area of tourism

By Bastian Herre, Veronika Samborska and Max Roser

Tourism has massively increased in recent decades. Aviation has opened up travel from domestic to international. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of international visits had more than doubled since 2000.

Tourism can be important for both the travelers and the people in the countries they visit.

For visitors, traveling can increase their understanding of and appreciation for people in other countries and their cultures.

And in many countries, many people rely on tourism for their income. In some, it is one of the largest industries.

But tourism also has externalities: it contributes to global carbon emissions and can encroach on local environments and cultures.

On this page, you can find data and visualizations on the history and current state of tourism across the world.

Interactive Charts on Tourism

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Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Global tourism industry - statistics & facts

What are the leading global tourism destinations, digitalization of the global tourism industry, how important is sustainable tourism, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP worldwide 2019-2033

Number of international tourist arrivals worldwide 1950-2023

Global leisure travel spend 2019-2022

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Leading global travel markets by travel and tourism contribution to GDP 2019-2022

Travel and tourism employment worldwide 2019-2033

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Online travel market size worldwide from 2017 to 2023, with a forecast until 2028 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Estimated desktop vs. mobile revenue of leading OTAs worldwide 2023

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Number of aggregated downloads of leading online travel agency apps worldwide 2023

Number of aggregated downloads of selected leading online travel agency apps worldwide in 2023 (in millions)

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• Hospitality Industry

8 lucrative career paths in the hospitality and tourism industry

March 08, 2024 •

8 min reading

The hospitality field is one of the most encompassing industries in the world. It can include every element of vacation, tourism and recreation experiences. This is something our EHL graduates quickly learn as the hospitality industry red carpet rolls out in every possible direction after graduation. When you have hospitality training and experience on your resume, your career potential becomes boundless.

While hospitality may be defined by the hotel industry, the true options are far more vast than you may have imagined. Your skills can take you anywhere in the world, working with any aspect of travel and leisure, from management to experience coordination to supply chain. If you are considering your next step in an illustrious hospitality career , we would like to spotlight eight different career paths that you might take, each encompassing a large sector of the hospitality industry.

Here are eight common sectors where our students find success after graduation.

• Accommodation
• Food & Beverage
• Event Planning
• Sports & Recreation
• Entertainment
• Wellness & Leisure

Careers in accommodation

The accommodation sector has never been more diverse. While there are millions of hotels and resorts around the world, there are also many other types of accommodation you might coordinate, creating perfect vacation experiences of every size and style. There are vacation rentals and, luxury accomodation from palaces and 5-star hotels to luxury rentals. There are cabins, cottages, and destination lodges as well as campgrounds and RV parks. You can help hotels expand their accommodation offerings beyond interior rooms or cultivate unique properties and accommodation experiences.

In another branch, you can take your hospitality experience into the corporate world, helping to facilitate corporate housing which fulfills the needs of traveling, temporary, and relocated professionals who are working away from home. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2023 featured nearly 2 million jobs in Accommodation in the US alone.

Each branching accommodation path provides the opportunity to create exquisite stays with the perfect balance of comfort, convenience, and logistics.

Traversing the travel industry

The travel industry often scoops up a percentage of hospitality professionals. 2023 saw over 320 million travel jobs worldwide. Airports and airline hosts rely on hospitality to make air travel more comfortable for their passengers.

Cruise ships make up an enormous global industry and specialize in diverse hospitality experiences from prow to stern. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Carnival, and Norwegian offer the greatest number of cruise ship jobs, but you may have just as much fun with a smaller cruise line that travels coasts that you love.

You can step into the specialized world of chartered travel including chartered planes , boats, helicopters. Or you can join a large travel company providing your hospitality expertise wherever it is needed most. If you love trains, rail travel offers a truly unique opportunity to create on-train hospitality experiences, especially those few great trans-continental train lines still in operation for both tourism and long-distance travel.

Immerse in food & beverage

Our foodie graduates often dive into the experience-rich world of the food and beverage industry. There is simply no end to the food-oriented job opportunities , and these take every possible shape and form.

You could be coordinating banquets for hotel-hosted events or managing a gourmet restaurant anywhere in the world. You can become a caterer or coordinate for a large catering company or you can open your own food establishment somewhere with plenty of demand and tourism to fill your seats.

Food and beverage professionals can join any venue, including theaters, stadiums, event halls, grand hotels, cruise ships, restaurants and restaurant chains - you can even coordinate food for museums, schools, large business facilities, or food truck empires . The possibilities are literally endless, as the food and beverage industry touches every aspect of modern life. 

Become an event planning expert

Events are the spice of life. Weddings, conferences, festivals, fashion shows, concerts, theater productions; the list is endless. The BLS predicts 7.5% employment growth for events planning from 2022 to 2032.

You can choose a venue, a favorite event type, or work for an organization that puts on one spectacular event each year. A skilled events coordinator is someone who makes unforgettable moments and large gatherings into a guaranteed success.

Skills that hospitality graduates learn through education and internship are critical for event planning. Highly organized people who thrive in chaos and love adapting to unexpected challenges will typically do well in the events industry. You will also get a chance to work with celebrities of every possible type, from Ted Talk tech leaders to pop stars and Michelin star chefs.

You will build your name making magical events possible, creating impossibly entertaining environments that are also expertly designed to provide everything event-goers and vendors need to bring the experience together.

Creating tourism experiences

Tourism is the art of putting together full-scope travel experiences. There are many areas of tourism, professional in this field arranges tour packages, plans whole trips, or coordinates or hosts excursions for traveling clients.

As people embrace the idea of travel experiences over more chaotic destination immersion, the tourism sector only continues to grow. According to ILO, over 230 million people work in tourism worldwide. This is more than just being a travel agent or a tour guide. Venues, destinations, and even whole cities hire tourism professionals to coordinate desirable tourism packages that will entice visitors to take specific journeys through the available experiences at each destination.

Tourism jobs include destination management, tour package design, personal travel planning, tour coordination, and a certain amount of special event planning. In fact, the tourism industry becomes complex as coordinated events are further integrated into hospitality and travel packages.

If you enjoy many aspects of the hospitality world, enjoying things like wedding planning, travel planning, museum experiences, foodie tours , and personally ensuring that travelers have a wonderful time; tourism might be the perfect career path.

The world of sports & recreation

There is no denying that sports plays a profound role in the travel and hospitality industry. People will cross the world to see their favorite sports team play in an big game - or to experience legendary golf courses in breathtaking global destinations. Some chase the waves for surf and high-adrenaline water sports, some want to swim over every magnificent coral reef that the world's oceans have to offer.

Sports and recreation is a vast sector of the hospitality industry, and one you could become a master of - connecting travelers with the thrilling experiences they have been dreaming about. A sports and recreation professional will specialize in exciting experiences, and you can operate from either end of the process.

You can become a destination coordinator, finding tourists who want to experience the locations and activities of your organization, or you can approach from the travel direction - directing travelers toward the venues and activities they desire. If you understand that need for thrills, personal challenge, and unforgettable moments, you will be able to bond with your clients and help them truly capture the destination sports and recreation experiences they are looking for.

To learn more about what to expect in a hospitality education, chat today with real EHL students about their experience .

The glamorous entertainment industry

Hospitality has always been a gateway into the world of fame and entertainment . Legendary hotels, resorts, and destination venues are often the location of major shows, hosting concerts, after-parties, and other events that become part of celebrity tours. Other venues are popular locations for charity galas and fundraiser events where the rich and famous gather to do their philanthropic work and rub elbows with those who share a different kind of wealth and power.

The BLS predicts jobs in entertainment and recreation management are growing by 8% , which is well above the occupational average.

If you have always wanted to make these glamorous moments into reality with a chance to meet and endless parade of people whose faces are known across the globe, entertainment hospitality is the path for you.

Luxurious wellness and leisure

Perhaps the fastest-growing sector of the hospitality industry, however, is wellness and leisure . It has seen 40% growth through 2023 and is one of the leading growth sectors in the US alone. "Wellness" has become a concept that you see everywhere. It is something we are all focusing on, and in every aspect of life. Mental wellness, workplace wellness, physical wellness, and luxurious wellness are at the top of everyone's mind. It's no surprise that spas, massage studios, salons, and leisure facilities are rapidly growing in ever aspect of hospitality.

Today, when people travel, they want to experience more wellness and luxuriant relaxation than ever before. Every business trip should include at least one day at the spa . Every family vacation will likely include a girl's day out getting pampered. Even eco-tourists are seeking out secluded hot springs and organic facials. Some seek out yoga, pilates, and fitness classes. Some go on retreats or try a guided meditation course. The possibilities are endless.

This vast and growing sector can be found anywhere people travel or vacation. If you specialize in wellness and leisure, you'll find work in every corner of the industry and the world.

The limitless career options of EHL Hospitality Graduates

At EHL, we proudly prepare our students for an illustrious career in the hospitality industry. Your options are not limited just to the traditional roles surrounding hotels or tourism, however. Hospitality is a truly vast industry that encompasses every aspect of travel, events, and experiences. From the many styles of booked accommodation to unique destinations and leisure experiences all over the world - once you are equipped with the hospitality skills and intern experiences learned through EHL education, your potential career paths become truly limitless.

Let your passion and natural talents guide you toward the best path for you. Do you love organizing chaos and seeing events come together? Go into event and venue coordination. Do you love all things food and gourmet? Find your place in the food and beverage world. If you are enchanted by unique experiences, help others find their bliss in tourism or sports recreation. Or, if bliss is your specialty, guide others to the wellness treatments they need to return home feeling refreshed and energized.

Best of all, hospitality skills allow you to pivot at any moment, trying a new branch of the hospitality industry wherever your desire and job opportunities may take you. It all starts here, at EHL hospitality education.

Keep reading

Navigating challenges of AI and maximizing value in the service sector

Apr 16, 2024

11 essential hospitality skills for career success (& resume tips)

Apr 15, 2024

Unlocking AI in Hospitality SMEs: Q&A with Ian Millar

Apr 11, 2024

Interested in studying hospitality management in Switzerland?

By earning not only one - but two top hospitality degrees, you will enjoy the hotel management education of the future. Learn more and download the brochure here.

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What is the impact of tourism?

Benefits and problems of tourism Tourism can bring both benefits and problems to an area.

