Tourism and sustainable transformation: a discussion and application to tourism food consumption

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the idea of sustainable transformation at a time when sustainability science is crucial to the future development of the tourism industry. Here, we discuss background topics including sustainability, social-ecological systems, technology and innovation, resilience, and transitions, how each relate to each other, as well as how they interface with the new science of transformation. Based on a comprehensive overview of the literature, we developed the Tourism and Sustainable Transformation Framework and applied it to the current problems around food waste produced in restaurants, with the ultimate goal of reducing food waste in these establishments altogether. The framework is general enough to apply to any sector in tourism, or indeed any industry, and is built according to the value that the UN places on transformation as a prominent theme in their Sustainable Development Goals.

KEYWORDS:

• Transformation
• sustainability
• food waste
• restaurants
• tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

David A. Fennell researches mainly in the areas of ecotourism, tourism ethics, and moral issues tied to the use of animals in the tourism industry. A major thrust of his research involves the use of theory from other disciplines (e.g. biology, philosophy) to gain traction on many of tourism's most persistent issues and problems. Fennell is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ecotourism and is an active member on editorial boards of many academic journals.

Emily Bowyer is a student in biological sciences at Brock University with an interest in sustainability.