New Sustainable Solutions Are Needed Due To Rapid Global Tourism Development

Technology and the growing global middle class are driving a travel revolution which is causing escalating impacts on fragile ecosystems, human health, and social systems.

Unreported data on the worldwide biophysical impacts of tourism uncovered in the new book, Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet, indicate that valuable destinations are on the verge of being irreparably harmed. New disciplinary approaches are needed to support the transition to lower impact tourism development worldwide.

The tourism industry is one of the most dynamic industries on the planet with a global footprint that is largely unmanaged. While tourism development brings wealth and benefits to a wide range of residents in economies worldwide, much stronger systems are required to lower escalating impacts on some of the most beautiful landscapes, watersheds, natural, socio-cultural and historical treasures in the world.

This new book helps all those involved in international tourism develop the new skills, tools and investments required to protect irreplaceable global resources from the impacts of escalating tourism demand over the next 50 years. Each subsector of the tourism economy- hotels, tour operators, cruise lines, aviation and airports and destinations are investigated separately to provide a framework for professionals and students to undertake research and work locally to follow through with quantitative review of environmental and sustainable development needs for industry and destinations.

This book offers indispensable real-world case studies and provides a vision for a pragmatic way forward

Far-reaching recommendations are made for global institutions to lower tourism’s rapidly escalating carbon impacts and protect the health and well-being of local populations, ecosystems, cultures, and monuments worldwide.

“This book offers indispensable real-world case studies and provides a vision for a pragmatic way forward” says Seleni Matus, George Washington University, US.

“The author’s decades of experience in multiple sectors of the industry, including nonprofit, for profit, and governmental organisations, illuminate the book with practical case examples, insightful first-hand experiences, and valuable expert judgments.” says James E. Austin, Harvard Business School, USA