Positive effects of tourism include:

• Creates employment opportunities for local people
• Promotes cultural awareness and can help preserve local culture and traditions e.g. Masai Mara in Kenya
• Income from tourists can be used to develop local infrastructure and services e.g. new roads and airports. In LEDCs  money can be spent on developing access to education, clean water and sanitation
• Foreign currency can help local people
• Natural features that attract tourists in the first place can be protected using income from tourism

The negative effects of tourism include:

• Tourism can have a negative environmental impact . This is at a range of scales. The increase in air travel has contributed towards increased carbon dioxide emissions. On a local level natural features that attract tourists are themselves under threat due to human actions
• often local people are employed in low skill, poorly paid work in unsatisfactory working conditions
• travel agents, airline companies and hoteliers benefit more than local companies when holidays are booked to destinations in LEDCs companies based in MEDCs set up luxury hotels in LEDCs. The profits usually return to MEDCs. They also create more competition for locally run guest houses
• destroys local culture and traditions as areas becomes more westernised

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UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

Product Development

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Rural Tourism

Rural tourism has a high potential to stimulate local economic growth and social change because of its complementarity with other economic activities, its contribution to GDP and job creation, and its capacity to promote the dispersal of demand in time (fight seasonality) and along a wider territory.

UN Tourism understands Rural Tourism as "a type of tourism activity in which the visitor’s experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle / culture, angling and sightseeing.

Rural Tourism activities take place in non-urban (rural) areas with the following characteristics: i) low population density, ii) landscape and land-use dominated by agriculture and forestry and iii) traditional social structure and lifestyle".

Best Tourism Villages by UN Tourism

With the vision of making tourism a positive force for transformation, rural development and community wellbeing, UN Tourism launched the ‘ Best Tourism Villages by UN Tourism ’ initiative.

It seeks to advance the role of tourism in valuing and safeguarding rural villages along with their associated landscapes, knowledge systems, biological and cultural diversity, local values and activities (agriculture, forestry, livestock and/or fisheries), including their gastronomy.

Tourism and Rural Development: Understanding Challenges on the Ground – Lessons learned from the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Initiative

  Tourism and Rural Development: A Policy Perspective

Tourism and Rural Development: A Policy Perspective - Results of the UN Tourism Survey on Tourism for Rural Development to Member States

Compilación de buenas prácticas del turismo indígena – Enfoque regional sobre las Américas

UN Tourism Recommendations on Tourism and Rural Development

  UN Tourism Recommendations on Tourism and Rural Development – A Guide to Making Tourism an Effective Tool for Rural Development

AlUla Framework for inclusive Community Development through Tourism

The Framework provides guidance and inspiration to all governments, as well as all other key stakeholders in the tourism sector – including regional and local governments, the private sector, industry associations, civil society, communities and tourists – with the aim of fostering a truly holistic and integrated approach to inclusive community development through tourism.

  AlUla Framework for inclusive Community Development through Tourism

  AlUla Framework for inclusive Community Development through Tourism – Executive Summary

International Rural Tourism Development – An Asia-Pacific Perspective

  International Rural Tourism Development – An Asia-Pacific Perspective

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Adventurers, take note: Whatever you're into, you can get into it in Arizona. The breadth of adventure options available in this Southwestern state makes other parts of the country envious. Check out this list to find your next mission.

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In Arizona, it’s always a good day to go fishing. Thanks to our staggering diversity in species, anglers can pursue their reel passion every season of the year, all while enjoying spectacular settings.

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Article contents

The role of tourism in sustainable development.

• Robert B. Richardson Robert B. Richardson Community Sustainability, Michigan State University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.387
• Published online: 25 March 2021

Sustainable development is the foundational principle for enhancing human and economic development while maintaining the functional integrity of ecological and social systems that support regional economies. Tourism has played a critical role in sustainable development in many countries and regions around the world. In developing countries, tourism development has been used as an important strategy for increasing economic growth, alleviating poverty, creating jobs, and improving food security. Many developing countries are in regions that are characterized by high levels of biological diversity, natural resources, and cultural heritage sites that attract international tourists whose local purchases generate income and support employment and economic development. Tourism has been associated with the principles of sustainable development because of its potential to support environmental protection and livelihoods. However, the relationship between tourism and the environment is multifaceted, as some types of tourism have been associated with negative environmental impacts, many of which are borne by host communities.

The concept of sustainable tourism development emerged in contrast to mass tourism, which involves the participation of large numbers of people, often in structured or packaged tours. Mass tourism has been associated with economic leakage and dependence, along with negative environmental and social impacts. Sustainable tourism development has been promoted in various ways as a framing concept in contrast to these economic, environmental, and social impacts. Some literature has acknowledged a vagueness of the concept of sustainable tourism, which has been used to advocate for fundamentally different strategies for tourism development that may exacerbate existing conflicts between conservation and development paradigms. Tourism has played an important role in sustainable development in some countries through the development of alternative tourism models, including ecotourism, community-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, slow tourism, green tourism, and heritage tourism, among others that aim to enhance livelihoods, increase local economic growth, and provide for environmental protection. Although these models have been given significant attention among researchers, the extent of their implementation in tourism planning initiatives has been limited, superficial, or incomplete in many contexts.

The sustainability of tourism as a global system is disputed among scholars. Tourism is dependent on travel, and nearly all forms of transportation require the use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels for energy. The burning of fossil fuels for transportation generates emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change, which is fundamentally unsustainable. Tourism is also vulnerable to both localized and global shocks. Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to localized shocks include the impacts of natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and civil unrest. Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to global shocks include the impacts of climate change, economic crisis, global public health pandemics, oil price shocks, and acts of terrorism. It is clear that tourism has contributed significantly to economic development globally, but its role in sustainable development is uncertain, debatable, and potentially contradictory.

• conservation
• economic development
• environmental impacts
• sustainable development
• sustainable tourism
• tourism development

Introduction

Sustainable development is the guiding principle for advancing human and economic development while maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and social systems on which the economy depends. It is also the foundation of the leading global framework for international cooperation—the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015 ). The concept of sustainable development is often associated with the publication of Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED], 1987 , p. 29), which defined it as “paths of human progress that meet the needs and aspirations of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” Concerns about the environmental implications of economic development in lower income countries had been central to debates about development studies since the 1970s (Adams, 2009 ). The principles of sustainable development have come to dominate the development discourse, and the concept has become the primary development paradigm since the 1990s.

Tourism has played an increasingly important role in sustainable development since the 1990s, both globally and in particular countries and regions. For decades, tourism has been promoted as a low-impact, non-extractive option for economic development, particularly for developing countries (Gössling, 2000 ). Many developing countries have managed to increase their participation in the global economy through development of international tourism. Tourism development is increasingly viewed as an important tool in increasing economic growth, alleviating poverty, and improving food security. Tourism enables communities that are poor in material wealth, but rich in history and cultural heritage, to leverage their unique assets for economic development (Honey & Gilpin, 2009 ). More importantly, tourism offers an alternative to large-scale development projects, such as construction of dams, and to extractive industries such as mining and forestry, all of which contribute to emissions of pollutants and threaten biodiversity and the cultural values of Indigenous Peoples.

Environmental quality in destination areas is inextricably linked with tourism, as visiting natural areas and sightseeing are often the primary purpose of many leisure travels. Some forms of tourism, such as ecotourism, can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and the protection of ecosystem functions in destination areas (Fennell, 2020 ; Gössling, 1999 ). Butler ( 1991 ) suggests that there is a kind of mutual dependence between tourism and the environment that should generate mutual benefits. Many developing countries are in regions that are characterized by high levels of species diversity, natural resources, and protected areas. Such ideas imply that tourism may be well aligned with the tenets of sustainable development.

However, the relationship between tourism and the environment is complex, as some forms of tourism have been associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, land use, and food consumption (Butler, 1991 ; Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ; Hunter & Green, 1995 ; Vitousek et al., 1997 ). Assessments of the sustainability of tourism have highlighted several themes, including (a) parks, biodiversity, and conservation; (b) pollution and climate change; (c) prosperity, economic growth, and poverty alleviation; (d) peace, security, and safety; and (e) population stabilization and reduction (Buckley, 2012 ). From a global perspective, tourism contributes to (a) changes in land cover and land use; (b) energy use, (c) biotic exchange and extinction of wild species; (d) exchange and dispersion of diseases; and (e) changes in the perception and understanding of the environment (Gössling, 2002 ).

Research on tourism and the environment spans a wide range of social and natural science disciplines, and key contributions have been disseminated across many interdisciplinary fields, including biodiversity conservation, climate science, economics, and environmental science, among others (Buckley, 2011 ; Butler, 1991 ; Gössling, 2002 ; Lenzen et al., 2018 ). Given the global significance of the tourism sector and its environmental impacts, the role of tourism in sustainable development is an important topic of research in environmental science generally and in environmental economics and management specifically. Reviews of tourism research have highlighted future research priorities for sustainable development, including the role of tourism in the designation and expansion of protected areas; improvement in environmental accounting techniques that quantify environmental impacts; and the effects of individual perceptions of responsibility in addressing climate change (Buckley, 2012 ).

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries, and it has linkages with many of the prime sectors of the global economy (Fennell, 2020 ). As a global economic sector, tourism represents one of the largest generators of wealth, and it is an important agent of economic growth and development (Garau-Vadell et al., 2018 ). Tourism is a critical industry in many local and national economies, and it represents a large and growing share of world trade (Hunter, 1995 ). Global tourism has had an average annual increase of 6.6% over the past half century, with international tourist arrivals rising sharply from 25.2 million in 1950 to more than 950 million in 2010 . In 2019 , the number of international tourists reached 1.5 billion, up 4% from 2018 (Fennell, 2020 ; United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], 2020 ). European countries are host to more than half of international tourists, but since 1990 , growth in international arrivals has risen faster than the global average, in both the Middle East and the Asia and Pacific region (UNWTO, 2020 ).

The growth in global tourism has been accompanied by an expansion of travel markets and a diversification of tourism destinations. In 1950 , the top five travel destinations were all countries in Europe and the Americas, and these destinations held 71% of the global travel market (Fennell, 2020 ). By 2002 , these countries represented only 35%, which underscores the emergence of newly accessible travel destinations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Rim, including numerous developing countries. Over the past 70 years, global tourism has grown significantly as an economic sector, and it has contributed to the economic development of dozens of nations.

Given the growth of international tourism and its emergence as one of the world’s largest export sectors, the question of its impact on economic growth for the host countries has been a topic of great interest in the tourism literature. Two hypotheses have emerged regarding the role of tourism in the economic growth process (Apergis & Payne, 2012 ). First, tourism-led growth hypothesis relies on the assumption that tourism is an engine of growth that generates spillovers and positive externalities through economic linkages that will impact the overall economy. Second, the economic-driven tourism growth hypothesis emphasizes policies oriented toward well-defined and enforceable property rights, stable political institutions, and adequate investment in both physical and human capital to facilitate the development of the tourism sector. Studies have concluded with support for both the tourism-led growth hypothesis (e.g., Durbarry, 2004 ; Katircioglu, 2010 ) and the economic-led growth hypothesis (e.g., Katircioglu, 2009 ; Oh, 2005 ), whereas other studies have found support for a bidirectional causality for tourism and economic growth (e.g., Apergis & Payne, 2012 ; Lee & Chang, 2008 ).

