Desirable tourism transport futures

Abstract

This editorial for the special issue on 'Desirable Tourism Transport Futures' explores approaches to transitioning the tourism sector to a sustainable emissions path. It starts by describing an undesirable tourism transport future associated with a business-as-usual scenario, which will inevitably cause the climate mitigation goals outlined in the Paris Climate Accord (2015) to soon become unattainable. We then outline a scenario for a climatically desirable future, the social and economic implications of which are explored. The challenge of mitigating climate change is critical to desirable tourism transportation futures, although to date relatively little attention has been paid to this aspect of sustainable tourism. This is an omission that must be urgently addressed. This special issue addresses desirable tourist transportation futures in relation to deep cut emissions reductions and, therefore, mitigation of climate change-induced environmental impacts. It is important that desirable tourism transport futures are critically considered in terms of both spatial and temporal scale. The scenarios that inform this introductory article provide some insights at the long-term macro-scale. These scenarios are associated with desirable and undesirable elements that will no doubt continue to be the subject of much debate and contestation. While these scenarios will represent both opportunities and threats to the full spectrum of tourism industry stakeholders, they should also inform manifold avenues of future research at a critical moment in the evolution of tourism transportation and the pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030).

The influence of foreigners’ buzzing on TripAdvisor ranking of restaurants in Venice: implications for the sustainability of over-touristed heritage cities

“…These results contribute significantly to our understanding of social and consumer-generated media's effect on the management of tourism in overtouristed cities and destinations. Although digital technologies are expected to improve tourists' access to data and information on local destinations (Munar & Jacobsen, 2014;Nilashi et al, 2019;Peeters et al, 2019;UNWTO, 2018;Warren et al, 2018), numbers of likes and positive reviews in already-overtouristed cities or specific sites attract even more excursionists and foreign tourists (Oklevik et al, 2019). The power to influence these signals is greater for those who are less acquainted with a tourist destination, so these systems will steer a growing number of excursionists and foreigners toward tourist restaurants instead of restaurants that offer an authentic, local food experience, potentially eliciting negative effects on the overall local food chain's quality and development.…”

Decarbonising tourism: mission impossible?

“…Politicians avoid negative outlooks (or panic, Bendell, 2018) and policy making often follows the storyline of unchanged success. As a result, policy is driven by 'desirable futures' (Peeters et al, 2018). The complex web of data, and vested interests and policy has been explored in the context of peak oil.…”

Economic benefits of tourism: Cultural identity and tourism destinations in the Czech Republic

“…There is no doubt about the economic benefits of tourism (Van der Schyff et al, 2019;Peeters et al, 2019). It builds on the development strategies of organizations and regions.…”