Twenty-five years of sustainable tourism and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism: looking back and moving forward

Introduction

This Editorial marks the 25th anniversary of the inaugural issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. The journal has become the leading research publication dedicated to advancing the understanding and discussion of sustainable tourism, and it is also ranked highly as a journal in the general tourism field. It is important to begin by recalling the early 1990s, when it was difficult to obtain strong papers on sustainable tourism, and when conference speakers, from both the industry and from the academy, could be disparaging of the very concept of sustainable tourism. While the concept of sustainable tourism continues to be a subject of robust and sometimes contentious debate, the field has progressed and matured enormously since the 1990s. The Journal now scores strongly, for example, in such metrics as the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journal Impact Factors: in 2015, its three-year impact factor was 2.48, putting it in third place among tourism research journals globally. Its five-year impact factor was 3.44. In some respects, the Journal could be seen as a thematic or specialist publication within tourism, rather than a general tourism journal. Yet, it is unusual among such specialist tourism journals because of sustainable tourism's wide relevance: it is a central issue for all kinds and scales of tourist and tourism activities, and it is also a broad and integrating subject field, involving social, economic, environmental, cultural, and governance dimensions. The Journal is also unusual because its subject matter requires both critical and normative assessments. Sustainable tourism entails both critical analysis and a concern with ethical and political questions concerning how things should be: it thus often challenges existing practices and suggests new practices.

This editorial reviews sustainable tourism research as reflected in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism over the past 25 years, followed by specific consideration of more recent trends. It looks back in order to consider how sustainable tourism research, and its coverage in the Journal, has changed and developed, and is continuing to do so. It also uses the review to suggest ways in which the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and research in this field, might usefully continue to move forward in the future to further increase its relevance, innovation and impact.

Evolving views about sustainable tourism

Views about sustainable tourism have evolved since the Journal of Sustainable Tourism was first published in 1993, with its opening paper defining the subject and outlining its roles (Bramwell & Lane, 1993). The evolution of the subject is reflected in how it has been dealt with in later issues (Johnston, 2014; Lu & Nepal, 2009; Ruhanen, Weiler, Moyle, & McLennan, 2015). While views differ, several broad trends can be suggested. Sustainable tourism is often now seen as a normative orientation that seeks to re-direct societal systems and behaviour on a broad and integrated path toward sustainable development. There is also growing acceptance of a broad conceptualisation that embraces social, cultural, economic and political alongside environmental issues.

Sustainable tourism goals are usually now seen as adaptable according to the circumstances of different contexts and changing circumstances over time. It is also increasingly regarded as relevant for all forms of tourism, regardless of whether it is small- or large-scale. Some researchers now suggest that sustainable tourism entails making trade-offs between differing desirable goals, rather than suggesting that it involves a balance among these goals. There is growing acceptance that there will be differing interpretations of what it entails, the scale of reforms needed to give it force, and the extent to which it is being applied in practice. Because of these differing views, many consider that the idea of sustainable tourism serves as a useful focus for dialogue, conflict and negotiation among a range of actors.

Evolving research themes in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism

Lu and Nepal's (2009) survey provides insights into the broad research themes covered in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism between 1993 and 2007. Over that period, papers providing general discussions of the sustainable tourism concept became less prevalent, with more empirical assessments applying ideas and then evaluating them. They suggest that this might represent the field maturing. We would add that this may also reflect the Journal's increasingly demanding publication standards: innovative critical review papers are valuable, but they can be challenging to develop and write. Lu and Nepal also suggest that the journal's papers up to 2007 reflected varied disciplines, although the journal appeared to be multidisciplinary, with scope for more interdisciplinary work.

