Have Australia's tourism strategies incorporated climate change?

Tourism is widely acknowledged as a key contributor to climate change, but it remains unclear how the tourism industry has been planning for climate change in practice. This paper conducts the most comprehensive critical review of Australia's tourism policy and planning documents to date. The paper explores the complex challenges posed by climate change to tourism and how tourism policy has been adapting over a 15-year period. Drawing on a longitudinal data-set of 477 Australian tourism policy and planning documents at the national, state, regional and local level, this research analyses the strategic discourse on climate change using content analysis and bibliometrics. The findings reveal opportunities, challenges and strategies for the tourism industry to contribute to the sustainable management of climate change. Opportunities include developing more “green” products, while strategies include establishing and/or participating in collaborative climate change schemes and strengthening dialogue surrounding climate change to aid the implementation of sustainable practices. Future research should consider the broader policy-making environment, such as the stakeholders, power and interest dynamics when analysing tourism strategies in relation to climate change.     

Sustainable Tourism: An Overview of the Concept and its Position in Relation to Conceptualisations of Tourism

Reference to sustainable tourism is now made in most strategic tourism planning documents. Yet, despite its common use, definitional arguments exist over its meaning and subsequent operationalisation. In addition to this, literature on sustainable tourism rarely discusses its development prior to the publication of Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), 1987) and its relevance to current conceptualisations of tourism. This paper analyses the context within which sustainable tourism was developed and has recently been conceptualised. It does this by assessing the development of sustainable tourism (with an Australian focus) and proposing a model which incorporates the development of sustainable tourism into tourism. The paper argues that sustainable tourism has traditionally given more focus to aspects related to the environment and economic development and that more focus should be given to community involvement.     

Sustainable human resource management as a driver in tourism policy and planning: a serious sin of omission?

This paper focuses on the neglect of an employment or workforce focus in policy engagement and planning for sustainable tourism. Tourism is of interest here because there is an established role for government and the private sector in policy engagement and strategic planning with respect to product development, infrastructure, marketing and human resource capacity and the focus has increasingly emphasised sustainable goals within this process. The discussion addresses the central role of people and work within concepts of sustainability and sustainable communities and questions why this has been, substantially, ignored in tourism. The paper starts by recognising the interconnectedness of employment in tourism and its workforce concerns with a wide range of inter-linked policy and operational considerations. This, in turn, points to the utility of the sustainable HRM model as a means by which to frame tourism work. Thereafter, this paper introduces new approaches through the proposal of sustainability indicators that have both theoretical and practical policy formation value in relation to the workforce. These sustainable employment capacity, service delivery capacity and service quality capacity with which policy-makers can gauge their readiness for sustainable growth in tourism employment. The research and application implications for this approach are discussed.     

Environmental policy integration as a strategy for sustainable tourism planning: issues in implementation

Both in a national and global context, it is challenging to identify key conditions for the integration of sustainable tourism in public policy. By studying a number of recent planning processes pertaining to tourism development, this article aims to contribute recent insight into how sustainability may be integrated into tourism planning. The study was motivated by a publicized shift in the Norwegian government policy strategy on sustainable tourism, from a sector approach to an integration approach. Through case analysis, the concept of environmental policy integration is applied. Findings show that sustainable tourism is partially integrated in all cases and three key issues are outlined. First, although Norway is characterized by a high degree of sector organization, it has a weak structure for overall tourism policy integration. Second, the integration of sustainable tourism has been stimulated by national horizontal integration, bottom-up integration prepared by institutional changes, public participation, and by active use of the municipal system of planning. Third, this study could not find any evidence for the announced shift from a sector approach to an integrated approach to sustainable tourism.     

