Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet Environmental, Business and Policy Solutions

This book helps all those involved in international tourism develop the new skills, tools and investments required to protect irreplaceable global resources from the impacts of escalating tourism demand over the next 50 years. It documents how technology and the growing global middle class are driving a travel revolution which requires a new paradigm in managing tourism destinations. Travel and tourism supply chains and business models for hotels, tour operators, cruise lines, airlines and airports are analysed and environmental management techniques are proposed for each sector. A pragmatic set of solutions are offered to support the transition to lower impact tourism development worldwide.

It recommends that decision makers assess the current and future value of natural, social, and cultural capital to guide investment in destinations and protect vital resources. Case studies illustrate why budgets to protect local destinations are consistently underestimated and offer guidance on new metrics. Innovative approaches are proposed to support the transition to green infrastructure, protect incomparable landscapes, and engage local people in the monitoring of vital indicators to protect local resources.

It provides students, professionals, and policy makers with far-reaching recommendations for new educational programs, professional expertise, financing, and legal frameworks to lower tourism?s rapidly escalating carbon impacts and protect the health and well-being of local populations, ecosystems, cultures, and monuments worldwide.

1 The Challenge of Sustainably Managing Tourism on a Finite Planet2 Managing a Spider Web: The Tourism Industry Supply Chains & Sustainability3 Economic Development of Tourism in Emerging Economies4 Hotels – The Backbone of the Tourism Industry5 I’ll Fly Away- Airlines, Airports and the Global Circulation of Travelers6Tour Operators – Exporting and Importing Customers Worldwide
7 The Cruise Industry – Empire of the Seas8 Destinations - The Heart of Tourism Sustainability 9 Conclusions – The Future of Sustainable Tourism

Megan Epler Wood founded and led The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) from 1990 to 2002. She is the Director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, an instructor of online courses in sustainable tourism at Harvard Extension’s Graduate School of Sustainability, and a Senior Project Associate at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Her consulting practice EplerWood International fosters sustainable tourism development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.