Tourism and Sustainability

Abstract

This chapter outlines specific sustainability challenges in tourism destinations and the sector’s opportunities to contribute to global sustainability. The highly inequitable distribution of benefits among local actors, the energy-intensive character of most tourism activities, and the lack of systematic data on environmental and social impacts are identified as key challenges. Responses based on promoting “best practices” are useful and widely implemented by tourism corporations. Building on experiences from pioneering destinations, a case is made for sustainability solutions that go beyond the best practices approach and redefine tourism as a social activity that can actively promote broader sustainability transitions. This involves engaging local actors in the definition of “desirable or acceptable” tourism development objectives, as well as the identification of strategies that turn tourism into a social process that supports the emergence of new governance structures while questioning entrenched relations of power.

One of the world’s largest economic sectors, tourism is especially well-placed to promote environmental sustainability, green growth and our struggle against climate change through its relationship with energy. (Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, on World Tourism Day 2012)