What’s in a name? The meaning of sustainability to destination managers

Abstract

Destination managers frequently describe strategies, plans, or projects in destinations as part of an overall commitment to sustainable development or sustainability in the destination. The meaning of the term sustainability, however, is highly contested in both academia and practice, and it is not at all clear what destination managers mean when they claim to act in the interests of sustainable tourism. This paper assesses the concept of sustainability and its operationalisation by destination managers at the regional destination level. Our international, comparative study examines two destination regions that emphasise nature-based tourism, the Tyrolean Oberland, Austria, and the South Island of New Zealand. Twenty-two high-ranking destination managers representing 20 destinations were interviewed. We demonstrate how colloquial, academic, and applied interpretations of sustainability are tangled and intertwined in day-to-day destination management. The types of destination management interventions that are described as sustainable and the extent to which the economic component of sustainability is prioritised vary strongly across destinations and destination regions. The study results demonstrate that in order to achieve sustainability in destinations, stakeholders need to develop a shared understanding of what constitutes sustainable destination development, and how it can be meaningfully operationalised.

Keywords:

• Nature-based tourism
• destination management
• tourism management
• sustainable development
• tourism development