Constructing sustainable tourism development: The 2030 agenda and the managerial ecology of sustainable tourism

Abstract

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets a series of sustainable development goals (SDGs) “to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all” by 2030. The Agenda influences tourism policy even though the Agenda resolution only mentions tourism three times. A “heterogeneous constructionism” approach is adopted to examine the managerial ecology of tourism and the SDGs. Managerial ecology involves the instrumental application of science and economic utilitarian approaches and in the service of resource utilisation and economic development. A managerial ecological approach is integral to UNWTO work on the SDGs, as well as other actors, and is reflected in policy recommendations for achievement of the SDGs even though tourism is less sustainable than ever with respect to resource use. This situation substantially affects capacities to do “other,” and create alternative development and policy trajectories. It is concluded that a more reflexive understanding of knowledge and management is required to better understand the implications of knowledge circulation and legitimisation and action for sustainable tourism. More fundamentally, there is a need to rethink human–environment relations given the mistaken belief that the exertion of more effort and greater efficiency will alone solve problems of sustainable tourism.

Keywords:

• Complexity
• heterogeneous constructionism
• knowledge
• managerial ecology
• neoliberalism
• sustainable development goals

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments as well as those of the editors of the special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. Michael Hall

Michael Hall is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Visiting Professor, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden; and Docent, Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. He has written widely on tourism, regional development, environmental change, sustainability, and resilience. https://scholar.google.co.nz/citations?user=d5GFhXYAAAAJ&hl=en