Harald Heinrichs · Pim Martens Gerd Michelsen · Arnim Wiek Editors

Chapter 23
Tourism and Sustainability
David Manuel-Navarrete
Abstract
This chapter outlines specific sustainability challenges in tourism desti-
nations and the sector’s opportunities to contribute to global sustainability. The 
highly inequitable distribution of benefits among local actors, the energy-intensive 
character of most tourism activities, and the lack of systematic data on environmen-
tal and social impacts are identified as key challenges. Responses based on promot-
ing “best practices” are useful and widely implemented by tourism corporations. 
Building on experiences from pioneering destinations, a case is made for sustain-
ability solutions that go beyond the best practices approach and redefine tourism as 
a social activity that can actively promote broader sustainability transitions. This 
involves engaging local actors in the definition of “desirable or acceptable” tourism 
development objectives, as well as the identification of strategies that turn tourism 
into a social process that supports the emergence of new governance structures 
while questioning entrenched relations of power.
Keywords
Sustainable tourism • Inequality • Tourism best practices • Sustainability
solutions • Power
1 Sustainability Problems Associated with Tourism
Globally, the number of international tourist arrivals rose from 807 million in 2005 
to 1,035 million in 2012, representing an average annual growth rate of 3.6 % 
(UNWTO 
2013a
). Emerging economies had a higher annual growth rate (4.8 %) 
D. Manuel-Navarrete (
*
) 
School of Sustainability, Arizona State University,
800 S. Cady Mall, PO Box 875502, Tempe, AZ 85287-5502, USA
e-mail: 
[e-mail]
One of the world’s largest economic sectors, tourism is 
especially well-placed to promote environmental sustainability, 
green growth and our struggle against climate change through 
its relationship with energy. (Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary- 
General, on World Tourism Day 2012)

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than advanced economies (2.6 %), and it is expected that, by 2015, for the first time 
in history, emerging economies will receive more international tourist arrivals than 
advanced economies (UNWTO 
2011
). Obviously, this dynamic contributes to 
global economic activity. For instance, in 2012, international tourism contributed 
about 9 % of world GDP and 1 in 11 jobs (direct, indirect, and induced). Also, it
generated US$1.3 trillion in export and 6 % of the world’s exports (UNWTO 
2013b
). Over the years, tourism has been one of the fastest-growing economic sec-
tors in the world.
The data presented above indicates that tourism is, and will likely continue to be, 
a main driver of economic growth. However, this growth engenders sustainability- 
related challenges (UNEP and UNWTO
2012
). The international tourism industry 
is often blamed for causing negative impacts on local cultures, people, and environ-
ments (Mowforth and Munt 
1998
). Furthermore, even culturally and ecologically 
oriented forms of tourism tend to capture and repatriate the majority of revenues, 
thus effecting only marginal improvements in terms of poverty alleviation. For 
instance, applications of value-chain analysis in 12 destinations in Asia and Africa 
estimated that the total income earned by the poor as a percentage of total tourism 
expenditure ranged between 5 and 30 % (Coles and Mitchell 
2009
).
Assessing tourism as a strategy that can promote sustainability requires consid-
ering its impacts on equity and other social criteria. For instance, the construction of 
new touristic complexes provides new jobs, but it can also limit access to certain 
areas (such as beaches or parks) and increase the prices of land and cost of living. 
Global environmental impact of tourism is another key aspect to consider when 
assessing sustainability. Even though tourism is not an intensively polluting sector, 
it is nevertheless an energy-intensive activity that contributes around 5 % to global 
carbon emissions (UNWTO et al. 
2008
).
The United Nations World Tourism Organization collects regular economic data 
on tourism across the world, including data on revenues and expenditures, over-
nights spent, and accommodation capacities. However, no systematic collection of 
data on environmental and social impacts of tourism activities is carried out at the 
global level. Even though there are numerous methodological proposals for devel-
oping indicators measuring the stress that tourism causes on socio-ecological sys-
tems (e.g., UNWTO 
2004
), the actual collection of data to populate these indicators 
is still scattered, centered on a few case studies, or largely anecdotal. Thus, there is 
a need for measuring sustainability indicators of tourism in systematic and reliable 
ways.
• Task: Tourism growth has generally failed to contribute significantly to local 
sustainable development. Why is that? What indicators are needed in order to 
assess the contribution of tourism to local (un)sustainability? How is tourism 
progress currently measured? What new metrics of progress are needed?
D. Manuel-Navarrete

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