The growth of tourism has been marked by an increase in the competition for tourist expenditures, making it difficult for destinations to maintain their share of the international tourism market (Butler, 1991 ). Tourism development is cyclical and subject to short-term cycles and overconsumption of resources. Butler ( 1980 ) developed a tourist-area cycle of evolution that depicts the number of tourists rising sharply over time through periods of exploration, involvement, and development, before eventual consolidation and stagnation. When tourism growth exceeds the carrying capacity of the area, resource degradation can lead to the decline of tourism unless specific steps are taken to promote rejuvenation (Butler, 1980 , 1991 ).

The potential of tourism development as a tool to contribute to environmental conservation, economic growth, and poverty reduction is derived from several unique characteristics of the tourism system (UNWTO, 2002 ). First, tourism represents an opportunity for economic diversification, particularly in marginal areas with few other export options. Tourists are attracted to remote areas with high values of cultural, wildlife, and landscape assets. The cultural and natural heritage of developing countries is frequently based on such assets, and tourism represents an opportunity for income generation through the preservation of heritage values. Tourism is the only export sector where the consumer travels to the exporting country, which provides opportunities for lower-income households to become exporters through the sale of goods and services to foreign tourists. Tourism is also labor intensive; it provides small-scale employment opportunities, which also helps to promote gender equity. Finally, there are numerous indirect benefits of tourism for people living in poverty, including increased market access for remote areas through the development of roads, infrastructure, and communication networks. Nevertheless, travel is highly income elastic and carbon intensive, which has significant implications for the sustainability of the tourism sector (Lenzen et al., 2018 ).

Concerns about environmental issues appeared in tourism research just as global awareness of the environmental impacts of human activities was expanding. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972 , the same year as the publication of The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972 ), which highlighted the concerns about the implications of exponential economic and population growth in a world of finite resources. This was the same year that the famous Blue Marble photograph of Earth was taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft (Höhler, 2015 , p. 10), and the image captured the planet cloaked in the darkness of space and became a symbol of Earth’s fragility and vulnerability. As noted by Buckley ( 2012 ), tourism researchers turned their attention to social and environmental issues around the same time (Cohen, 1978 ; Farrell & McLellan, 1987 ; Turner & Ash, 1975 ; Young, 1973 ).

The notion of sustainable development is often associated with the publication of Our Common Future , the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission (WCED, 1987 ). The report characterized sustainable development in terms of meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987 , p. 43). Four basic principles are fundamental to the concept of sustainability: (a) the idea of holistic planning and strategy making; (b) the importance of preserving essential ecological processes; (c) the need to protect both human heritage and biodiversity; and (d) the need to develop in such a way that productivity can be sustained over the long term for future generations (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ). In addition to achieving balance between economic growth and the conservation of natural resources, there should be a balance of fairness and opportunity between the nations of the world.

Although the modern concept of sustainable development emerged with the publication of Our Common Future , sustainable development has its roots in ideas about sustainable forest management that were developed in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries (Blewitt, 2015 ; Grober, 2007 ). Sustainable forest management is concerned with the stewardship and use of forests in a way that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity as well as their potential to fulfill society’s demands for forest products and benefits. Building on these ideas, Daly ( 1990 ) offered two operational principles of sustainable development. First, sustainable development implies that harvest rates should be no greater than rates of regeneration; this concept is known as maximum sustainable yield. Second, waste emission rates should not exceed the natural assimilative capacities of the ecosystems into which the wastes are emitted. Regenerative and assimilative capacities are characterized as natural capital, and a failure to maintain these capacities is not sustainable.

Shortly after the emergence of the concept of sustainable development in academic and policy discourse, tourism researchers began referring to the notion of sustainable tourism (May, 1991 ; Nash & Butler, 1990 ), which soon became the dominant paradigm of tourism development. The concept of sustainable tourism, as with the role of tourism in sustainable development, has been interpreted in different ways, and there is a lack of consensus concerning its meaning, objectives, and indicators (Sharpley, 2000 ). Growing interest in the subject inspired the creation of a new academic journal, Journal of Sustainable Tourism , which was launched in 1993 and has become a leading tourism journal. It is described as “an international journal that publishes research on tourism and sustainable development, including economic, social, cultural and political aspects.”

The notion of sustainable tourism development emerged in contrast to mass tourism, which is characterized by the participation of large numbers of people, often provided as structured or packaged tours. Mass tourism has risen sharply in the last half century. International arrivals alone have increased by an average annual rate of more than 25% since 1950 , and many of those trips involved mass tourism activities (Fennell, 2020 ; UNWTO, 2020 ). Some examples of mass tourism include beach resorts, cruise ship tourism, gaming casinos, golf resorts, group tours, ski resorts, theme parks, and wildlife safari tourism, among others. Little data exist regarding the volume of domestic mass tourism, but nevertheless mass tourism activities dominate the global tourism sector. Mass tourism has been shown to generate benefits to host countries, such as income and employment generation, although it has also been associated with economic leakage (where revenue generated by tourism is lost to other countries’ economies) and economic dependency (where developing countries are dependent on wealthier countries for tourists, imports, and foreign investment) (Cater, 1993 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Khan, 1997 ; Peeters, 2012 ). Mass tourism has been associated with numerous negative environmental impacts and social impacts (Cater, 1993 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Fennell, 2020 ; Ghimire, 2013 ; Gursoy et al., 2010 ; Liu, 2003 ; Peeters, 2012 ; Wheeller, 2007 ). Sustainable tourism development has been promoted in various ways as a framing concept in contrast to many of these economic, environmental, and social impacts.

Much of the early research on sustainable tourism focused on defining the concept, which has been the subject of vigorous debate (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ; Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Inskeep, 1991 ; Liu, 2003 ; Sharpley, 2000 ). Early definitions of sustainable tourism development seemed to fall in one of two categories (Sharpley, 2000 ). First, the “tourism-centric” paradigm of sustainable tourism development focuses on sustaining tourism as an economic activity (Hunter, 1995 ). Second, alternative paradigms have situated sustainable tourism in the context of wider sustainable development policies (Butler, 1991 ). One of the most comprehensive definitions of sustainable tourism echoes some of the language of the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainable development (WCED, 1987 ), emphasizing opportunities for the future while also integrating social and environmental concerns:

Sustainable tourism can be thought of as meeting the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. Sustainable tourism development is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that we can fulfill economic, social and aesthetic needs while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. (Inskeep, 1991 , p. 461)

Hunter argued that over the short and long terms, sustainable tourism development should

“meet the needs and wants of the local host community in terms of improved living standards and quality of life;

satisfy the demands of tourists and the tourism industry, and continue to attract them in order to meet the first aim; and

safeguard the environmental resource base for tourism, encompassing natural, built and cultural components, in order to achieve both of the preceding aims.” (Hunter, 1995 , p. 156)

Numerous other definitions have been documented, and the term itself has been subject to widespread critique (Buckley, 2012 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Liu, 2003 ). Nevertheless, there have been numerous calls to move beyond debate about a definition and to consider how it may best be implemented in practice (Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Liu, 2003 ). Cater ( 1993 ) identified three key criteria for sustainable tourism: (a) meeting the needs of the host population in terms of improved living standards both in the short and long terms; (b) satisfying the demands of a growing number of tourists; and (c) safeguarding the natural environment in order to achieve both of the preceding aims.

Some literature has acknowledged a vagueness of the concept of sustainable tourism, which has been used to advocate for fundamentally different strategies for tourism development that may exacerbate existing conflicts between conservation and development paradigms (Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Liu, 2003 ; McKercher, 1993b ). Similar criticisms have been leveled at the concept of sustainable development, which has been described as an oxymoron with a wide range of meanings (Adams, 2009 ; Daly, 1990 ) and “defined in such a way as to be either morally repugnant or logically redundant” (Beckerman, 1994 , p. 192). Sharpley ( 2000 ) suggests that in the tourism literature, there has been “a consistent and fundamental failure to build a theoretical link between sustainable tourism and its parental paradigm,” sustainable development (p. 2). Hunter ( 1995 ) suggests that practical measures designed to operationalize sustainable tourism fail to address many of the critical issues that are central to the concept of sustainable development generally and may even actually counteract the fundamental requirements of sustainable development. He suggests that mainstream sustainable tourism development is concerned with protecting the immediate resource base that will sustain tourism development while ignoring concerns for the status of the wider tourism resource base, such as potential problems associated with air pollution, congestion, introduction of invasive species, and declining oil reserves. The dominant paradigm of sustainable tourism development has been described as introverted, tourism-centric, and in competition with other sectors for scarce resources (McKercher, 1993a ). Hunter ( 1995 , p. 156) proposes an alternative, “extraparochial” paradigm where sustainable tourism development is reconceptualized in terms of its contribution to overall sustainable development. Such a paradigm would reconsider the scope, scale, and sectoral context of tourism-related resource utilization issues.

“Sustainability,” “sustainable tourism,” and “sustainable development” are all well-established terms that have often been used loosely and interchangeably in the tourism literature (Liu, 2003 ). Nevertheless, the subject of sustainable tourism has been given considerable attention and has been the focus of numerous academic compilations and textbooks (Coccossis & Nijkamp, 1995 ; Hall & Lew, 1998 ; Stabler, 1997 ; Swarbrooke, 1999 ), and it calls for new approaches to sustainable tourism development (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ; Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Sharpley, 2000 ). The notion of sustainable tourism has been reconceptualized in the literature by several authors who provided alternative frameworks for tourism development (Buckley, 2012 ; Gössling, 2002 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Liu, 2003 ; McKercher, 1993b ; Sharpley, 2000 ).

Early research in sustainable tourism focused on the local environmental impacts of tourism, including energy use, water use, food consumption, and change in land use (Buckley, 2012 ; Butler, 1991 ; Gössling, 2002 ; Hunter & Green, 1995 ). Subsequent research has emphasized the global environmental impacts of tourism, such as greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity losses (Gössling, 2002 ; Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ; Lenzen et al., 2018 ). Additional research has emphasized the impacts of environmental change on tourism itself, including the impacts of climate change on tourist behavior (Gössling et al., 2012 ; Richardson & Loomis, 2004 ; Scott et al., 2012 ; Viner, 2006 ). Countries that are dependent on tourism for economic growth may be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Richardson & Witkoswki, 2010 ).

The early focus on environmental issues in sustainable tourism has been broadened to include economic, social, and cultural issues as well as questions of power and equity in society (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ; Sharpley, 2014 ), and some of these frameworks have integrated notions of social equity, prosperity, and cultural heritage values. Sustainable tourism is dependent on critical long-term considerations of the impacts; notions of equity; an appreciation of the importance of linkages (i.e., economic, social, and environmental); and the facilitation of cooperation and collaboration between different stakeholders (Elliott & Neirotti, 2008 ).