Conceptualising a contemporary marketing mix for sustainable tourism

This paper outlines how marketing, though traditionally considered an enemy of sustainability, can play a role in implementing sustainable tourism. It notes the redefinition in 2007 by the American Marketing Association of marketing's aims to consider wider societal issues beyond those of clients and customers. It illustrates how the recognition of the importance of sustainable tourism at all scales of tourism activity provides marketing with an opportunity to pursue sustainability outcomes. We review the strategic tourism marketing planning process and conceptually develop a sustainability tourism marketing model that embeds sustainability considerations at each stage of the planning process. Our proposed model contributes to sustainable tourism theory development and offers a conceptual tool for managing a tourism organisation's ecological and societal footprint on the supply side and a critical opportunity for transforming consumer decision-making on the demand side, irrespective of tourism scale. A 30-cell matrix is proposed that cross-references a strong set of 10 marketing elements (product, price, promotion, place, participants, process, physical evidence, partnership, packaging and programming) against the questions posed by the triple bottom line of economic factors, the environmental and sociocultural concern, creating a check list of indicators for management purposes.     

An ecologically and socially inclusive model of agritourism to support smallholder livelihoods in the South Pacific

The neglect and marginalisation of smallholders in economic and development policy contributes to increasing vulnerability of rural communities. Underinvestment in agriculture, climate change impacts and growing competition for land and water places further pressure on smallholders. In this context, this paper examines the current focus in the South Pacific on strengthening the linkages between tourism and agriculture through agritourism. The paper seeks to merge multiple discourses, by firstly reviewing the development model that is driving tourism and linkages to agriculture in the South Pacific. Secondly, agritourism as it is conceptualised in the tourism literature and thirdly sustainable tourism discourse, to identify economic activities within agritourism that contribute to enhancing smallholders’ livelihoods in the South Pacific. An ecologically and socially inclusive model of agritourism is put forward based on principles of sustainable tourism and agroecology – referred to as agroecological tourism. Agroecological tourism strengthens the linkages between tourism and agriculture while fostering sustainability principles.     

Sustainable tourism implementation in urban areas: a case study of London

Sustainable tourism is a concept widely embraced by managers and planners of tourist destinations. However, it has received little attention in the context of urban tourism, an area of research that has until recently been largely neglected by academics. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on sustainable tourism implementation in large cities, by using London as an exploratory case study. Through the collection and analysis of both primary and secondary data (online survey, semi-structured interviews and document analysis), it seeks to explore whether local authorities have implemented policies towards sustainable tourism in the capital. The findings indicate that although the concept of sustainable tourism is perceived as important by policy makers, only a few local authorities in London promote its principles in their policy documents and even fewer have initiatives to put them in practice. Most of these initiatives are isolated activities which address limited aspects of sustainable tourism. The paper concludes that despite some progress made to date, in the current economic climate, growth and development remain the main objectives of governments and local authorities, while social and environmental issues are often left behind.     

An integrative framework for sustainability evaluation in tourism: applying the framework to tourism product development in Finnish Lapland

The adoption of sustainable practices has become widespread in tourism and has led to the proliferation of sustainability evaluation tools. They focus mainly on measuring outcomes, making scientific expertise an essential part of evaluations. This study argues that involving stakeholders throughout the evaluation process is essential if evaluation is to play a role in promoting the necessary understanding of sustainability to address the ecological and social concerns within a tourism setting. Drawing upon multi-stakeholder thinking, ethics, the Bellagio Principles and action research, this paper introduces a theoretical and methodological framework for engaging tourism organisations in collaboration with stakeholders in planning and implementing sustainability evaluations. The application of the framework is illustrated using a study of tourism product development, involving a group of eight craft-based entrepreneurs and their stakeholders in Finnish Lapland. A focus is placed on using ethical theories to promote dialogue and critical reflection and to expose the plurality of moral orientations behind the multiple views of sustainable tourism. Through discourse analysis, four moral discourses, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics, are constructed and examined. The paper shows how each influences the various ways in which stakeholders perceive sustainable tourism and the practical outcomes of the process.     