Lu and Nepal's (2009, p. 9) survey also indicates that an increasing proportion of the Journal's papers examined tourism in general, perhaps suggesting that sustainable tourism research “has shifted its focus from niche tourism to mass tourism”. Nature-based tourism and ecotourism papers fell from 58% of papers published between 1993 and 1997 to 36% of papers between 2003 and 2007. Five subject areas continued to appear most frequently over the 1993--2007 period: tourism impacts, sustainability assessments, development, visitor behaviour and attitudes, and planning. They also noted a “rise in the number of papers on collaboration and cultural sustainability and a concomitant drop in economics, environmental assessment and marketing” (p. 11). Their review of trends in the Journal's coverage considers the thematic subject matter, but not the subject's theoretical and conceptual ideas and “framing”.

At the very end of Lu and Nepal's survey period for papers in the Journal, and in the years subsequently, there has been a rapid rise in the number of papers published on aspects of the multiple relationships between climate change, global warming and (un)sustainable tourism. The Journal was quick to publish on climate change and tourism, with Wall and Badke's seminal paper in 1994. Eleven more years then passed, with just two papers on climate change. But in 2006, the floodgates opened for papers on that area, with two climate change-related Journal Special Issues and 17 papers in that year. Sixty-eight more papers have been published between 2007 and the end of 2016, and these have been particularly well cited by other researchers. Climate change is a much more contested issue than some others in the sustainable tourism debate, and at times it demands special technical knowledge. It is, however, closely linked to discussions about tourism's environmental impacts, societal and behavioural change, and the tourism industry's governance, and it is widely seen as a key issue for the future of sustainable tourism (Scott, 2011; Scott, Gössling, Hall, & Peeters, 2016; Scott, Hall, & Gössling, 2016; Weaver, 2011).

Recent trends in the “framing” of sustainable tourism issues

In recent years, some key sustainable tourism issues have been more fully “framed” or “reframed” in the research literature, including in articles in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. How we “frame” sustainable tourism issues in broad theoretical terms is important for our understanding of them, the questions we ask about them, and how we develop associated policies. This “framing” affects how we construct and define issues (Bramwell, 2015). It shapes our views about “what matters and what does not, behind which lie ideas about how things work” (Harding & Blokland, 2014, p. 13). It also affects sustainable tourism policy agendas and specific proposals and actions likely to be deemed possible and worthwhile, and which thus may be applied in practice. The discussion here considers examples of potentially important recent changes in the “framing” of sustainable tourism issues as reflected in articles published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. These changes indicate significant shifts in the direction of sustainable tourism research activity and some potentially valuable avenues for future research.

First, in recent years, there has been emerging disquiet about how sustainable tourism research and policies can often concentrate more on understanding and altering the attitudes, behaviours and choices of individual actors, at the expense of understanding and changing wider social relations and socio-technical structures, including systems of provision. It is suggested there is a dominant social science perspective on sustainability which is “organised around theories of individual attitude, behaviour and choice”, meaning that “efforts to promote more sustainable patterns of consumer behaviour draw upon a remarkably narrow range of conceptual resources” (Shove, 2014, pp. 415 and 427). Hall (2013) contends that this dominant paradigm favours certain behavioural approaches to sustainable tourism, and also encourages ignorance of other ways of “framing” consumer behaviour. More researchers now contend that consumer behaviour should be considered in relation to wider social relations and socio-technical structures, including meanings, technologies, institutions, governance regimes and systems of provision (Hall, 2016; Williams, 2013).

Second, and related to the previous trend, some researchers now indicate that in order to encourage more sustainable tourism, there is a need to examine and change our every day, often highly routinised, social practices, along with the associated societal relations and socio-technical structures. The societal relations and socio-technical systems involve broad systems of production and consumption. Our systems of consumption are socially produced, often reflecting our norms and fashions, and production systems are based upon technologies, infrastructures and governance processes that may largely dictate people's behavioural and consumption patterns. It can be suggested here that in order to move toward more sustainable tourism, there is a need to alter the relationships within and between social practices, social relations and socio-technical systems. This “framing” is seen in a number of recent articles in the Journal (e.g. Higham, Cohen, Peeters, & Gössling, 2013; Iaquinto, 2015; Luzecka, 2016).

