Beyond certification: an empirically expanded quality control tool ‘multiverse’ for sustainable tourism

Abstract

Sustainable tourism quality control tools (ST-QCTs) are voluntary mechanisms essential for translating sustainable tourism concepts into practice. Recent scholarship, synthesizing the extant literature, revealed a complex ‘multiverse’ of 15 ST-QCT types and seven critical variability parameters. Our empirical investigation of this multiverse in the diversified, year-round destination of Park City, USA, involving 27 semi-structured interviews with business informants representing three sectors, revealed another 11 ST-QCT types and the two additional critical variability parameters of formality (formal-to-informal) and dependence (dependent-to-independent). The results, indicating multiple alternative ST-QCT pathways with idiosyncratic merit at the operational scale, provide incipient evidence of a transition from conventional, standardized ‘Fordist’ modes of sustainable tourism practice to ‘post-Fordist’ modes conferring greater flexibility and customization.