McKercher ( 1993b ) notes that tourism resources are typically part of the public domain or are intrinsically linked to the social fabric of the host community. As a result, many commonplace tourist activities such as sightseeing may be perceived as invasive by members of the host community. Many social impacts of tourism can be linked to the overuse of the resource base, increases in traffic congestion, rising land prices, urban sprawl, and changes in the social structure of host communities. Given the importance of tourist–resident interaction, sustainable tourism development depends in part on the support of the host community (Garau-Vadell et al., 2018 ).

Tourism planning involves the dual objectives of optimizing the well-being of local residents in host communities and minimizing the costs of tourism development (Sharpley, 2014 ). Tourism researchers have paid significant attention to examining the social impacts of tourism in general and to understanding host communities’ perceptions of tourism in particular. Studies of the social impacts of tourism development have examined the perceptions of local residents and the effects of tourism on social cohesion, traditional lifestyles, and the erosion of cultural heritage, particularly among Indigenous Peoples (Butler & Hinch, 2007 ; Deery et al., 2012 ; Mathieson & Wall, 1982 ; Sharpley, 2014 ; Whitford & Ruhanen, 2016 ).

Alternative Tourism and Sustainable Development

A wide body of published research is related to the role of tourism in sustainable development, and much of the literature involves case studies of particular types of tourism. Many such studies contrast types of alternative tourism with those of mass tourism, which has received sustained criticism for decades and is widely considered to be unsustainable (Cater, 1993 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Fennell, 2020 ; Gursoy et al., 2010 ; Liu, 2003 ; Peeters, 2012 ; Zapata et al., 2011 ). Still, some tourism researchers have taken issue with the conclusion that mass tourism is inherently unsustainable (Sharpley, 2000 ; Weaver, 2007 ), and some have argued for developing pathways to “sustainable mass tourism” as “the desired and impending outcome for most destinations” (Weaver, 2012 , p. 1030). In integrating an ethical component to mass tourism development, Weaver ( 2014 , p. 131) suggests that the desirable outcome is “enlightened mass tourism.” Such suggestions have been contested in the literature and criticized for dubious assumptions about emergent norms of sustainability and support for growth, which are widely seen as contradictory (Peeters, 2012 ; Wheeller, 2007 ).

Models of responsible or alternative tourism development include ecotourism, community-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, slow tourism, green tourism, and heritage tourism, among others. Most models of alternative tourism development emphasize themes that aim to counteract the perceived negative impacts of conventional or mass tourism. As such, the objectives of these models of tourism development tend to focus on minimizing environmental impacts, supporting biodiversity conservation, empowering local communities, alleviating poverty, and engendering pleasant relationships between tourists and residents.

Approaches to alternative tourism development tend to overlap with themes of responsible tourism, and the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. Responsible tourism has been characterized in terms of numerous elements, including

ensuring that communities are involved in and benefit from tourism;

respecting local, natural, and cultural environments;

involving the local community in planning and decision-making;

using local resources sustainably;

behaving in ways that are sensitive to the host culture;

maintaining and encouraging natural, economic, and cultural diversity; and

assessing environmental, social, and economic impacts as a prerequisite to tourism development (Spenceley, 2012 ).

Hetzer ( 1965 ) identified four fundamental principles or perquisites for a more responsible form of tourism: (a) minimum environmental impact; (b) minimum impact on and maximum respect for host cultures; (c) maximum economic benefits to the host country; and (d) maximum leisure satisfaction to participating tourists.

The history of ecotourism is closely connected with the emergence of sustainable development, as it was born out of a concern for the conservation of biodiversity. Ecotourism is a form of tourism that aims to minimize local environmental impacts while bringing benefits to protected areas and the people living around those lands (Honey, 2008 ). Ecotourism represents a small segment of nature-based tourism, which is understood as tourism based on the natural attractions of an area, such as scenic areas and wildlife (Gössling, 1999 ). The ecotourism movement gained momentum in the 1990s, primarily in developing countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and nearly all countries are now engaged in some form of ecotourism. In some communities, ecotourism is the primary economic activity and source of income and economic development.

The term “ecotourism” was coined by Hector Ceballos-Lascuráin and defined by him as “tourism that consists in travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals” (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1987 , p. 13). In discussing ecotourism resources, he also made reference to “any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas” (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1987 , p. 14). The basic precepts of ecotourism had been discussed long before the actual use of the term. Twenty years earlier, Hetzer ( 1965 ) referred to a form of tourism “based principally upon natural and archaeological resources such as caves, fossil sites (and) archaeological sites.” Thus, both natural resources and cultural resources were integrated into ecotourism frameworks from the earliest manifestations.

Costa Rica is well known for having successfully integrated ecotourism in its overall strategy for sustainable development, and numerous case studies of ecotourism in Costa Rica appear in the literature (Chase et al., 1998 ; Fennell & Eagles, 1990 ; Gray & Campbell, 2007 ; Hearne & Salinas, 2002 ). Ecotourism in Costa Rica has been seen as having supported the economic development of the country while promoting biodiversity conservation in its extensive network of protected areas. Chase et al. ( 1998 ) estimated the demand for ecotourism in a study of differential pricing of entrance fees at national parks in Costa Rica. The authors estimated elasticities associated with the own-price, cross-price, and income variables and found that the elasticities of demand were significantly different between three different national park sites. The results reveal the heterogeneity characterizing tourist behavior and park attractions and amenities. Hearne and Salinas ( 2002 ) used choice experiments to examine the preferences of domestic and foreign tourists in Costa Rica in an ecotourism site. Both sets of tourists demonstrated a preference for improved infrastructure, more information, and lower entrance fees. Foreign tourists demonstrated relatively stronger preferences for the inclusion of restrictions in the access to some trails.

Ecotourism has also been studied extensively in Kenya (Southgate, 2006 ), Malaysia (Lian Chan & Baum, 2007 ), Nepal (Baral et al., 2008 ), Peru (Stronza, 2007 ), and Taiwan (Lai & Nepal, 2006 ), among many other countries. Numerous case studies have demonstrated the potential for ecotourism to contribute to sustainable development by providing support for biodiversity conservation, local livelihoods, and regional development.

Community-Based Tourism

Community-based tourism (CBT) is a model of tourism development that emphasizes the development of local communities and allows for local residents to have substantial control over its development and management, and a major proportion of the benefits remain within the community. CBT emerged during the 1970s as a response to the negative impacts of the international mass tourism development model (Cater, 1993 ; Hall & Lew, 2009 ; Turner & Ash, 1975 ; Zapata et al., 2011 ).

Community-based tourism has been examined for its potential to contribute to poverty reduction. In a study of the viability of the CBT model to support socioeconomic development and poverty alleviation in Nicaragua, tourism was perceived by participants in the study to have an impact on employment creation in their communities (Zapata et al., 2011 ). Tourism was seen to have had positive impacts on strengthening local knowledge and skills, particularly on the integration of women to new roles in the labor market. One of the main perceived gains regarding the environment was the process of raising awareness regarding the conservation of natural resources. The small scale of CBT operations and low capacity to accommodate visitors was seen as a limitation of the model.

Spenceley ( 2012 ) compiled case studies of community-based tourism in countries in southern Africa, including Botswana, Madagascar, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In this volume, authors characterize community-based and nature-based tourism development projects in the region and demonstrate how community participation in planning and decision-making has generated benefits for local residents and supported conservation initiatives. They contend that responsible tourism practices are of particular importance in the region because of the rich biological diversity, abundant charismatic wildlife, and the critical need for local economic development and livelihood strategies.

In Kenya, CBT enterprises were not perceived to have made a significant impact on poverty reduction at an individual household level, in part because the model relied heavily on donor funding, reinforcing dependency and poverty (Manyara & Jones, 2007 ). The study identified several critical success factors for CBT enterprises, namely, awareness and sensitization, community empowerment, effective leadership, and community capacity building, which can inform appropriate tourism policy formulation in Kenya. The impacts of CBT on economic development and poverty reduction would be greatly enhanced if tourism initiatives were able to emphasize independence, address local community priorities, enhance community empowerment and transparency, discourage elitism, promote effective community leadership, and develop community capacity to operate their own enterprises more efficiently.

Pro-Poor Tourism

Pro-poor tourism is a model of tourism development that brings net benefits to people living in poverty (Ashley et al., 2001 ; Harrison, 2008 ). Although its theoretical foundations and development objectives overlap to some degree with those of community-based tourism and other models of AT, the key distinctive feature of pro-poor tourism is that it places poor people and poverty at the top of the agenda. By focusing on a very simple and incontrovertibly moral idea, namely, the net benefits of tourism to impoverished people, the concept has broad appeal to donors and international aid agencies. Harnessing the economic benefits of tourism for pro-poor growth means capitalizing on the advantages while reducing negative impacts to people living in poverty (Ashley et al., 2001 ). Pro-poor approaches to tourism development include increasing access of impoverished people to economic benefits; addressing negative social and environmental impacts associated with tourism; and focusing on policies, processes, and partnerships that seek to remove barriers to participation by people living in poverty. At the local level, pro-poor tourism can play a very significant role in livelihood security and poverty reduction (Ashley & Roe, 2002 ).

Rogerson ( 2011 ) argues that the growth of pro-poor tourism initiatives in South Africa suggests that the country has become a laboratory for the testing and evolution of new approaches toward sustainable development planning that potentially will have relevance for other countries in the developing world. A study of pro-poor tourism development initiatives in Laos identified a number of favorable conditions for pro-poor tourism development, including the fact that local people are open to tourism and motivated to participate (Suntikul et al., 2009 ). The authors also noted a lack of development in the linkages that could optimize the fulfilment of the pro-poor agenda, such as training or facilitation of local people’s participation in pro-poor tourism development at the grassroots level.

Critics of the model have argued that pro-poor tourism is based on an acceptance of the status quo of existing capitalism, that it is morally indiscriminate and theoretically imprecise, and that its practitioners are academically and commercially marginal (Harrison, 2008 ). As Chok et al. ( 2007 ) indicate, the focus “on poor people in the South reflects a strong anthropocentric view . . . and . . . environmental benefits are secondary to poor peoples’” benefits (p. 153).

Harrison ( 2008 ) argues that pro-poor tourism is not a distinctive approach to tourism as a development tool and that it may be easier to discuss what pro-poor tourism is not than what it is. He concludes that it is neither anticapitalist nor inconsistent with mainstream tourism on which it relies; it is neither a theory nor a model and is not a niche form of tourism. Further, he argues that it has no distinctive method and is not only about people living in poverty.

Slow Tourism

The concept of slow tourism has emerged as a model of sustainable tourism development, and as such, it lacks an exact definition. The concept of slow tourism traces its origin back to some institutionalized social movements such as “slow food” and “slow cities” that began in Italy in the 1990s and spread rapidly around the world (Fullagar et al., 2012 ; Oh et al., 2016 , p. 205). Advocates of slow tourism tend to emphasize slowness in terms of speed, mobility, and modes of transportation that generate less environmental pollution. They propose niche marketing for alternative forms of tourism that focus on quality upgrading rather than merely increasing the quantity of visitors via the established mass-tourism infrastructure (Conway & Timms, 2010 ).

