Education and Training for Sustainable Tourism: Problems, Possibilities and Cautious First Steps

Abstract

Tourism is the fastest growing industry in the world, and its environmental impacts are so great that the achievement of sustainable tourism would seem to integral to the achievement of sustainable development. Tourism impacts are wide-ranging, are perceived differently by different interest groups, and are subject to extensive uncertainty. However, there appears to be widespread agreement that education has, at the very least, an important role to play in the achievement of sustainable tourism. In this paper a possible theoretical approach to education for sustainable tourism is advanced, and a small scale research project based upon this approach is described. The project sought to integrate education for sustainable tourism into an established management curriculum using an innovative technique based on the idea of an "adaptive concept." Following the collection and analysis of both qualitative and, to a lesser degree, quantitative data, it was concluded that gains might legitimately be claimed in terms of criteria drawn from the perspectives of both environmental education and management education.