Sustainable tourism mobilities (2009)

The tourism domain is faced with a complex sustainability challenge. Not only do more people travel, they also travel more often and over longer distances, while increasingly making use of a very unsustainable mode of transport: air travel. This tourism growth and the related growth in tourism mobilities are matters of increasing environmental concern. This thesis explores possible transition pathways to more sustainable tourism mobilities by taking a practice approach. Practice approaches emphasise that human behaviour is not only the result of individual decision-making processes, but is also heavily influenced by the specific context in which it takes place. The analysis in this thesis is therefore focused on the interaction between tourists, tourism businesses and travelling infrastructures in specific practices in the tourism domain. Based on the results of three empirical studies, it is argued that sustainability measures at the level of tourism practices are effective strategies for a sustainable development of tourism mobilities. This argument is supported by a relevant typology of tourism practices which is developed throughout the book.