In the context of the Caribbean region, slow tourism has been promoted as more culturally sensitive and authentic, as compared to the dominant mass tourism development model that is based on all-inclusive beach resorts dependent on foreign investment (Conway & Timms, 2010 ). Recognizing its value as an alternative marketing strategy, Conway and Timms ( 2010 ) make the case for rebranding alternative tourism in the Caribbean as a means of revitalizing the sector for the changing demands of tourists in the 21st century . They suggest that slow tourism is the antithesis of mass tourism, which “relies on increasing the quantity of tourists who move through the system with little regard to either the quality of the tourists’ experience or the benefits that accrue to the localities the tourist visits” (Conway & Timms, 2010 , p. 332). The authors draw on cases from Barbados, the Grenadines, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago to characterize models of slow tourism development in remote fishing villages and communities near nature preserves and sea turtle nesting sites.

Although there is a growing interest in the concept of slow tourism in the literature, there seems to be little agreement about the exact nature of slow tourism and whether it is a niche form of special interest tourism or whether it represents a more fundamental potential shift across the industry. Conway and Timms ( 2010 ) focus on the destination, advocating for slow tourism in terms of a promotional identity for an industry in need of rebranding. Caffyn ( 2012 , p. 77) discusses the implementation of slow tourism in terms of “encouraging visitors to make slower choices when planning and enjoying their holidays.” It is not clear whether slow tourism is a marketing strategy, a mindset, or a social movement, but the literature on slow tourism nearly always equates the term with sustainable tourism (Caffyn, 2012 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Oh et al., 2016 ). Caffyn ( 2012 , p. 80) suggests that slow tourism could offer a “win–win,” which she describes as “a more sustainable form of tourism; keeping more of the economic benefits within the local community and destination; and delivering a more meaningful and satisfying experience.” Research on slow tourism is nascent, and thus the contribution of slow tourism to sustainable development is not well understood.

Impacts of Tourism Development

The role of tourism in sustainable development can be examined through an understanding of the economic, environmental, and social impacts of tourism. Tourism is a global phenomenon that involves travel, recreation, the consumption of food, overnight accommodations, entertainment, sightseeing, and other activities that simultaneously intersect the lives of local residents, businesses, and communities. The impacts of tourism involve benefits and costs to all groups, and some of these impacts cannot easily be measured. Nevertheless, they have been studied extensively in the literature, which provides some context for how these benefits and costs are distributed.

Economic Impacts of Tourism

The travel and tourism sector is one of the largest components of the global economy, and global tourism has increased exponentially since the end of the Second World War (UNWTO, 2020 ). The direct, indirect, and induced economic impact of global travel accounted for 8.9 trillion U.S. dollars in contribution to the global gross domestic product (GDP), or 10.3% of global GDP. The global travel and tourism sector supports approximately 330 million jobs, or 1 in 10 jobs around the world. From an economic perspective, tourism plays a significant role in sustainable development. In many developing countries, tourism has the potential to play a unique role in income generation and distribution relative to many other industries, in part because of its high multiplier effect and consumption of local goods and services. However, research on the economic impacts of tourism has shown that this potential has rarely been fully realized (Liu, 2003 ).

Numerous studies have examined the impact of tourism expenditure on GDP, income, employment, and public sector revenue. Narayan ( 2004 ) used a computable general equilibrium model to estimate the economic impact of tourism growth on the economy of Fiji. Tourism is Fiji’s largest industry, with average annual growth of 10–12%; and as a middle-income country, tourism is critical to Fiji’s economic development. The findings indicate that an increase in tourism expenditures was associated with an increase in GDP, an improvement in the country’s balance of payments, and an increase in real consumption and national welfare. Evidence suggests that the benefits of tourism expansion outweigh any export effects caused by an appreciation of the exchange rate and an increase in domestic prices and wages.

Seetanah ( 2011 ) examined the potential contribution of tourism to economic growth and development using panel data of 19 island economies around the world from 1990 to 2007 and revealed that tourism development is an important factor in explaining economic performance in the selected island economies. The results have policy implications for improving economic growth by harnessing the contribution of the tourism sector. Pratt ( 2015 ) modeled the economic impact of tourism for seven small island developing states in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. In most states, the transportation sector was found to have above-average linkages to other sectors of the economy. The results revealed some advantages of economies of scale for maximizing the economic contribution of tourism.

Apergis and Payne ( 2012 ) examined the causal relationship between tourism and economic growth for a panel of nine Caribbean countries. The panel of Caribbean countries includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The authors use a panel error correction model to reveal bidirectional causality between tourism and economic growth in both the short run and the long run. The presence of bidirectional causality reiterates the importance of the tourism sector in the generation of foreign exchange income and in financing the production of goods and services within these countries. Likewise, stable political institutions and adequate government policies to ensure the appropriate investment in physical and human capital will enhance economic growth. In turn, stable economic growth will provide the resources needed to develop the tourism infrastructure for the success of the countries’ tourism sector. Thus, policy makers should be cognizant of the interdependent relationship between tourism and economic growth in the design and implementation of economic policy. The mixed nature of these results suggest that the relationship between tourism and economic growth depends largely on the social and economic context as well as the role of tourism in the economy.

The economic benefits and costs of tourism are frequently distributed unevenly. An analysis of the impact of wildlife conservation policies in Zambia on household welfare found that households located near national parks earn higher levels of income from wage employment and self-employment than other rural households in the country, but they were also more likely to suffer crop losses related to wildlife conflicts (Richardson et al., 2012 ). The findings suggest that tourism development and wildlife conservation can contribute to pro-poor development, but they may be sustainable only if human–wildlife conflicts are minimized or compensated.

Environmental Impacts of Tourism

The environmental impacts of tourism are significant, ranging from local effects to contributions to global environmental change (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). Tourism is both dependent on water resources and a factor in global and local freshwater use. Tourists consume water for drinking, when showering and using the toilet, when participating in activities such as winter ski tourism (i.e., snowmaking), and when using swimming pools and spas. Fresh water is also needed to maintain hotel gardens and golf courses, and water use is embedded in tourism infrastructure development (e.g., accommodations, laundry, dining) and in food and fuel production. Direct water consumption in tourism is estimated to be approximately 350 liters (L) per guest night for accommodation; when indirect water use from food, energy, and transport are considered, total water use in tourism is estimated to be approximately 6,575 L per guest night, or 27,800 L per person per trip (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). In addition, tourism contributes to the pollution of oceans as well as lakes, rivers, and other freshwater systems (Gössling, 2002 ; Gössling et al., 2011 ).

The clearing and conversion of land is central for tourism development, and in many cases, the land used for tourism includes roads, airports, railways, accommodations, trails, pedestrian walks, shopping areas, parking areas, campgrounds, vacation homes, golf courses, marinas, ski resorts, and indirect land use for food production, disposal of solid wastes, and the treatment of wastewater (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). Global land use for accommodation is estimated to be approximately 42 m 2 per bed. Total global land use for tourism is estimated to be nearly 62,000 km 2 , or 11.7 m 2 per tourist; more than half of this estimate is represented by land use for traffic infrastructure.

Tourism and hospitality have direct and indirect links to nearly all aspects of food production, preparation, and consumption because of the quantities of food consumed in tourism contexts (Gössling et al., 2011 ). Food production has significant implications for sustainable development, given the growing global demand for food. The implications include land conversion, losses to biodiversity, changes in nutrient cycling, and contributions to greenhouse emissions that are associated with global climate change (Vitousek et al., 1997 ). Global food use for tourism is estimated to be approximately 39.4 megatons 1 (Mt), about 38% than the amount of food consumed at home. This equates to approximately 1,800 grams (g) of food consumed per tourist per day.

Although tourism has been promoted as a low-impact, nonextractive option for economic development, (Gössling, 2000 ), assessments reveal that such pursuits have a significant carbon footprint, as tourism is significantly more carbon intensive than other potential areas of economic development (Lenzen et al., 2018 ). Tourism is dependent on energy, and virtually all energy use in the tourism sector is derived from fossil fuels, which contribute to global greenhouse emissions that are associated with global climate change. Energy use for tourism has been estimated to be approximately 3,575 megajoules 2 (MJ) per trip, including energy for travel and accommodations (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). A previous estimate of global carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from tourism provided values of 1.12 gigatons 3 (Gt) of CO 2 , amounting to about 3% of global CO 2 -equivalent (CO 2 e) emissions (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). However, these analyses do not cover the supply chains underpinning tourism and do not therefore represent true carbon footprints. A more complete analysis of the emissions from energy consumption necessary to sustain the tourism sector would include food and beverages, infrastructure construction and maintenance, retail, and financial services. Between 2009 and 2013 , tourism’s global carbon footprint is estimated to have increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCO 2 e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Lenzen et al., 2018 ). The majority of this footprint is exerted by and within high-income countries. The rising global demand for tourism is outstripping efforts at decarbonization of tourism operations and as a result is accelerating global carbon emissions.

Social Impacts of Tourism

The social impacts of tourism have been widely studied, with an emphasis on residents’ perceptions in the host community (Sharpley, 2014 ). Case studies include research conducted in Australia (Faulkner & Tideswell, 1997 ; Gursoy et al., 2010 ; Tovar & Lockwood, 2008 ), Belize (Diedrich & Garcia-Buades, 2008 ), China (Gu & Ryan, 2008 ), Fiji (King et al., 1993 ), Greece (Haralambopoulos & Pizam, 1996 ; Tsartas, 1992 ), Hungary (Rátz, 2000 ), Thailand (Huttasin, 2008 ), Turkey (Kuvan & Akan, 2005 ), the United Kingdom (Brunt & Courtney, 1999 ; Haley et al., 2005 ), and the United States (Andereck et al., 2005 ; Milman & Pizam, 1988 ), among others. The social impacts of tourism are difficult to measure, and most published studies are mainly concerned with the social impacts on the host communities rather than the impacts on the tourists themselves.

Studies of residents’ perceptions of tourism are typically conducted using household surveys. In most cases, residents recognize the economic dependence on tourism for income, and there is substantial evidence to suggest that working in or owning a business in tourism or a related industry is associated with more positive perceptions of tourism (Andereck et al., 2007 ). The perceived nature of negative effects is complex and often conveys a dislike of crowding, traffic congestion, and higher prices for basic needs (Deery et al., 2012 ). When the number of tourists far exceeds that of the resident population, negative attitudes toward tourism may manifest (Diedrich & Garcia-Buades, 2008 ). However, residents who recognize negative impacts may not necessarily oppose tourism development (King et al., 1993 ).

In some regions, little is known about the social and cultural impacts of tourism despite its dominance as an economic sector. Tourism is a rapidly growing sector in Cuba, and it is projected to grow at rates that exceed the average projected growth rates for the Caribbean and the world overall (Salinas et al., 2018 ). Still, even though there has been rapid tourism development in Cuba, there has been little research related to the environmental and sociocultural impacts of this tourism growth (Rutty & Richardson, 2019 ).

