“Tourism must now be considered within the context of global mobilities, human wellbeing and a sustainable future”
Op-ed by Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal, Researcher at the University of Deusto
Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal is a Researcher at the University of Deusto. She co-authored our publication Transforming Tourism – Regional perspectives on a global phenomenon, which was presented at the 8th World Sustainability Forum, an annual and international scientific conference aiming at building a network for sustainability agendas worldwide.
This year’s edition took place online and focussed on Food Security and Agriculture, and Mobility and Transport. Antonia Luciani, on behalf of the Coppieters Foundation, presented the research in the framework of this second theme.
When it comes to tourism, often there is a struggle to balance the imperatives of the preservation of communities’ identities and economic growth. Local communities, especially indigenous and minority groups, thereby face strong challenges to develop more sustainable growth strategies.
Degrowth-inspired tourism may help to overturn the present trends of mass tourism and over-exploited local economies, with the hope to see emerge a sustainable tourism that serves regional development and triggers positive interactions with local cultures. Tourism is, as a matter of fact, an effective way to achieve economic growth and development if it is not over-exploited. This would require a redefinition of tourism, changes in consumer behaviour and putting the focus on the value of local economies and communities.
This means setting limits to growth in this sector and increasing education and awareness about the negative impacts of mass tourism, which outweigh the economic benefits for receiving societies. To acknowledge the risk of tourism saturation and thus, to reflect afterwards on restrictions is the first step to preserve the positive impact of tourism on the economy and to reduce the social, economic and environmental impairment it generates. The hope is then to be able to shift toward tourism values that would be disconnected from excessive commodification and exploitation.
Technological change might well be one of the keys toward this shift, as it will ultimately provide the means to achieve data devolution, technological sovereignty, and citizens’ empowerment in European cities and regions. Such a change would allow citizen-to-citizen tourism interactions between visitors and residents and would take communities back to the basics, where ultimately citizens decide their own choice, and thus, their own future.
“The concepts of reduction, reuse and recycling in tourism are still to be more strongly embedded in local tourism management and carrying capacity agendas”
At a decision-making level, those defining public policies should not neglect measuring and reporting on the benefits and impacts of sustainable consumption and production. Decision-makers would also benefit from engaging suppliers and the general tourism value chain actors at an early stage to identify innovative solutions and business models to offer more sustainable products and services.
Overall, the concepts of reduction, reuse and recycling in tourism are still to be more strongly embedded in local tourism management and carrying capacity agendas.
Tourism must now be considered within the context of global mobilities, human wellbeing and a sustainable future.
Poster presentation of our publication "Transforming Tourism"
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