Third, there has been recent interest in how we might understand potential pathways for the social transformations required for more sustainable tourism. Some researchers present these pathways as involving “path-dependent path-creation” (William, 2013, p. 511). This suggests that people's attempts to shape more sustainable practices (path creation) occur in the context of previously established pathways (path dependence), such as previously established institutional rules and social norms. In this journal, Williams (2013) considers how established social and consumption routines mean that tourists are often wedded to the consumption preferences of car travel and low-cost airlines. He also highlights how tourism industry decisions about sustainability are constrained by the need for financial returns from previous investments, such as from tourist accommodation and airports. Other recent papers in this Journal suggest that creating pathways to more sustainable tourism is likely to involve careful “transition management” (Gössling, Hall, Ekström, Engeset, & Aall, 2012; Luzecka, 2016; Scuttari, Volgger, & Pechlaner, 2016).

Fourth, many researchers now consider it important to assess how governance systems and regimes can steer society, including tourism activities, toward either more or less sustainable tourism. Governance is a relatively new conceptualisation in tourism research, representing a broad view of how societies and social action are steered, mobilised and regulated. Governance systems and regimes can steer societal relations, including social rules and values, and also socio-technical systems, such as the technologies of tourism provision, which affect the introduction of more sustainable tourism practices. Connections between governance and sustainable tourism are explored in the 2011 Special Issue of this Journal on “Tourism governance: critical perspectives on governance and sustainability”, and in a number of recent papers in the Journal (Hartman, 2016; Wray, 2015).

Fifth, interest is growing in whole systems perspectives on (un)sustainable tourism that stress the importance of complex interconnections around social systems and between human and natural systems. More studies now examine multiple and system-wide connections, dynamic feedback within/between systems, and contextualised root causes. These processes can also be considered at varied spatial scales and in differing time frames. Some of these studies focus on bridging between work on human and natural systems, or on a “coupled human–natural system” approach (Leyshon, 2014, p. 360; Lowe, Phillipson, & Wilkinson, 2013). In this Journal, Calgaro, Lloyd, and Dominey-Howes (2014, p. 356) adopt a “dynamic coupled human–environment system” perspective when developing a framework to assess the vulnerability and resilience of tourist destinations. This framework can be used for destination resilience-building strategies. Similar whole systems ideas are used in papers by Espiner and Becken (2014), Mai and Smith (2015), and Scherrer and Doohan (2014).

Sixth, a number of recent papers adopt a “critical turn” in “framing” (un)sustainable tourism, an approach which often seeks to understand society, including, in many cases, any oppressive, exploitative and alienating features, and also seeks to effect transformative and progressive change (Bramwell & Lane, 2014). Such papers can focus on issues related to ethics and politics. An example in this Journal is Jamal and Camargo's (2014) evaluation of ethical and justice issues experienced by disadvantaged local residents in Quintana Roo, Mexico, associated with tourism's procedural and distributive processes. And Hof and Blázquez-Salom (2015) examine the effects of tourism development on water consumption in Mallorca, Spain. They argue that Mallorca's tourism-related growth model is driven by capital investment for accumulation and increasing gains, and is also supported by two supposed “sustainability fixes”, of quality tourism and water supply growth and privatisation, which they contend serve to accommodate further tourism growth.

The need for a broader view of sustainable tourism issues and challenges

As researchers and educators, we enjoy an incredibly privileged position. For very many years, we have been funded through a combination of the state and students to help young people to prepare for the world they are about to enter, and to help better prepare the world for the needs of the young people about to enter it. Today, the support students need from us as teachers is far beyond the levels that have ever been available previously, while the support the world needs from us as researchers is greater than at any time before. As researchers, we are increasingly tasked with producing research that is impactful. Definitions of what is impact will vary, but if our research is not impactful, then it could be seen as narcissism, either publicly funded narcissism, or a vanity funded by student debt. Hence, we need to be able to demonstrate that our research is connecting with the key challenges facing society, and doing so in a way that adds to the public debate on these topics.

