Tourism Development, Sustainability, and Inclusion

The tourism field of study covers multiple perspectives like the tourism experience, tourism forms (e.g., mass tourism, heritage tourism, ecotourism), tourism’s history, driving forces of tourism demand, and the effects of tourism on the economy, social fabric, cultural and environmental spheres of the receiving destinations. The sustainability of the tourism phenomenon has also received attention in relevant studies, although the emphasis has often been on tourism’s potential effect on environmental degradation, which hinders the goal of keeping destinations undisturbed for future generations. The sustainability concept has gradually expanded to consider other dimensions beyond the environment. For example, the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach envisioned three pillars of sustainability, i.e., economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Economic sustainability is more geared toward a country’s or destination’s potential to achieve durable economic growth, or a company’s ability to endure its operations. Environmental sustainability focuses on conserving a country or destination’s natural resources, for the benefit of current and future generations. Social sustainability aims to protect people’s social and cultural needs and support current and future generations to achieve healthy and fruitful lives. Besides achieving tourism sustainability, there is also a growing need for the inclusion of people who previously have been marginalized or fully excluded from participation.

The United Nations (UN) adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, providing a granular format to further elaborate on the people, planet, and prosperity thinking, considering the empowerment of vulnerable people. The latter includes, according to the UN, children, youth, persons with disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS, older persons, indigenous people, refugees, and internally displaced persons and migrants. Against the background of tourism development, this Research Topic seeks empirical, theoretical, or applied contributions to the relationship between tourism development, sustainability, and inclusion.

Topics to be considered include the relationship between tourism development and:
• Poverty alleviation;
• Hunger eradication, food security, nutrition improvement, sustainable agriculture;
• Health and well-being;
• Inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities;
• Gender equality and women and girl empowerment;
• Available and sustainable water and sanitation;
• Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy;
• Sustained, inclusive economic growth, with productive employment and decent work;
• Resilient infrastructure, with inclusive and sustainable industrialization fostering innovation;
• Inequality;
• Inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and destinations;
• Sustainable consumption and production;
• Peaceful and inclusive societies with justice for all;
• Global partnerships for sustainable development.

A relationship is not always unidirectional, meaning that it is possible that tourism could be a consequence (tourism as an independent variable) but could also be an antecedent (tourism as a dependent variable).