From 'sustainable tourism' to 'sustainability transitions in tourism'?

Although sustainable tourism research is a rich and diverse field, it still suffers from a few important shortcomings. Negligible attention has been given to various possible pathways to sustainable tourism (as opposed to sustainable tourism as a 'goalpost') and there is an insufficient un...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tourism geographies 2024-02, Vol.26 (2), p.141-150
Main Authors: Niewiadomski, Piotr, Brouder, Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Complex systems
energy transitions
evolutionary approaches
Evolutionary economics
Innovations
Interconnections
multi-level perspective
Science and technology
socio-technical system
Sustainability
Sustainability transitions
Sustainable tourism
Tourism
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Summary:Although sustainable tourism research is a rich and diverse field, it still suffers from a few important shortcomings. Negligible attention has been given to various possible pathways to sustainable tourism (as opposed to sustainable tourism as a 'goalpost') and there is an insufficient understanding of how the interconnections and interdependencies within tourism as a complex system shape the pursuit of sustainability. What is therefore needed is a sharper focus on the actual processes that must unfold for a transition to sustainable tourism to take place, and a better conceptualisation of the tourism industry as a multi-actor and multi-dimensional socio-technical system. We argue here that the sustainability transitions agenda, which has developed over the last two decades at the interface of innovation studies, evolutionary economics, studies of technology and science, and various other fields, offers a promising way forward for the desired pathway towards sustainable tourism to be comprehensively understood and more effectively followed. In order to set the scene for the individual contributions to this collection, we elaborate on this argument by highlighting the key strengths of the sustainability transitions agenda and identifying their potential to help tourism scholars move the work on sustainable tourism in new, unprecedented, and imperative directions. Our overarching aim is to lay the foundations for bridging the gap between (sustainable) tourism research and the sustainability transitions literature to move this combined agenda forward.
ISSN:1461-6688
1470-1340
DOI:10.1080/14616688.2023.2299832