In some international tourism contexts, studies have found that residents are generally resentful toward tourism because it fuels inequality and exacerbates racist attitudes and discrimination (Cabezas, 2004 ; Jamal & Camargo, 2014 ; Mbaiwa, 2005 ). Other studies revealed similar narratives and recorded statements of exclusion and socioeconomic stratification (Sanchez & Adams, 2008 ). Local residents often must navigate the gaps in the racialized, gendered, and sexualized structures imposed by the global tourism industry and host-country governments (Cabezas, 2004 ).

However, during times of economic crisis, residents may develop a more permissive view as their perceptions of the costs of tourism development decrease (Garau-Vadell et al., 2018 ). This increased positive attitude is not based on an increase in the perception of positive impacts of tourism, but rather on a decrease in the perception of the negative impacts.

There is a growing body of research on Indigenous and Aboriginal tourism that emphasizes justice issues such as human rights and self-empowerment, control, and participation of traditional owners in comanagement of destinations (Jamal & Camargo, 2014 ; Ryan & Huyton, 2000 ; Whyte, 2010 ).

Sustainability of Tourism

A process or system is said to be sustainable to the extent that it is robust, resilient, and adaptive (Anderies et al., 2013 ). By most measures, the global tourism system does not meet these criteria for sustainability. Tourism is not robust in that it cannot resist threats and perturbations, such as economic shocks, public health pandemics, war, and other disruptions. Tourism is not resilient in that it does not easily recover from failures, such as natural disasters or civil unrest. Furthermore, tourism is not adaptive in that it is often unable to change in response to external conditions. One example that underscores the failure to meet all three criteria is the dependence of tourism on fossil fuels for transportation and energy, which are key inputs for tourism development. This dependence itself is not sustainable (Wheeller, 2007 ), and thus the sustainability of tourism is questionable.

Liu ( 2003 ) notes that research related to the role of tourism in sustainable development has emphasized supply-side concepts such as sustaining tourism resources and ignored the demand side, which is particularly vulnerable to social and economic shocks. Tourism is vulnerable to both localized and global shocks. Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to localized shocks include disaster vulnerability in coastal Thailand (Calgaro & Lloyd, 2008 ), bushfires in northeast Victoria in Australia (Cioccio & Michael, 2007 ), forest fires in British Columbia, Canada (Hystad & Keller, 2008 ); and outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom (Miller & Ritchie, 2003 ).

Like most other economic sectors, tourism is vulnerable to the impacts of earthquakes, particularly in areas where tourism infrastructure may not be resilient to such shocks. Numerous studies have examined the impacts of earthquake events on tourism, including studies of the aftermath of the 1997 earthquake in central Italy (Mazzocchi & Montini, 2001 ), the 1999 earthquake in Taiwan (Huan et al., 2004 ; Huang & Min, 2002 ), and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in western Sichuan, China (Yang et al., 2011 ), among others.

Tourism is vulnerable to extreme weather events. Regional economic strength has been found to be associated with lower vulnerability to natural disasters. Kim and Marcoullier ( 2015 ) examined the vulnerability and resilience of 10 tourism-based regional economies that included U.S. national parks or protected seashores situated on the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean coastline that were affected by several hurricanes over a 26-year period. Regions with stronger economic characteristics prior to natural disasters were found to have lower disaster losses than regions with weaker economies.

Tourism is extremely sensitive to oil spills, whatever their origin, and the volume of oil released need not be large to generate significant economic losses (Cirer-Costa, 2015 ). Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to the localized shock of an oil spill include research on the impacts of oil spills in Alaska (Coddington, 2015 ), Brazil (Ribeiro et al., 2020 ), Spain (Castanedo et al., 2009 ), affected regions in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico (Pennington-Gray et al., 2011 ; Ritchie et al., 2013 ), and the Republic of Korea (Cheong, 2012 ), among others. Future research on the vulnerability of tourist destinations to oil spills should also incorporate freshwater environments, such as lakes, rivers, and streams, where the rupture of oil pipelines is more frequent.

Significant attention has been paid to assessing the vulnerability of tourist destinations to acts of terrorism and the impacts of terrorist attacks on regional tourist economies (Liu & Pratt, 2017 ). Such studies include analyses of the impacts of terrorist attacks on three European countries, Greece, Italy, and Austria (Enders et al., 1992 ); the impact of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States (Goodrich, 2002 ); terrorism and tourism in Nepal (Bhattarai et al., 2005 ); vulnerability of tourism livelihoods in Bali (Baker & Coulter, 2007 ); the impact of terrorism on tourist preferences for destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands (Arana & León, 2008 ); the 2011 massacres in Olso and Utøya, Norway (Wolff & Larsen, 2014 ); terrorism and political violence in Tunisia (Lanouar & Goaied, 2019 ); and the impact of terrorism on European tourism (Corbet et al., 2019 ), among others. Pizam and Fleischer ( 2002 ) studied the impact of acts of terrorism on tourism demand in Israel between May 1991 and May 2001 , and they confirmed that the frequency of acts of terrorism had caused a larger decline in international tourist arrivals than the severity of these acts. Most of these are ex post studies, and future assessments of the underlying conditions of destinations could reveal a deeper understanding of the vulnerability of tourism to terrorism.

Tourism is vulnerable to economic crisis, both local economic shocks (Okumus & Karamustafa, 2005 ; Stylidis & Terzidou, 2014 ) and global economic crisis (Papatheodorou et al., 2010 ; Smeral, 2010 ). Okumus and Karamustafa ( 2005 ) evaluated the impact of the February 2001 economic crisis in Turkey on tourism, and they found that the tourism industry was poorly prepared for the economic crisis despite having suffered previous impacts related to the Gulf War in the early 1990s, terrorism in Turkey in the 1990s, the civil war in former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, an internal economic crisis in 1994 , and two earthquakes in the northwest region of Turkey in 1999 . In a study of the attitudes and perceptions of citizens of Greece, Stylidis and Terzidou ( 2014 ) found that economic crisis is associated with increased support for tourism development, particularly out of self-interest. Economic crisis diminishes residents’ concern for environmental issues. In a study of the behavior of European tourists amid an economic crisis, Eugenio-Martin and Campos-Soria ( 2014 ) found that the probability of households cutting back on travel expenditures depends largely on the climate and economic conditions of tourists’ home countries, and households that do reduce travel spending engage in tourism closer to home.

Becken and Lennox ( 2012 ) studied the implications of a long-term increase in oil prices for tourism in New Zealand, and they estimate that a doubling of oil prices is associated with a 1.7% decrease in real gross national disposable income and a 9% reduction in the real value of tourism exports. Chatziantoniou et al. ( 2013 ) investigated the relationship among oil price shocks, tourism variables, and economic indicators in four European Mediterranean countries and found that aggregate demand oil price shocks generated a lagged effect on tourism-generated income and economic growth. Kisswani et al. ( 2020 ) examined the asymmetric effect of oil prices on tourism receipts and the sensitive susceptibility of tourism to oil price changes using nonlinear analysis. The findings document a long-run asymmetrical effect for most countries, after incorporating the structural breaks, suggesting that governments and tourism businesses and organizations should interpret oil price fluctuations cautiously.

Finally, the sustainability of tourism has been shown to be vulnerable to the outbreak of infectious diseases, including the impact of the Ebola virus on tourism in sub-Saharan Africa (Maphanga & Henama, 2019 ; Novelli et al., 2018 ) and in the United States (Cahyanto et al., 2016 ). The literature also includes studies of the impact of swine flu on tourism demand in Brunei (Haque & Haque, 2018 ), Mexico (Monterrubio, 2010 ), and the United Kingdom (Page et al., 2012 ), among others. In addition, rapid assessments of the impacts of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have documented severe disruptions and cessations of tourism because of unprecedented global travel restrictions and widespread restrictions on public gatherings (Gössling et al., 2020 ; Qiu et al., 2020 ; Sharma & Nicolau, 2020 ). Hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and car rentals have all experienced a significant decrease globally because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the shock to the industry is significant enough to warrant concerns about the long-term outlook (Sharma & Nicolau, 2020 ). Qiu et al. ( 2020 ) estimated the social costs of the pandemic to tourism in three cities in China (Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Wuhan), and they found that most respondents were willing to pay for risk reduction and action in responding to the pandemic crisis; there was no significant difference between residents’ willingness to pay in the three cities. Some research has emphasized how lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic can prepare global tourism for an economic transformation that is needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change (Brouder, 2020 ; Prideaux et al., 2020 ).

It is clear that tourism has contributed significantly to economic development globally, but its role in sustainable development is uncertain, contested, and potentially paradoxical. This is due, in part, to the contested nature of sustainable development itself. Tourism has been promoted as a low-impact, nonextractive option for economic development, particularly for developing countries (Gössling, 2000 ), and many countries have managed to increase their participation in the global economy through development of international tourism. Tourism development has been viewed as an important sector for investment to enhance economic growth, poverty alleviation, and food security, and the sector provides an alternative opportunity to large-scale development projects and extractive industries that contribute to emissions of pollutants and threaten biodiversity and cultural values. However, global evidence from research on the economic impacts of tourism has shown that this potential has rarely been realized (Liu, 2003 ).

The role of tourism in sustainable development has been studied extensively and with a variety of perspectives, including the conceptualization of alternative or responsible forms of tourism and the examination of economic, environmental, and social impacts of tourism development. The research has generally concluded that tourism development has contributed to sustainable development in some cases where it is demonstrated to have provided support for biodiversity conservation initiatives and livelihood development strategies. As an economic sector, tourism is considered to be labor intensive, providing opportunities for poor households to enhance their livelihood through the sale of goods and services to foreign tourists.

Nature-based tourism approaches such as ecotourism and community-based tourism have been successful at attracting tourists to parks and protected areas, and their spending provides financial support for biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, and economic growth in developing countries. Nevertheless, studies of the impacts of tourism development have documented negative environmental impacts locally in terms of land use, food and water consumption, and congestion, and globally in terms of the contribution of tourism to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases related to transportation and other tourist activities. Studies of the social impacts of tourism have documented experiences of discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, race, sex, and national identity.

The sustainability of tourism as an economic sector has been examined in terms of its vulnerability to civil conflict, economic shocks, natural disasters, and public health pandemics. Most studies conclude that tourism may have positive impacts for regional development and environmental conservation, but there is evidence that tourism inherently generates negative environmental impacts, primarily through pollutions stemming from transportation. The regional benefits of tourism development must be considered alongside the global impacts of increased transportation and tourism participation. Global tourism has also been shown to be vulnerable to economic crises, oil price shocks, and global outbreaks of infectious diseases. Given that tourism is dependent on energy, the movement of people, and the consumption of resources, virtually all tourism activities have significant economic, environmental, and sustainable impacts. As such, the role of tourism in sustainable development is highly questionable. Future research on the role of tourism in sustainable development should focus on reducing the negative impacts of tourism development, both regionally and globally.

