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Critical Sustainability: Setting the Limits to Growth and Responsibility in Tourism

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  • Jarkko Saarinen

    (Department of Geography, P.O. Box 3000, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Finland
    School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Abstract

The idea of sustainable development has been discussed in tourism research for almost a quarter of a century. During that time, sustainability has become an important policy framework for tourism and regional developers guiding their planning and development thinking. Sustainability has also emerged academically as an important field of research with an emphasis on defining the limits to growth and responsibilities in tourism. However, while there are urgent needs to incorporate sustainability into tourism, there is also a growing amount of frustration among scholars on the conceptual nature of sustainability and how tourism as a private-driven economic activity relates to the ideals of sustainable development. This has created an increasing need to understand and potentially reframe the concept. The purpose of this paper is to overview the conceptual dimensions of sustainable tourism and discuss some of the main sources of frustration. Based on this, it is concluded that while a conceptual plurality seems to be unavoidable, there is a need to re-frame i.e ., rescale and decentralize tourism in policy frameworks and practices aiming towards sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Jarkko Saarinen, 2013. "Critical Sustainability: Setting the Limits to Growth and Responsibility in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2013:i:1:p:1-17:d:31516
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    2. Ulrika Persson-Fischer & Shuangqi Liu, 2021. "What Is Interdisciplinarity in the Study of Sustainable Destination Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-28, March.
    3. Rannveig Ólafsdóttir, 2020. "The Role of Public Participation for Determining Sustainability Indicators for Arctic Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Álvaro Dias & Inês Aldana & Leandro Pereira & Renato Lopes da Costa & Nelson António, 2021. "A Measure of Tourist Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Ulrika Persson-Fischer & Shuangqi Liu, 2021. "The Impact of a Global Crisis on Areas and Topics of Tourism Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-26, January.
    6. Hussam Hussein & Filippo Menga & Francesca Greco, 2018. "Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-9, October.
    7. Mengyi Lin & Fu-Yuan Li & Haibin Zhou, 2020. "A Research on the Combination of Oblique Photography and Mobile Applications Based on the Sustainable Development of Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Marek Więckowski, 2021. "Will the Consequences of Covid-19 Trigger a Redefining of the Role of Transport in the Development of Sustainable Tourism?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.

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