There is no shortage of challenges facing society at present, and particularly those that are relevant to the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. Indeed, the United Nations has deemed 2017 to be the year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. The UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai describes 2017 as “a unique opportunity to advance the contribution of the tourism sector to the three pillars of sustainability – economic, social and environment – while raising awareness of the true dimensions of a sector which is often undervalued” (UNWTO, 2015, online). The UN has also produced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an outcome of the 2012 Rio+20 UN conference on Sustainable Development, and follow-on from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The 17 SDGs balance the environmental, social, and economic aspects of development and run from 2015 to 2030. SDGs exceed the MDGs in scale, scope and ambition, seeking to eliminate rather than reduce global poverty (see Table 1).¹

Table 1. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015–2030.

SDG	Description
1. No poverty	Poverty is the lack of income and resources to ensure a sustainable livelihood, and its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making
2. Zero hunger	Our soils, freshwater, oceans, forests and biodiversity are being rapidly degraded. Climate change is putting even more pressure on the resources we depend on, increasing the risks associated with disasters such as droughts and floods
3. Good health and well-being	Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development
4. Quality education	Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people's lives and sustainable development
5. Gender equality	Women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. It demands equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes
6. Clean water and sanitation	Water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world. Drought afflicts some of the world's poorest countries, worsening hunger and malnutrition
7. Affordable and clean energy	Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential. Sustainable energy offers a transformation opportunity
8. Decent work and economic growth	Sustainable economic growth will require societies to create the conditions that allow people to have quality jobs that stimulate the economy while not harming the environment. Job opportunities and decent working conditions are also required for the whole working age population
9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure	Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities
10. Reduced inequalities	There is a growing consensus that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce poverty if it is not inclusive. To reduce inequality, policies should be universal in principle paying attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalised populations
11. Sustainable cities and communities	Common urban challenges include congestion, lack of funds to provide basic services, a shortage of adequate housing and declining infrastructure. The future we want includes cities of opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more
12. Responsible consumption and production	Sustainable consumption and production is about promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all
13. Climate action	Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. Implementation of the Paris Agreement is essential for the achievement of the SDGs, and provides a roadmap for climate actions that will reduce emissions and build climate resilience
14. Life below water	The world's oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future
15. Life on land	Deforestation and desertification – caused by human activities and climate change – pose major challenges to sustainable development and have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the fight against poverty. Efforts are being made to manage forests and combat desertification
16. Peace, justice and strong institutions	The promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels
17. Partnerships for the goals	A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre are needed at the global, regional, national and local level

Source: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/.

In addition, and highly relevant to the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, the 21st annual Conference of the Parties (COP) led to the Paris Agreement, the first universal, legally binding global climate deal. The Paris Agreement commits Parties to a limit of warming that is below two degrees centigrade and sets nationally determined contributions towards that goal. Further, there are elements of the agreement relating to adaptation, mitigation, and development mechanisms. The Paris Agreement was opened for ratification on Earth Day 2016, on which day more than 170 countries signed, and those governments are now slowly making progress towards ratifying the agreement into national law. Progress toward implementation will be evaluated every five years in a global “stocktake”, the first of which is set to occur in 2023 (Scott et al., 2016).

