Is sustainable tourism an obstacle to the economic performance of the tourism industry? Evidence from an international empirical study

Abstract

Sustainability has become an important strategic objective for tourism destinations worldwide. All analytical tourism competitiveness models make direct or indirect positive references to sustainability. It is accepted that sustainable tourism can reduce resource costs and help create market differentiation. Nevertheless, it has traditionally been considered that, short term, sustainability measures can reduce profitability and compromise competitiveness. Debates on the progress, implications, and practicality of sustainable tourism remain open. The relationship between economic sustainability, and environmental and sociocultural sustainability, is a central but largely unresearched area for tourism scholars, especially at the macro level. This study explores that difficult but essential area, using the World Economic Forum's empirical evidence from 128 countries, backed by the economic data search tool of the World Travel & Tourism Council. It demonstrates that progress in tourism sustainability does not affect a country's main economic tourism indicators in the short term, and does not constrain profitability and competitiveness. It also finds that sustainable tourism is not a luxury that only rich countries can afford, nor should it prevent development and perpetuate poverty in developing countries. An effective marketing and communication program about sustainable tourism is, however, found to be essential for economic success.

可持续旅游是否阻碍了旅游业的经济发展？国际经验主义研究的证据

可持续旅游已经变成了对于全世界旅游目的都非常重要的一种策略目标。所以对于旅游竞争力模型的分析都直接或者间接的对可持续发展采取极低态度。可持续旅游可以降低原材料消费并且有助于塑造市场的独特性。然而，按照传统观点考虑，在短期内，可持续所示可以减少利润和竞争力。对于开展可持续旅游的进程、时机和实践仍然在讨论中。可持续经济、环境、社会-文化可持续性的关系是至关重要的，但是很少被旅游学者所研究，尤其在宏观层面上。这篇文章使用来自128个国家的全球经济论坛的实证分析，以全球旅游协会的经济调查数据支持，探究了上面提出的重点和难点。本文揭示了旅游的可持续性并不妨碍短期一个国家的主要旅游经济指数 ，也不制约利润和竞争力。也发现可持续旅游并不仅仅是富裕国家的专利，不会妨碍可持续发展国家的经济发展与繁荣。可持续旅游作为一种有效的营销和交流项目，对经济的成功也是必须的。

Keywords:

• sustainable tourism
• mobility tables
• index of change
• the Chow test
• tourism competitiveness

关键词:

• 可持续旅游
• 流动表
• 交换指数
• 邹氏检测
• 旅游竞争力

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Bernard Lane for valuable contributions during the review process, which have allowed us to improve the initial version of this article.

Notes

1. http://www.wttc.org (accessed: 14 November 2011).

2. The analysis is of those countries for which data are available in the two reference years – 2008 and 2011. Thus, of the 130 countries included in the 2008 report, we eliminated two (Suriname and Uzbekistan) which do not appear in the 2011 report. Similarly, of the 139 countries included in the 2011 report, we eliminated 11 (Angola, Brunei, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Iran, Lebanon, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, and East Timor) which do not appear in the 2008 report.

3. Georgia, Mauritania, and Tajikistan were excluded from this analysis because there was no information available for them in the WTTC database.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández

Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández is a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Jaén in Spain. His main research interests focus on tourism economics, destination management, sustainability, tourism impacts, and social network analysis.

Lidia Andrades-Caldito

Lidia Andrades-Caldito is a lecturer in the Department of Business Management and Sociology at the University of Extremadura in Badajoz, Spain. Her research interests include destination competitiveness, tourism planning, sustainability, marketing research, and multivariate analysis.

Marcelino Sánchez-Rivero

Marcelino Sánchez-Rivero is a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Extremadura; his research interests include latent structure models applied to tourism, analysis of tourist behavior, sustainability, and competitiveness.