Critical perspectives on inclusivity and sustainability in tourism governance

Since the early 1990s, sustainability has formed a core development and planning paradigm for tourism governance. In the sustainability context, the industry has been regarded as potentially highly beneficial activity for destination communities and environments. Based on this, tourism has been widely promoted as a tool for economic development and local well-being by policy-makers and regional developers. This overall sustainability connection has been a great success story for tourism, making also tourism studies more policy-relevant. However, policies and good intentions do not always materialize in practice when we ‘do development’. Indeed, the tourism industry and its growth ideology has increasingly resulted in negative changes and challenges for communities and the environment. This presentation discusses critically the impacts of tourism and the specific issue of inclusivity in tourism development. The idea of inclusivity forms the foundation for the promise of sustainability in tourism and how the industry could contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example. Paradoxically, a concluding remark is that despite the past 30 years of research and policy-making on sustainable tourism, the need for sustainability has become the greatest challenge of the contemporary tourism industry.

Jarkko Saarinen is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oulu, Finland, and Distinguished Visiting Professor (Sustainability Management) at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He also serves as Visiting Professor (Sustainable Destination Development) at the Uppsala University, Sweden. His research interests include regional and local development, sustainability in tourism, tourism and climate change, resilience, tourism-community relations, and nature conservation studies. He is currently Editor for Tourism Geographies and Associate Editor for Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Ecotourism and Development Southern Africa. ORCID: 0000-0002-9327-6932

Registration link : https://framaforms.org/inscription-au-seminaire-penser-avec-et-par-le-tourisme-1663772535

Contact : Anouk Bonnemains (anouk.bonnemains@unil.ch)