Are we finally turning the tide towards sustainable tourism?

As the observed effects of climate change intensify, the chorus asking how a more sustainable tourism future can be achieved has amplified, and rightly so. Contentions regarding the sustainability credentials of tourism have heightened and links between popular destinations and crises have become ever more noticeable. Summer wildfires this year in Hawaii, Italy and Greece illustrate a sector prone to external and internal shocks. Yet, it remains a sector that is critical to supporting the livelihoods of many. Throw into the mix the sector’s carbon intensity, the tendency for tourist demand to overwhelm local well-being, the environmental effects of inappropriate tourism developments and, on the flip side, its vital economic contributions, the urgency to optimise its potential to destination communities and minimize its shortcomings is pressing. What then are salient issues that might lead to more sustainable tourism futures and the desire for a more benign tourism sector