Overcommitted to tourism and under committed to sustainability: the urgency of teaching “strong sustainability” in tourism courses

Abstract

With the tourism sector being urged to contribute to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tourism educators need to develop industry leaders with “strong sustainability” mindsets. “Sustainable development” has long been contested as a weaker form of sustainability due to its “pro-growth” emphasis. Research suggests that tourism students are graduating with narrow understandings of sustainability, partly due to course designs based on weaker conceptualisations of sustainability and a lack of holistic, critical and systemic thinking. The purpose of this paper is to analyse – using content analysis – the strength of sustainability conceptualisations underpinning international undergraduate sustainable tourism courses, which has not previously been carried out. Results indicate that sustainable tourism courses do not include “very strong” conceptualisations of sustainability, and that sustainability pedagogy and approaches such as systems and holistic thinking are not widely used. This paper argues that stronger conceptualisations and sustainability skills are essential. A framework is also suggested to assist tourism educators to use critical reflective thinking in conjunction with the SDGs to assist the development of more complex ways of thinking and acting towards achieving global sustainable tourism outcomes. The discussion concludes with suggestions for further research to ensure stronger sustainable tourism curricula.

Keywords:

• Critical thinking
• strong sustainability
• sustainable development goals (SDGs)
• sustainability skills
• tourism curricula

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Debbie Cotterell

Debbie Cotterell is a PhD candidate within the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management at Griffith University, Australia. Her PhD is exploring the teaching and learning of sustainable tourism courses within higher education with a particular interest in the concept of “strong sustainability” and the use of phenomenography as a research approach in education.

Robert Hales

Rob Hales is currently a lecturer in the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management within the Griffith University Business School. Dr Hales is also currently Director of the Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise where he works with staff to achieve sustainability goals of the Griffith Business School. His research interests focus on social science issues across a range of contexts that include climate change, sustainable tourism, development studies, parks and outdoor recreation, social movements and studies with First People. The central theme running through all his research projects is a focus on social and environmental justice issues. Rob currently teaches courses leadership and sustainable development. His background in environmental science, small business operations as well as outdoor environmental education informs his research and teaching.

Charles Arcodia

Charles Arcodia is an Associate Professor within the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management. He joined Griffith University in 2012 and has held previous full-time positions at the University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology. He has also had part-time/visiting academic positions at various other Australian and overseas universities. Dr Arcodia’s research interests are generally in the field of event management and Tourism Management Education, particularly approaches to experiential learning. The outcomes of his research have appeared in a variety of books and academic journals. Dr Arcodia is the Executive Editor of the International Journal of Event Management Research and is an editorial board member of four other scholarly journals.

Jo-Anne Ferreira

Jo-Anne Ferreira is Associate Professor, Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education, and Academic Director SCU Online, at Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia. Jo-Anne’s research interests are in online education and the sociology of education with a special interest in post-structuralist theories of identity, embodiment and power, and environmental and sustainability education. Recent research has focused on systems-based change in teacher education and on the strategies and techniques utilized by environmental and sustainability educators to empower learners to become environmental citizens. She is currently undertaking research on systemic approaches to change within pre-service teacher education and on how environmental citizenship skills are taught and learnt through sustainability education.