Looking at the Future: Approaches to a More Sustainable and Just Tourism

Dear Colleagues,

The tourism sector is of fundamental significance in many localities and nations around the world. It is sensible to suggest that due to its global reach and value, it should also contribute to a more sustainable and just world by, for example, contributing to climate change, poverty and inequality mitigation. However, aside from its possible positive potential and effects, tourism may well also boast an array of impacts that can cause severe negative consequences. As noted: “Tourism has long been embraced by governments as a means to drive export-led economic growth and development. However, the intended outcomes of tourism development policies have often fallen short of desired goals and their ability to deliver lasting socio-economic benefits frequently exaggerated” (Bianchi et al., 2023:1). A fundamental remodelling of the tourism sector, and a change in the ‘behaviour’ of many entities involved in tourism, is thus obvious and unavoidable.

When it is widely acknowledged that neoliberal mechanisms have led to social inequalities, it follows that these same mechanisms should not be relied on to try to solve inequalities […] “… the post-2015 development agenda should go beyond just re-writing goals and targets that adhere to ‘sustaining’ the same old economic and social models”. Challenging patterns of distribution and structural inequality should thus be priorities in order to comprehensively address poverty (Scheyvens & Hughes, 2019:1065; Moore in Scheyvens & Hughes, 2019:1065).

In this context, any small steps that move tourism in this direction should be recognised as valuable. As Sofield notes, “… it is crucial to understand the basic matter of “who gets what, when, where, and how” (Sofield, 2003:92). Thus, to effectively facilitate and contribute to a more sustainable and just world, tourism development strategies and policies should be carefully, but fundamentally, (re)elaborated and properly managed.

This Special Issue (SI) aims to contribute to this by proposing new, or thoroughly modernized or enhanced, ideas on tourism development strategies and policies. The intention is to make this SI a valuable milestone in the search for a better, more sustainable, and just tourism sector by fundamentally contributing to a constructive debate on the topic. This topic is relevant because “…some critics have asserted that addressing problems of tourism development requires challenging the capitalist nature of conventional tourism development in pursuit of “post-capitalism”. Yet, despite some initial speculation and theorizing, systematic exploration of post-capitalist potential in tourism development has been lacking thus far” (Fletcher et al., 2023:708). “Though calls for the transformation of the tourism industry have been loud, the reality of such calls reaching actual initiatives at international, regional, national, or local levels are unexplored” (Wijesinghe, 2022:1107). This SI intends to aid in filling these gaps.

Based on the above, the editors invite submissions of works that explore new tourism strategies and policies. Submissions are expected to be original, or fundamentally renovated, ideas on tourism strategies and policies that are aimed at more sustainable and just tourism. These new, or well renovated or enhanced, tourism strategies and policies should have a trustworthy theoretical or empirical foundation but could also somehow work towards an idealist realm. Overall, “It always seems impossible until it is done” (Nelson Mandela).

References:

Bennike, R. B.; Nielsen, M. R. Frontier tourism development and inequality in the Nepal Himalaya. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2023.2174129.

Bianchi, R. V.; McCabe, S.; Cisneros-Martínez, J. D.; Domínguez-Gómez, J. A. Contested discourses in social tourism: A relational political economy perspective. Annals of Tourism Research, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103640.

Fletcher, R.; Blanco-Romero, A.; Blázquez-Salom, M.; Cañada, E.; Murray M. I.; Sekulova, F. Pathways to post-capitalist tourism. Tourism Geographies, 2023, 25, 707–728.

Giampiccoli, A.; Mtapuri, O. Introducing the Investment Redistributive Incentive Model (IRIM): A new redistribution perspective in tourism investment and beyond. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 2020. 9, 58.

Giampiccoli, A. A conceptual justification and a strategy to advance community-based tourism development. European Journal of Tourism Research, 2020. 25, 1–19.

Scheyvens, R.; Hughes, E. Can tourism help to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere”? The challenge of tourism addressing SDG1. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2019. 27, 1061–1079.

Scheyvens, R.; Biddulph, R. Inclusive tourism development. Tourism Geographies, 2018. 20, 589–609.

Schilcher, D. Growth Versus Equity: The Continuum of Pro-Poor Tourism and Neoliberal Governance. Current Issues in Tourism, 2007, 10, 166–193.

Sofield, T. H. B. Empowerment for sustainable tourism development. 2003. Oxford: Pergamon.

Wijesinghe, S. N. R. Neoliberalism, Covid-19 and hope for transformation in tourism: the case of Malaysia, Current Issues in Tourism, 2022, 25, 1106–1120.

Dr. Andrea Giampiccoli
Prof. Dr. Anna Dłużewska
Guest Editors

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• sustainable tourism
• sustainability
• alternative tourism
• tourism strategies
• tourism policies
• tourism
• tourism sustainability
• tourism and poverty
• tourism and inequality