A decade in the dark: An updated quality control framework to facilitate customised sustainable tourism practice

Abstract

Sustainable tourism quality control tools (QCTs) assist the translation of sustainable tourism tenets into business practice; they facilitate intra-organisational sustainability progress amongst businesses that voluntarily elect to adopt them. Their collective use contributes to destination-wide sustainability progress (Black & Crabtree, 2007; GSTC, 2015). Despite this utility, the attendant scholarly activity stagnated over the past decade. To advance the field conceptually and empirically, an updated QCT framework, underpinned by a systematic classification protocol, is warranted. Through literature review and inductive assessment of the relevant knowledge, this research proposes a systematic classification protocol to underpin a QCT framework that concurrently accommodates QCT diversity and illuminates how each QCT progresses sustainability. The proposed framework is applicable across diverse destination contexts, ultimately fostering informed selection of a customised ―QCT mix‖ that optimally progresses the practical application of sustainable tourism tenets.