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1. One megatonne (Mt) is equal to 1 million (10 6 ) metric tons.

2. One megajoule (MJ) is equal to 1 million (10 6 ) joules, or approximately the kinetic energy of a 1-megagram (tonne) vehicle moving at 161 km/h.

3. One gigatonne (Gt) is equal to 1 billion (10 9 ) metric tons.

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Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model: A simple explanation

Disclaimer: Some posts on Tourism Teacher may contain affiliate links. If you appreciate this content, you can show your support by making a purchase through these links or by buying me a coffee . Thank you for your support!

Prof. Richard Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model is a core theoretical underpinning for many tourism research and analyses. It is also a core component of many travel and tourism management curriculums. But what does it mean?

In this article I will give you a simple explanation of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model. I promise, by the end of this short post you will understand exactly how this model works and why it is so important in travel and tourism management….

So what are you waiting for? Read on to find out more..

What is Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model?

How did the tourism area life cycle model come about, #1 exploration, #2 involvement, #3 development, #4 consolidation, #5 stagnation, #6 decline or rejuvenation, the positive aspects of butler’s tourism area life cycle model, the negative aspects of butler’s tourism area life cycle model, to conclude.

Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model provides a fundamental underpinning to travel and tourism management of destinations. Not sure what that means? Well, basically, it is the theory underneath the story.

It sounds complicated on the outside, doesn’t it? But actually, it really isn’t complicated at all!

Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model is a simplistic linear model. Using a graph, it plots the different stages in tourism development in accordance with the x and y axis of tourist number growth and time. Within this, Butler’s model demonstrates 6 stages of tourism development.

OK, enough with the complicated terminology- lets break this down further. What is Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model in SIMPLE language?

To put it simply; Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model is a line graph that shows the different stages in tourism development over time.

Whilst sustainable tourism has been a buzz word for a while now, it wasn’t always the focus of tourism planning and development .

Back in the 1970s and 1980s many tourism entrepreneurs and developers were not thinking about the longevity of their businesses (this still happens a lot, particularly in developing countries, where education and training may be limited). These business men and women simply saw Dollar signs and jumped right in.

The result? Ill-thought out plans and unsustainable tourism endeavours.

Examples of unsustainable tourism with ill-thought out long term plans include: Overtourism in Maya Bay, Thailand , littering on Mount Everest and the building of unsightly high-rise hotels in Benidorm.

Professor Richard Butler wanted to give stakeholders in tourism some guidance. Something generic enough that it could be applied to a range of tourism development scenarios; whether this be a destination , resort, or tourist attraction .

This saw the birth of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model.

Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model: How does it work?

OK, lets get down to it- how does this theory actually work?

Well, actually it’s pretty simple.

Butler created a visual, graphical depiction of tourism development. People like visuals- it helps us to understand. You can see this below.

As you can see in the image above, Butler identified six stages of tourist area evolution.

The axis do not have any specific numbers, which means that this model can easily be applied to a number of different situations and contexts.

The intention is for those who are involved with tourism planning and development to use this model as a guide. This can encourage critical thinking and the development of alternative and contingency plans. It helps to develop sustainable tourism practices.

The six stages of tourist area evolution

Butler outlined six specific stages of tourism development. Well, actually it’s five specific stages and the last ‘stage offers a variety of outcomes (I’ll explain this shortly).

Butler wanted to demonstrate that tourism development, like many things in life, is not a static process. It experiences change. Changes happens for many reasons- growth in tourism numbers, changes in taste, marketing and the media, external influences such as natural disasters or terrorism.

Butler’s model demonstrates that tourism destinations or attractions will typically follow the path outlined, experiencing each of the six stages. This will happen at different paces and at different times for different types of tourism development.

Below, I will explain which each stage of tourist evolution is referring to.

The exploration stage marks the beginning.

Tourism is limited. The social and economic benefits are small.

Tourist attractions are likely to be focused on nature or culture .

This is the primary phase when Governments and local people are beginning to think about tourism and how they could capitalise and maximise their opportunities in this industry.

This is the start of tourism planning .

The involvement stage marks the beginning of tourism development.

Guest houses may start to open. Foreign investors may start to show an interest in development. Governments may be under pressure to develop transport infrastructure and community resources, such as airports, road layouts and healthcare provision.

The involvement stage may mark the emergence of seasonality in tourism.

During the development stage there will be lots of building and planning.

New roads, train stations and airports may be built. New tourist attractions may emerge. Hotels and hospitality provisions will be put in place.

During the development phase there will likely be an increase in marketing and promotion of the destination. There could be increased media and social media coverage.

During this time the tourist population may begin to out-number the local population. Local control becomes less common and top-down processes and international organisations begin to play a key role in the management of tourism.

During the consolidation stage tourism growth slows. This may be intentional, to limit tourist numbers or to keep tourism products and services exclusive, or it may be unintentional.

There will generally be a close tie between the destination’s economy and the tourism industry. In some cases, destinations have come to rely on tourism as a dominant or their main source of income.

Many international chains and conglomerates will likely be represented in the tourism area. This represents globalisation and can have a negative impact on the economy of the destination as a result of economic leakage .

It is during this stage that discontent from the local people may become evident. This is one of the negative social impacts of tourism .

The stagnation stage represents the beginning of a decline in tourism.

During this time visitor numbers may have reached their peak and varying capacities may be met.

The destination may simply be no longer desirable or fashionable.

It is during this time that we start to see the negative impacts of overtourism . There will likely be economic, environmental and social consequences.

The final stage of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model represents a range of possible outcomes for the destinations along the spectrum between rejuvenation and decline.

The outcome of this will depend upon the plans and actions of the stakeholders of said tourism development project.

Complete rejuvenation can occur through major redevelopments. Perhaps new attractions are added, sustainable tourism approaches are adopted or there is a change in the target market.

Modest rejuvenation may occur with some smaller adjustments and improvements to the general tourism infrastructure and provision.

If changes do not occur, there may be a slow continuation of tourism decline.

In severe circumstances, there may be a rapid decline of the tourism provision. This is likely due to a life-changing event such as war, a natural disaster or a pandemic.

What happens after complete decline?

Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many tourism destinations and attractions experiencing the drastic decline identified in Butler’s most pessimistic scenario.

These areas will likely either experience one of two possible outcomes-

1- Tourism infrastructure will be used for alternative means. Hotels may become retirement homes and tourism attractions will be replaced with non-tourism facilities. The area may become run down and impoverished as a result of the economic loss.

2- Tourism development will start again. Many destinations have taken this opportunity to re-evaluate and reimagine their tourism infrastructure. Improvements can be made and more sustainable practices can be adopted. The destination will start again at the beginning of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle.

Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model is great because it provides simplistic theoretical guidance to tourism stakeholders.

Those who are just starting out can use this model to plan their tourism infrastructure and development. It encourages critical thinking and long-term thinking.

However, Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model can also be criticised for its simplicity.

Without sufficient knowledge and training, tourism stakeholders may not understand this model and therefore may not adequately utilise it.

The linear approach taken with this module does not account for unique and unaccounted for occurrences. In other words, not every destination or attractions may follow these stages in this way.

Lastly, being developed back in 1980, Butler’s model fails to account for many of the complexities of today’s travel and tourism industry. The biggest downfall is the redundancy of references to sustainability.

Sustainability is at the core of everything that we do in today’s world, so it is perhaps outdated thinking to assume that all destinations will reach consolidation in the way that it is represented in Butler’s model.

Wow, who knew I would be able to write 1500 all about Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model? Well, in actual fact, I could easily write another 1500! This theory is an important part of the tourism curriculum and is important for travel and tourism students to understand, as well as a variety of tourism stakeholders.

Want to learn more? Follow along on social media or subscribe to my newsletter for conceptual and practical travel tips and information!

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‘This coast is saturated’: Italian village braces for post-Ripley crowds

Netflix hit series based on Patricia Highsmith novel brings prospect of surge in visitors to Atrani area of Amalfi coast

When Andrew Scott’s eponymous character in the hit new Netflix series Ripley travels from Naples to the village of Atrani, the rickety bus has the road almost to itself; a solitary Vespa passes going the other way. When he tracks down Dickie Greenleaf at the beach, the rich American and his girlfriend are the only people sunbathing on the pristine sands.

Visitors to the Amalfi coast today will note the contrast. Unlike in 1961, the road between Positano and Salerno is now known as much for its traffic jams as for the views. Atrani may be less busy than its neighbour Amalfi, but in summer its beach is taken over by rows of umbrellas and sunbeds. A small area, perhaps a fifth of the space, is public spiaggia libera .

In the village, which has one four-star hotel and a few B&Bs and holiday lets, some businesses are pleased about the Netflix exposure. Antonio Buonocore, who runs the beachside restaurant Le Arcate, said: “The impeccable photography has certainly brought our little village extra publicity.”

But others worry how sustainable this will be. Antonella Florio, of Maison Escher apartments, said: “This coast is saturated with overtourism. If more visitors come because of the series, I sincerely hope they come in low season.”

Luisa Criscolo, property manager at Chiara’s House, agreed: “If tourism does grow, the risk is that it’s not managed intelligently. Our village can’t cope with huge numbers of tourists. Cars, buses and motorbikes leave the traffic paralysed. The authorities need to keep a decent amount of places open longer so some visits can be channelled to other times of year, and must also encourage use of waterborne transport, and offer more frequent services on smaller buses.”

In Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 book The Talented Mr Ripley, Greenleaf is living in fictional Mongibello. The TV crew switched to Atrani after searching the coast for a location to suit their black-and-white period style (inspired by the 2018 illustrated book Neorealismo: The New Image in Italy 1932-1960 ). The series’ production designer, David Gropman, told Netflix he loved Atrani’s “incredible geography … the relationship of the main square to the beach, all of those unbelievable paths, that maze of stairs and corridors”. These all help make early episodes visually arresting. “Su, su, su [up, up, up],” says post office operator Matteo, directing Tom Ripley up to Greenleaf’s house.

That opulent villa, however, is not actually in Atrani, but on the nearby island of Capri. Villa Torricella was built in 1902 in eclectic style – turrets, Moorish colonnades, pointed arches and twisted columns – for an earlier pair of American socialites, Kate Perry and Saidee Wolcott, who hid their gay relationship by portraying themselves as sisters.

The villa, whose onion-domed tower is easily spotted from the ferry, is privately owned, but a one-bedroom apartment with panoramic terrace and the gorgeous tiled floors Johnny Flynn as Dickie is seen pacing around on, is for rent on Airbnb from £189 a night. There is still some summer availability, and plenty in autumn, though this may soon change.

