Does sustainable tourism require ‘travel for everyone’?

Is ‘travel for every­one’ a pre­requis­ite for truly sus­tain­able tour­ism? Ira­ni­an schol­ar S Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazi pos­its the idea in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. 

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

The pos­it­ives and neg­at­ives of the tour­ism industry, includ­ing how cru­cial it is (or is not) to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and par­tic­u­larly its con­tri­bu­tions to the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment goals (SDGs), have been debated by aca­dem­ics and prac­ti­tion­ers over the years. 

But, with the cur­rent crises, how can we improve tourism’s effect on sus­tain­able devel­op­ment? How can we pro­gress toward the SDGs while the war in Ukraine, the high level of infla­tion world­wide, and the effects of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic are mak­ing life more dif­fi­cult and com­plic­ated for mil­lions of people? 

What about plans for a sus­tain­able recov­ery in an uncer­tain future? 

How about ‘sus­tain­able tourism’?

In this regard, the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO) asserts that tour­ism has the poten­tial to con­trib­ute to all the SDGs dir­ectly or indir­ectly, particularly:

• SDG 8 (decent work and eco­nom­ic growth), 
• SDG 12 (respons­ible con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion), and 
• SDG 14 (life below water ). 

Although tour­ism can be an effi­cient tool for achiev­ing these goals, do gov­ern­ments ever take respons­ib­il­ity for provid­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for travel to all of their citizens? 

Some gov­ern­ments, par­tic­u­larly in devel­op­ing coun­tries, alloc­ate huge budgets to writ­ing ‘tour­ism mas­ter plans’. 

Also see Bert van Wal­beek’s “GT” Insight
“A ‘year of hell’, wan­der­lust, & the super­mar­ket of beau­ti­ful places”

The idea of these plans is often to deliv­er a bet­ter qual­ity of life for res­id­ents, cre­ate a pos­it­ive vis­it­or exper­i­ence, and edu­cate and train domest­ic youth to appre­ci­ate and pro­mote their own cul­tures, attrac­tions, and the like. 

How­ever, it seems that the main point of these mas­ter plans is cre­at­ing a great tour­ism product for vis­it­ors. But is there ever any pro­gram to facil­it­ate ‘travel for everyone’? 

How about cre­at­ing a new future for sus­tain­able tour­ism by shift­ing our per­spect­ive to the mass of human­ity who have been denied oppor­tun­it­ies to travel? 

On the sub­ject of sus­tain­ab­il­ity in tour­ism, achiev­ing the SDGs should provide the found­a­tions for ‘travel for every­one’, includ­ing all who reside in South Asia and sub-Saha­ran Africa; all poor fam­il­ies wherever they hap­pen to live. 

Mil­lions of people live in extremely poor con­di­tions while rel­at­ively few oth­ers sched­ule their sum­mer vaca­tion trips. Is this sustainable?

Also see Thomas Bauer’s “GT” Insight
“By invit­a­tion only: Sus­tain­able tour­ism revisited”

In my view, sus­tain­ab­il­ity in travel only makes sense when every­one can travel to exper­i­ence dif­fer­ent ways of life, cul­tures, and envir­on­ments; wheth­er that’s domest­ic­ally or internationally. 

I believe travel gives human beings insight that can only be gained through exper­i­ence, not education. 

How can we achieve the SDGs without build­ing bridges for people who have nev­er trav­elled in their lives? 

How can hosts be hos­pit­able when they have had no exper­i­ence as guests? 

When my friend asked a child in a poor coun­try wheth­er they had trav­elled, the child replied: “What does ‘travel’ mean?”

How can we think about, write about, dis­cuss, and advance sus­tain­able tour­ism when mil­lions of people do not have the priv­ilege of exper­i­en­cing travel; when many chil­dren in the world do not even know the mean­ing of ‘travel’?

Also see Wolfgang Georg Arlt’s “GT” Insight
“No invit­a­tion required: Hedon­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity & mean­ing­ful tourism”

I have many oth­er ques­tions that have no clear response.

I believe that when every­one in the world is able to travel, achiev­ing ‘sus­tain­ab­il­ity’ in the tour­ism industry will be facilitated. 

It requires con­cer­ted sus­tain­able actions on a glob­al scale.

Des­pite all the crises and com­plic­a­tions, I believe we can achieve the SDGs with inter­na­tion­al collaboration. 

As António Guterres, Sec­ret­ary-Gen­er­al of the United Nations, asserts: “We must rise high­er to res­cue the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals — and stay true to our prom­ise of a world of peace, dig­nity, and prosper­ity on a healthy planet.”

I’m hop­ing that, through achiev­ing the SDGs, we can real­ise travel for everyone.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a “GT” Insight of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Does sus­tain­able tour­ism require ‘travel for every­one’? Base image by ger­alt (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

Seye­deh Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazi is a vis­it­ing schol­ar who has taught in uni­ver­sit­ies all around the world. Based in Tehran, Iran, she has a PhD in Tour­ism Busi­ness and Mar­ket­ing from Uni­versiti Sains Malaysia.