Tourism and Environment: Ecology, Management, Economics, Climate, Health, and Politics
File version
Version of Record (VoR)
Author(s)
Underdahl, Sonya
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract
We review research on tourism and the environment using a temporal framework, distinct from previous reviews. We identify six main phases, all still active, but with different histories. Initially, tourism was treated as a low-impact component of transport and urban accommodation, and the focus was on recreation, ecology and visitor management in parks. Interest then turned to environmental management and corporate social responsibility: wastes, resources, and ecolabels. The third phase analysed positive economic contributions to conservation by a small number of tourism enterprises, principally through private reserves and park funding. The fourth focussed on climate change and carbon offsets, and the fifth on mental health and human capital. The sixth and newest phase is political. Tourism developers, industry associations, and lobbyists have stepped up their longstanding efforts to gain control of parks and protected areas, in order to profit from preferential access to public resources. These efforts now include international instruments as well as policies, practices, and legislation in individual countries. Tourism has become a catspaw for a new form of land grab by private wealth portfolios for high-value nature property. We draw attention to tourism development land grabs in public protected areas as a key priority for urgent research.
Journal Title
Sustainability
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
15
Issue
21
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Terrestrial ecology
Tourism
Environmental management
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Studies
Persistent link to this record
Citation
Buckley, RC; Underdahl, S, Tourism and Environment: Ecology, Management, Economics, Climate, Health, and Politics, Sustainability, 2023, 15 (21), pp. 15416