost town. An opportunity to avoid closing down the whole operation may be to offer discounted packages for this time, because actually the natural conditions or surfing are the best from November until work and the air temperature is still mild and springlike. But it is always hard to measure if it is cost to even run the operations on a very low level, because the real surfboarder for whom this conditions are advantageous wont come to a surf school or camp. This is why I would suggest a steady operation especially for apartment rentals, rental car providers, surf shops and restaurants. It is as well important to consider that people working during a season do not have the chance to rest or even think about holidays.Off season is the only time these workers can think about themselves, go on holiday, visit their families or even make doctors appointments. So people are actually looking forward to the end of the season (if they have an alternative job or earned enough to bridge the income less winter months). In addition may these time be used for support works in the accommodation facilities. On these grounds I think that seasonality in this area has indeed a very powerful impact, but not in an absolutely negative way. 4 4. Conclusion and RecommendationsAs already mentioned is governmental intervention essential to solve the problems of the Lagos community. To avoid the negative economical impacts occurred by tourism and to achieve more domineering impacts of it some regulations must be appointed The introduction of an obligatory guaranteed employment rate of locals in every tourism related business and a tax reduction for businesses employing more locals than required, so the unemployment rate can be controlled and the thereby appear socio-cultural conflicts may be reduced.In addition should recycling be made obligatory and the public dispatch to the beaches should be enhanced. Also should the state-owned educational system be improved and specialize on available occupations, so that locals are able to stay in their home towns or areas and still receive in force(p) education and have a article of faith in a future there. exclusively in all are surf camps ecologically sensitive accommodations that work to impact the local environment, culture and surf. Those camps help see to it that tourism is sustainable and that the spot will be around for years to come.This great opportunity given by tourism must be captured. Surf camps can contribute economically and environmentally to make tourism in Lagos more sustainable. Economically and socio-culturally by encouraging their guests to go to local restaurants and put their breakfast into local cafes and environmentally while staying educative and teach the environmental friendly surfers lifestyle to their guests. 5 5. Implementation The implementation of these solutions must be ingenious Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.To specify the goals I have to answer the following questions What To make Lagos more sustainable, while balancing the amount of local and foreign workers, therefore encouraging business owners to employ more locals, ease up occurred tensions between locals and foreigners and promote the green surfer lifestyle. Who With the regulative and financial help of the government and the educative support of local surf camps When Regulations should be set for the next season already, education during the season Where Lagos and its affected beaches, PortugalWhy Lagos is one of the most visited cities in the Algarve, not capturing the authorization of being more sustainable would occur in an absolute invasion of foreigners, the loss of Portuguese culture and the excess of Lagos carrying capacity. beat How much? How will I know when it is accomplished The unemployment rate should be reduced down to max 5-10 %. Local tourism related businesses should have a percentage of min 30% of locals working for them.All the surf camps in town should if possible transfer their breakfast to local cafes. Attainable How can the goal be accomplished Th e goals may be accomplished with the interaction of the government, the surf camps and the locals as well. Relevant Does this seem worthwhile Implementing these solutions will make Lagos more sustainable and keep it as an attractive destination in the future as well. Is this the right time It is definitely the right time, because the problems will get worse and worse if nothing is to be through with(p).Does this match other necessarily It perfectly matches the most important need of reducing the negative and increasing the positive impacts of tourism. Time-bound When ASAP What can be done today Inform and encourage to do something governments, authorities, camps and locals. 6 6. References Personal experiences while working at Algarve Watersports http//www. carvoeiro. net/news-reader/items/2011-01-01_arbeitslosigkeit_an_der_algarve. hypertext markup language http//topachievement. com/smart. html pic 9