Changing the Growth-Focused Mindset: A Pathway Towards Sustainable Tourism Development

Many tourism destinations have long persued the goal of growth ‘at all costs’; the result in many instances has been environmental, socio-cultural and ecological degradation. Amidst mounting evidence of the unsustainability of this approach, we are now witnessing a series of healthy, albeit still timid, attempts to move towards more sustainable tourism development models. Such initiatives experiment with alternative goals and development paths which emphasize the quality rather than the quantity of tourism, alongside the persuit of wider social and environmental objectives. Yet, despite these positive case studies, change remains slow and many destinations continue to manage tourism via top-down governance tools – an approach which limits their capacity for sustainable development. Even the most rigid sustainability criteria and the adoption of new governance models have been shown to be insufficient in the absence of a radical change of mindset of tourism stakeholders. A more holistic system is needed which not only considers but actively engages tourism’s wide range of stakeholders to effectively navigate sustainable tourism development

Many tourism destinations have long pursued the goal of growth ‘at all costs’; the result in many instances has been environmental, socio-cultural and ecological degradation. Amidst mounting evidence of the unsustainability of this approach, we are now witnessing a series of healthy, albeit still timid, attempts to move towards more sustainable tourism development models. Such initiatives experiment with alternative goals and development paths which emphasise the quality rather than the quantity of tourism, alongside the pursuit of wider social and environmental objectives. Yet, despite these positive case studies, change remains slow, and many destinations continue to manage tourism via top-down governance tools— an approach which limits their capacity for sustainable development. Even the most rigid sustainability criteria and the adoption of new governance models have been shown to be insufficient in the absence of a radical change of mindset of tourism stakeholders.Amore holistic system is needed, which not only considers but actively engages tourism’s wide range of stakeholders to effectively navigate sustainable tourism development.