This global context can help us to situate much of our research, especially at the macro-level. There are of course other frameworks and ways to assess our efforts, but using the 17 SDGs as a framework for reviewing the topics of papers published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism since the beginning of 2015 provides some insight into the areas where researchers are beginning to focus. By far the largest number of papers published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism relate to SDG 12 “to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”. These papers are on understanding consumer demand, opportunities for behaviour change, communication of sustainability messaging, and assessment of attitudes and behaviours. On the supply side, recent papers assess topics such as the link between environmental and financial performance, drivers for sustainability innovation and the benefits of introducing new technologies and patterns of production. Other well-published areas include tackling climate change (SDG 13), protecting marine and coastal environments (SDG 14), and protecting ecosystems and reducing biodiversity loss (SDG 15). SDG 16 refers to “promoting peaceful and inclusive societies”, through “building inclusive institutions”, and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism has published many papers on systems of governance, increasing community involvement in decision-making and stakeholder involvement. Yet, although these papers can be connected to this SDG, they do not have an inclusive society as an overt objective of the paper, and instead have focused on the process of assessing community engagement itself, perhaps losing sight of why it is that different systems of governance are necessary.

What is perhaps more interesting from this simple review of the topics published in 2015 and 2016 in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism is the areas where there has been a relative dearth of scholarly activity. Relatively few papers were published in 2015 and 2016 on the topics of poverty alleviation (SDG1); ending hunger (SDG2); well-being (SDG3); lifelong learning and education (SDG4); gender equality (SDG5); ensuring access to sustainable energy (SDG7); reducing inequality (SDG10); sustainable cities (SDG11); strengthening global partnerships (SDG17) and ensuring healthy lives (SDG3). This is despite the priority directed to these challenges by the United Nations, which highlights the urgency of addressing these goals in the coming years (2015--2030). It may be of interest to readers that the Journal of Sustainable Tourism has, in its two most recent volumes, published as many papers on birdwatching as it has on ensuring inclusive and equitable education opportunities for all (SDG4).

None of this discussion is to argue that human--wildlife interactions are unimportant, or that the Journal of Sustainable Tourism should slavishly follow the SDGs or to limit our thinking to a mechanistic approach to sustainability. Indeed, there are very good arguments that sustainability is best achieved by pursuing a non-development path, rather than via the SDGs that assume development and growth. Further, this analysis is not in any way a criticism of the choices that authors have made in what to research, and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism remains committed to publishing papers that advocate different approaches to sustainability. However, as with much of tourism, what is interesting about our subject is how it can be used as a way to study wider issues, so when a festival or event, museum or volunteering scheme becomes the focus of the attention itself, then we significantly reduce our relevance to wider issues and audiences. And when an international world body has identified 17 broad areas to define sustainability, and the journal dedicated to thinking about what tourism can contribute to sustainability does so through its connection predominantly in five or six of these areas, then it should give us pause to reflect upon our contribution as a community of scholars, while also encouraging thought on the value of the development path identified by global bodies.

Reading back through papers published in 2015 and 2016, it is clear that the Journal of Sustainable Tourism has published papers that bring new ideas and theoretical approaches to sustainability. David Weaver and Xin Jin write in 24(5) on the concept of compassion as a motivator for sustainable tourism, while in the same issue of the journal, Olga Yudina and Bryan Grimwood employ ecofeminism to assess polar bear watching. In an upcoming paper for 2017, Joanna Pearce, Jennifer Strickland-Munro and Susan Moore write about “awe” and how this helps to understand our connection to natural environments. These are just three examples of creative minds bringing new ideas, and ideas from other subjects, to help us think about sustainability. But, this review of the topics we are publishing on does reveal that we are not sufficiently aligned with the dominant operationalisation of SDGs, and if we are to be more impactful in our research, and to serve our society and academy better, then there is a need to re-focus the topics of some of our research, or at least to draw clearer connection to the challenges identified by the SDGs, the Paris agreement and other global initiatives.

Need for more diverse research methodologies and approaches

Beyond the topics published, the same approach can be used to assess the research methods in the papers published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism during 2015 and 2016. This demonstrates some narrowness to the methods we have employed. The most commonly employed approach to research has been the single-destination case study. There are an encouraging number of multiple destination case studies, but far fewer than single cases. Perhaps, predictably the review of 2015--2016 shows an abundance of quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, secondary data analysis and literature review papers. During this time, the journal received few papers that employ field experiments, just one paper that uses big data analysis, and none that achieve direct measurement of the issue under investigation through access to resource meters or similar. Very few papers have used longitudinal data and little evidence exists to indicate support for research from commercial companies. By contrast, relationships with public sector bodies appear to be strong.

