Harald Heinrichs · Pim Martens Gerd Michelsen · Arnim Wiek Editors

4 Conclusions
Sustainable tourism seeks to balance economic, social, and environmental goals in 
the local development and operations of tourism. Such balancing has primarily been 
sought through the definition and implementation of models of good practices. 
However, tourism sustainability cannot be meaningfully addressed without prees-
tablishing the development objectives that are desirable for a destination. Thus, a 
key sustainability challenge that tourism is facing consists of determining “desired 
or acceptable” development objectives through processes in which conflicting val-
ues, opposing interests, and controversial information are revealed, discussed, and 
fairly considered. Another challenge concerns the ways in which tourism can 
become an activity that promotes the global transition toward a sustainable world. 
Addressing this second challenge involves redefining tourism into a social activity 
that supports positive social transformation. Such redefinition requires, first of all, 
the setting of a new policy paradigm veered away from traditional policy instru-
ments and indicators that are subordinated to a pro-growth model of governance. 
Sustainability scholars can devise strategies for facilitating the emergence of new 
governance structures, while carefully assessing the implications of changing exist-
ing patterns of power and dominance. Yet, these strategies and assessments, as well 
as the actual harnessing of tourism sustainability, will inevitably be laden with 
power issues.
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H. Heinrichs et al. (eds.), Sustainability Science, DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-7242-6_24