Policy coherence between tourism and climate policies: the case of Spain and the Autonomous Community of Catalonia

Abstract

The relationship between tourism and climate change is reciprocal. The effects of climate change on tourism are undeniable. However, tourism and climate change are complex and cross-cutting phenomena that enter policy agendas at different moments and with different discourses. This paper analyses the coherence between the policy domains of climate and tourism at the formulation stage of the policy process, focusing on national and regional government levels and the key touristic offer in Spain – that of sun, sea and sand. The proposed method analyses three dimensions within policy documents: frame significance, policy scope and connotation. Results reveal the imbalance between the two policy domains; the lack of concrete actions and stable mechanisms for achieving greater coherence; and the different conceptions of the issue. The paper considers the causal relationships between tourism and climate change, the consequences of mutual impacts, and the temporal dimension of problem framing. This research brings together three fields of knowledge – tourism, climate change and public policies – and suggests enhancing coherence between tourism and climate policies in order to address the sustainability of tourism destinations.     

Tourism involvement-conformance theory: a grounded theory concerning the latent consequences of sustainable tourism policy shifts

This study uses a grounded theory method to investigate the proposed tourism policy directions of three Pacific Island countries and to develop a set of theoretical insights referred to as tourism involvement-conformance theory (TICT). TICT underscores the potential latent consequences that can occur as tourism develops due to policy shifts which emphasize sustainability. More specifically, TICT suggests a number of conceptual linkages regarding how policy makers and development strategists envisage the internal and external forces of control as tourism develops, how these perceptions influence the specific positioning or policy mechanisms, and how these processes when they are couched in a sustainability framework can instrumentalize local people/culture. For those interested in the challenges associated with sustainable tourism policy and planning, the findings represent a step towards a more nuanced understanding of the potential consequences of development decisions and policy rhetoric. They also offer an advancement in understanding regarding culture, involvement, power, and conformity in tourism research. For practitioners, the findings highlight the need for careful consideration of the implicit power relationships and ideologies that can be reinforced through policies designed around increased local involvement as a means to sustainability.     

Strategic Issues in the Australian Tourism Industry: A 10-year Analysis of National Strategies and Plans

Predicting future events, trends and issues that may affect the tourism industry is not an exact science. Already the 21st century has seen a number of significant, radical and unexpected events, including September 11, SARS and, more recently, the worldwide economic downturn and natural disasters, such as earthquakes and cyclonic activity. Within this increasingly volatile global landscape, more than ever there is a need for the tourism industry to embrace a disciplined, structured and continuous approach to identifying and monitoring future trends and issues to inform policymaking and strategic planning. Yet in Australia it has been claimed that a preoccupation with marketing and short-term tactical planning, at the expense of long-term, strategic thinking, has led to limited planning perspectives for tourism. To explore these claims, this paper reports on a content analysis of 28 Australian national-level tourism strategic planning documents across a 10-year period (2000–2009 inclusive).     

Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: Monitoring local government planning under the Resource Management Act

In the light of the increasing pace and scale of tourism activity in New Zealand, the concept of sustainable tourism has become a key ingredient in the nation's tourism strategy. This paper explores sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand at the level of local government, and in particular, focuses on the implementation of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) as a mechanism for achieving sustainable tourism. Using the findings of a survey of Regional Councils and Territorial Local Authorities, the paper explores public sector planning responses to tourism impacts and sustainability concerns in New Zealand. The paper extends the earlier work of Page and Thorn (1997. Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: public sector planning responses. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 5(1): 59-77; 2002. Towards sustainable tourism development and planning in New Zealand: the public sector response revisited. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 10(3): 222-238), which identified major issues of concern at local council level with regard to tourism impacts and argued the need for a national vision for tourism to ensure that the RMA achieved its original goals. Since then, a national tourism strategy has been published and changes in legislation have further empowered local authorities to further progress the sustainability agenda. This paper examines these developments and the ensuing implications, concluding that significant progress has been made in developing tourism policies at the local level, but that a number of constraints and issues limit the development of New Zealand as a sustainable destination.     