After Ripley was released, Airbnb said it had seen a 93% increase in bookings to the Atrani area, which includes Ravello, a larger town a few miles north-east.

Canny beachgoers can avoid the crowds, though. The London-based musician Adam McCulloch visited last October, taking a bus to Positano – “the beach was rammed” – then a ferry to Amalfi. “We left the crowds behind and walked to Atrani over hills via Torre dello Ziro. Up there, you see no one. After steep steps down to the village, we had a swim, and a drink at Bar Nettuno, then walked the coast road back to Amalfi.”

The makers of Ripley closed the centre of Atrani for a month in October 2021 to take it back to the early 60s, paying local businesses for the disruption. (A year later the cameras descended again for filming of The Equalizer 3, also starring Dakota Fanning , who plays Dickie’s girlfriend, Marge.)

Later in the Netflix series, Ripley’s misdeeds take him to Naples, Rome, Palermo and Venice. In each city, writer-director Steven Zaillian uses paintings by Caravaggio to mirror the 20th-century con artist’s descent into violence, and perhaps his repressed sexuality.

But Rome and Venice are no strangers to film crews or mass tourism. Atrani, permanent population of about 800, is braced for change.

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Park Rangers Search for 2 Vandals Who Toppled Ancient Rocks at Lake Mead

After a video was widely shared online of two men pushing over a rock formation at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, the authorities are asking for the public’s help to identify them.

By Rebecca Carballo

The National Park Service is seeking help from the public to find two men who were captured on camera toppling an ancient natural rock formation at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada last week, officials said on Monday.

A video posted on April 7 shows the two men, legs bent, pushing the large red rocks. A young girl in the background can be heard yelling: “Don’t fall … Daddy! Daddy!” As the men try to move the rocks, another person is heard off-camera saying, “But why?”

The National Park Service is asking anyone who might be able to help identify the “vandalism suspects” to call or text the National Park Service-wide Tip Line 888-653-0009, submit a tip online or email [email protected].

Lake Mead National Recreation Area, established in 1936, is 2,338 square miles. It runs along the Colorado River, from the western end of Grand Canyon National Park to below Davis Dam. The sandstone formations on the Redstone Trail were shaped over time by geological forces from 140-million-year-old dunes, according to the National Park Service .

“National parks are some of the most special, treasured, and protected areas of our country,” the agency said in a statement . “To protect these natural and cultural resources for this and future generations, all visitors to national parks are expected to follow park laws and regulations.”

John Haynes, the public information officer for Lake Mead National Recreation Area, told KVVU, a Fox affiliate in Las Vegas , that he didn’t understand why someone would vandalize it.

“This almost feels like a personal attack in a way,” Mr. Haynes said.

Vandalism in national parks is nothing new, Jordan Fifer, a public affairs specialist for the National Park Service, told The New York Times.

“Unfortunately, it’s common,” Mr. Fifer said. “We rarely, however, see something of this nature where the people in the video seem so intent on destruction.”

In 2021, vandals destroyed abstract geometric designs at Big Bend National Park in Texas that had survived for thousands of years by scratching their names and dates into them.

The U.S. National Park Service condemns such behaviors on its website, noting that disturbing wildlife or damaging their habitats can directly lead to their demise and is illegal.

Rebecca Carballo is a reporter based in New York. More about Rebecca Carballo

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Netflix's "Ripley" spurs surge in bookings to Atrani area in Italy, Airbnb says

By Megan Cerullo

Edited By Anne Marie Lee

April 17, 2024 / 10:11 AM EDT / CBS News

Netflix's new series based on Patricia Highsmith's 1950's crime novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," has fans of the show yearning to experience the picturesque Amalfi Coast, where much of the show was filmed.

The book's latest adaptation is even driving traffic to the particular town in which it's filmed, Atrani, a tiny seaside municipality with a local population of less than 1,000 people.

Home-sharing site Airbnb said the miniseries, called "Ripley," has led to a 93% increase in bookings in Ravello, a city about 15 minutes away from Atrani. 

Bookings in nearby Minori also increased 62% on the weekend of the release of "Ripley," compared with the same weekend one year earlier, according to Airbnb. 

"It's no surprise that a show as visually spectacular as 'Ripley' is inspiring viewers to explore the Amalfi Coast for their next getaway," Amanda Cupples, general manager for Airbnb UK and Northern Europe, said in a statement. "As it spotlights a lesser-known Italian city of Atrani, this is showing travelers that they can avoid the crowds, while simultaneously quenching their 'Ripley' wanderlust."

Known for its slow pace of life, cobblestone streets and trattorias, Atrani is less crowded than better-known destinations on the Amalfi Coast. But local business owners are bracing for change in anticipation of unusually large crowds this summer.

Some say they're grateful for the exposure, while others are concerned about being overrun. 

"This coast is saturated with overtourism. If more visitors come because of the series, I sincerely hope they come in low season," Antonella Florio, of apartment rental company Maison Escher told The Guardian . 

Another property manager, Luisa Criscolo, told the outlet that an increase in visitors needs to be "managed intelligently."

"Our village can't cope with huge numbers of tourists. Cars, buses and motorbikes leave the traffic paralyzed. The authorities need to keep a decent amount of places open longer so some visits can be channelled to other times of year, and must also encourage use of waterborne transport, and offer more frequent services on smaller buses," she said. 

While the Amalfi Coast is popular with tourists, particularly in the summertime, the most searched for city worldwide on Airbnb this summer is Paris, the host of the 2024 Olympic Games. Consumers are also searching for stays in nearby towns and cities like Lille, Versailles and Lyon, where some Olympic events will be held, according to Airbnb. 

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News Streaming to discuss her reporting.

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Visitors caught on video destroying ancient rock formations in Nevada

Authorities in Nevada asked the public for help finding two men seen on video damaging ancient rock formations at Lake Mead.

The video shows the two men shoving sandstone chunks over the edge of an outcropping as someone else screams. Lake Mead National Recreation Area officials say the incident took place near the Redstone Dune Trail on the north side of the lake. Park officials said the damage is irreparable.

John Haynes, a public information officer for the recreation area, told KVVU -TV of Las Vegas about the potentially heavy consequences to come for the two men.

"Destruction like this at federally protected sites can result in felony charges that come along with potential fines and jail time," Haynes said. "It’s one of my favorite places in the park, and they’re up there just destroying it. I don’t understand that."

The more than 2,300 square miles of mountain and desert canyon just outside Las Vegas is also a favorite location of tourists — drawing nearly 6 million visitors every year.

Officials said that with so many visitors to the area and so little staff, they often find themselves relying on the public to monitor resources within park boundaries. If safe circumstances permit, park officials encourage visitors to capture photos or videos of any suspicious activity that can help officials identify offenders. T he National Park Service's tip line receives thousands of submissions.

"It's really important to let us know," Haynes said.

Noah Osborne is a news associate with NBC News Digital.

The Associated Press

Lake Mead visitors caught on video destroying ancient rock formations

National park service rangers are looking for information on two male suspects in the vandalism incident.

Earlier this month, a video posted to social media captured two men destroying ancient rock formations at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada. National park rangers are asking for the public’s help in identifying the visitors, who could face federal charges for vandalizing protected land.

In the footage from April 7, a man in a long-sleeve red shirt and another man in a black T-shirt stand atop a rock formation at Redstone Trail , one of the protected site’s most popular hiking trails. In the video, the pair dislodges and shoves boulders over the edge while a frightened girl screams and pleads with her father to not fall. The sandstone chunks crumble on their descent, millions of years of geologic history pulverized in seconds.

“These aren’t just rocks. They’re ancient resources. They were formed millions of years ago,” said Neal Desai, senior program director for the Pacific region of the National Parks Conservation Association . “That’s why we as a country have set them aside and have ensured that they will be equally owned by all of us forever.”

On social media , Lake Mead officials shared incriminating images of the perpetrators defacing the rocks and requested information about the pair. Authorities are accusing the men of vandalism, which the National Park Service describes as “an act of cultural violence.” It is also illegal.

An NPS spokesman said law enforcement rangers are investigating the case. The penalty depends on the type of damage and level of severity, and can range from a misdemeanor to a felony.

John Haynes, the recreation area’s public information officer, told Fox 5 KVVU-TV the vandals could face six months of jail time and a $5,000 fine. Lake Mead officials did not respond to a request for information.

The agency urges anyone who witnesses an illegal or irresponsible act on protected public land to take a video or photos of the infraction. They can anonymously share the information through the NPS tips line (888-653-0009), an online form or via email ( [email protected] ).

Desai said the majority of visitors respect the sanctity of national park sites, but a few bad apples do roll through every so often.

According to NPS’s Investigative Services , visitors attempted to break into the Mission San José , part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park , last June and damaged the church’s baroque Rose Window. In May 2022, park rangers sought help from the public to recover reptile track fossils stolen years before from Capitol Reef National Park in Utah.

State parks are equally vulnerable to vandalism. In 2013, three men leading a Boy Scout outing in Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park pushed a boulder off its spindly rock pedestal. Two of the culprits were initially charged with third-degree felonies but pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.

According to the NPS , nearly 5.8 million people visited Lake Mead last year. The 1.5-million-acre natural playground features the largest reservoir on the Colorado River and a trove of geologic features sculpted over millions of years.

Matthew Lachniet, a geology professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said the area has rocks spanning from 480 million years old to more recent volcanic rocks that may be 5 to 7 million years old.

Lachniet said the defiled rocks originated from the Aztec sandstone unit that dates from the early Jurassic period. The rocks are roughly 180 million years old, and the formations are younger — only a couple million years old.

Though common in the Southwest, he said, the red sandstone is unique to desert environments. Over time, the confluence of rain, frost and erosion shapes the rock into castle-like spires, delicate arches and sculptural shapes with peek-a-boo holes. These formations are typically weaker and easier to break, but they would not have shattered without human intervention.

“They would have slowly disintegrated away, sand grain by sand grain, over hundreds of thousands to millions of years,” Lachniet said.

The destruction of the rocks will permanently alter Lake Mead’s distinctive landscape, one of the primary reasons the recreation area was established in 1964. Park officials can’t patch up the fallen rocks and perch them back on their original site. Once people intervene, the attraction is no longer a product made by Mother Nature.

“If you restore it, then it becomes anthropogenic. It is art rather than something natural,” said Elizabeth Cottrell , a geologist at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “That doesn’t invoke the same wonder and awe of nature.”

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Bad behavior: Entitled tourists are running amok, defacing the Colosseum , getting rowdy in Bali and messing with wild animals in national parks. Some destinations are fighting back with public awareness campaigns — or just by telling out-of-control visitors to stay away .

Safety concerns: A door blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet, leaving passengers traumatized — but without serious injuries. The ordeal led to widespread flight cancellations after the jet was grounded, and some travelers have taken steps to avoid the plane in the future. The incident has also sparked a fresh discussion about whether it’s safe to fly with a baby on your lap .