A subject that is thriving intellectually must address the key challenges confronting society. It must be doing this through research that is credible and rigorous, and that bridges theory and practice. Anderson (2016, online) comments that the disciplinary structures of universities are divided into faculties, schools and departments, “all interpreting the world through their own narrow methodological lens”. He notes that “such post-enlightenment reductionism has proved phenomenally successful and is a pivotal basis for modern industrial society – both its wonders and its ills. But whilst the ‘wonders’ continue to flourish … mitigating the ‘ills’ demands we acknowledge and attempt to address thorny systemic and innately interdisciplinary issues”. Sustainable development, as articulated in the SDGs, requires collective action and systemic change. It challenges us to tackle complex issues in new ways, which demand a new order of collaborations that transcend disciplines and methodologies.

Individual academics can hold positions of privilege; positions that afford the opportunity to influence communities of practice by shaping and influencing debates and arguments for a sustainable society, whether and how it might be achieved, and what role tourism is playing and can play in any such changes. We need to carefully and critically consider the prospects for a sustainable society, and the means for a secure future for humanity and others. Academic institutions must serve as the role of conscience of society, and scholars must reflect upon their own research and their own actions with regard to how they may affect change. Anderson (2016), citing Chancel and Piketty (2015), also reminds us that 10% of the global population – the “high emitters” – produce approximately half of total global GHG emissions. Members of the academic community are high emitters and it will be incumbent upon us to progressively adopt alternative academic practices (see Høyer & Naess, 2001). It is necessary that, beyond the publication of our research, we demonstrate a commitment to sustainability in all aspects of our scholarly work, to overcome a hypocrisy that is now and will be increasingly questioned.

Conclusion

We now mark the first 25 years of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and embark upon the next quadranscentennial. In doing so, we recognise that the 25 years ahead present a new order of challenges confronting sustainable development and sustainable tourism. We also acknowledge the urgency of the manifold challenges that we face relating to poverty and inequality, food and water security, health and well-being, socio-cultural change, clean energy, biodiversity, resource depletion and climate change. These are challenges that tourism scholars must continue to address, and that they may most effectively address in collaborations that reach not only across disciplines, but also across sectors of the economy, levels of government, and communities of policy and practice.

As is noted in SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals), “A successful sustainable development agenda requires … inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre”. To do so, we intend to commission review papers relating specifically to tourism's connection to the SDGs. We would like to cast a wide net to draw diverse disciplinary perspectives on tourism and the SDGs. We are also planning to specifically address these topics in future Special Issues in order to ensure that we can be a place where tourism's relevance to these broad global sustainable development issues can be discussed. We now have a critical mass of high-quality papers to allow regular themed issues that address specific fields such as tourism and climate change. This builds on the Journal of Sustainable Tourism's tradition of developing and publishing Special Issues on potentially important emerging issues, subject areas and approaches. We will continue to build the volume of original, significant and rigorous research that critically addresses all aspects of sustainable development and sustainable tourism.

This editorial also marks a significant point of transition in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism's editing arrangements. The Journal was founded by Bill Bramwell and Bernard Lane, and edited by them between 1993 and 2016. Two new editors, James Higham and Graham Miller, were appointed as co-editors in June 2015. Bill Bramwell is now stepping down from editing the Journal, and Bernard Lane will concentrate on Special Issues until he steps down in mid-2017. From 1 January 2017, the journal editors will be James Higham and Graham Miller. Michael Hall continues as book review editor. The Journal of Sustainable Tourism has sought to break new ground over the last 25 years, and we look forward to it continuing to serve the research community in the future.

Notes

1. See http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html.