Challenges and potential improvements in the policy and regulatory framework for sustainable tourism planning in China: the case of Shanxi Province

A sound policy and regulatory framework is essential in planning for sustainable tourism development. The paper examines opportunities and challenges for China's planning for sustainable tourism development from both policy and regulatory perspectives. Despite the enthusiasm for sustainable tourism, China's existing relevant policy and regulatory frameworks are generally fraught with contradictory objectives, and they are also often incoherent, have ambiguous legal provisions, and many organizations have duplicate responsibilities, unclear definitions of responsibilities, interlocking activities, and weak coordination due to the complicated institutional structure. Based on Shanxi Province, the paper explores the policy and regulatory issues affecting tourism and its sustainability, and it also assesses the possible options to foster an improved policy and regulatory framework for China's sustainable tourism development. A much stronger political will from all levels of government will be required to overcome a prevalent mindset for short-term economic growth and deep-rooted practices in pursuit of departmental benefits. It is also necessary for China and Shanxi under the new national tourism law to articulate and coordinate its laws and regulations with much improved supportive bylaws. Finally, more rational and effective institutional arrangements are needed, with clearly defined functions and responsibilities for government at varied levels.     

Targeting sustainable outcomes with adventure tourism: A political ecology approach

Sustainability is a dominant paradigm in tourism research yet a lack of research on alternative tourism sectors to deliver sustainable outcomes hinders sustainable tourism research, planning, implementation, policy and management. This research uses a political ecology lens, to dissect how destinations can harness adventure tourism to achieve relevant sustainability objectives. Adventure tourism is not in itself sustainable but by targeting adventure travel that attracts passionate, high-paying tourists to participate in activities specifically suited to local landscapes, communities have the potential to create bespoke tourism products that fit the socio-ecological system and produce clear conservation and sustainable development outcomes.     

Everyday climate discourses and sustainable tourism

Debates surrounding the human impact on climate change have, in recent years, proliferated in political, academic, and public rhetoric. Such debates have also played out in the context of tourism research (e.g. extent to which anthropogenic climate change exists; public understanding in relation to climate change and tourism). Taking these debates as its point of departure, whilst also adopting a post-structuralist position, this paper offers a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of comments to an online BBC news article concerning climate change. Our analysis finds three key ways responsibility is mitigated through climate change talk: scepticism towards the scientific evidence surrounding climate change; placing responsibility on the “distant other” through a nationalistic discourse; and presenting CO₂ as “plant food”. The implications of these ways of thinking about climate change are discussed with a focus on how this translates into action related to the sustainability of tourism behaviours. In doing so, it concludes that a deeper understanding of everyday climate talk is essential if the tourism sector is to move towards more sustainable forms of consumption.     

Foraging tourism: critical moments in sustainable consumption

Despite the prevalence of sustainability discourses across the Global North, for the majority of people abstract issues of sustainability often have a low salience with the realities of travel choices. Researchers examining sustainable tourism recognise that any changes resulting in sustainable performance are likely to come about as a result of shifts in everyday highly routinised social practices, relations and socio-technical structures. Attending to these debates, this paper examines relations between social practice, sustainability and tourism through the rise in foraging tourism in the United Kingdom. Using evidence from interviews and media analysis detailing perspectives of foraging course leaders and attendees, alongside participant observation, the paper records the ways in which foraging experiences are negotiated and accomplished in commercial contexts and what participants “do” with the ideas and practices post-experience. By engaging with debates surrounding the meanings of sustainable tourism, the paper extends understanding of these concepts through the identification of foraging tourism as a facilitator in rethinking everyday practice and discourse. The paper ends by evaluating the potentials of tourism in facilitating sustainable performance and discourse.     

Australian indigenous tourism policy: practical and sustainable policies?

This paper reviews the development of Australia's policies for indigenous tourism and analyses those policies for their sustainable tourism content. It notes that in Australia, tourism is increasingly seen as an instrument for sustaining indigenous communities, many of whom look to tourism for a better future. Growing intervention from Australian federal and, more recently, State/Territory governments has sought to create tourism policies to facilitate market growth and product development in the indigenous sector. Yet the effectiveness and appropriateness of these policies, particularly in terms of a sustainable approach to development, has been questioned. A qualitative study of Australian State/Territory governments' policy for indigenous tourism examines the extent to which sustainable development principles are addressed. The results revealed that 32 of the 35 analysed policies demonstrated “sustainability rhetoric” that lacked the rigour and depth to realise any legitimate moves towards achieving sustainable tourism development for indigenous peoples. Based on the study's findings, this paper recommends that there cannot be a “one size fits all” framework for indigenous tourism development to suit all circumstances. Policies need to draw upon indigenous diversity and, in a consistent, collaborative, coordinated and integrated manner, provide the mechanisms and capacity-building to facilitate long-term sustainable indigenous tourism.     

The environment‐community symbiosis: A case for collaborative tourism planning

This article advances the proposition that sustainable tourism can be achieved through recognition that the public and private sector, the host communities and the natural environment are interdependent stakeholders in a complex tourism ‘domain’, where no single individual, agency or group can resolve strategic tourism issues by acting alone. The planning and management of this domain for the purpose of achieving sustainability requires moving away from traditional approaches towards dynamic collaboration among the stakeholders of the tourism development and planning domain. Collaboration provides a flexible process which evolves over time, enabling stakeholders to disseminate and manage problems or issues on an interactive basis. It offers an attractive alternative to adversarial problem solving methods in tourism planning and management, when inter or multi‐sectoral participation is required. The paper commences with a discussion of the shortfalls of traditional tourism planning processes and models, followed by an overview of collaboration ‘theory’. Examples are given which illustrate collaborative approaches in several mountain resort areas. An exploratory case study of tourism development and planning issues in the mountain community of Canmore, Alberta (Canada) is then presented, leading to a discussion and conclusion regarding the theoretical and practical applications of collaboration toward achieving sustainable tourism.     

Sustainable tourism planning and climate change adaptation in the Alps: a case study of winter tourism in mountain communities in the Dolomites

A vast body of literature suggests that the European Alpine Region is extremely sensitive to climate change. Winter tourism is closely related to climate variations, especially in mountain regions where resorts are heavily dependent on snow. This paper explores how to effectively integrate a climate change adaptation perspective with local discourses about sustainability and tourism, an increasing priority for policy-makers in the region and elsewhere. It reports on the development and application of a participatory decision support process for the analysis of adaptation strategies for local development of an Alpine tourism destination, Auronzo di Cadore (Dolomites, Italy). This experience significantly contributed to the idea that an efficient combination of modelling capabilities, decision support tools, and participatory processes can substantially improve decision-making for sustainability. The authors show that, in this case study, such a combination of methods and tools allowed for managing the involvement of local actors, stimulating local debates on climate change adaptation and possible consequences on winter tourism, encouraging creativity and smoothing potential conflicts, and easing the integration of the qualitative knowledge and the preferences of the involved actors with quantitative information. This contributed to an integrated sustainability assessment of alternative strategies for sustainable tourism planning.     

Introducing the concept of environmental policy integration into the discourse on sustainable tourism: a way to improve policy-making and implementation?

Many studies have explored how the tourism sector and tourism policies understand and relate to the concept of sustainable development. A common conclusion is that tourism concentrates on economic and social viability at the expense of environmental sustainable development. This paper considers if and how the concept of environmental policy integration (EPI) could improve sustainable tourism policy implementation. It defines EPI, and explores both the three-level (co-ordination, harmonization and prioritization) and four-level (inclusion, consistency, priorities and reporting) EPI approaches. It notes that there is both strong and weak EPI, and both political systems and policy analysis approaches. The paper then describes Norway's post-2007 adoption of sustainable tourism as a central part of its national tourism development strategy, with 10 defined principles, and suggested defined development standards, and assesses the implementation of the national strategy through the lens of the EPI concept. While there are now 18 pilot sustainable tourism destinations, with 44 criteria and 108 indicators, there remain many difficult issues to address. A series of suggestions are made, the chief of which is the need for a politically strong central authority that has been entrusted with having environmental concerns within the tourism sector as its key mandate.