THRIVE: 07 Since the 1990s, sustainability has been a powerful development framework for tourism. In principle, we can only initiate and finance new tourism attractions and prepare development plans and policies by considering tourism industry’s environmental, social, and economic impacts on host communities and areas, writes STH Distinguished Visiting Professor, Professor Jarkko Saarinen. The connection between tourism and sustainability has not been necessarily limiting. In fact, it has become an empowering and highly successful platform for the development of the global tourism industry. Due to the sustainability connection, many international development agencies, including various branches of the United Nations, consider tourism as a highly prospective tool for global development and realizing sustainability in a local scale for human and environmental well-being. The World Bank, for example, has listed 20 reasons why the tourism industry works for human development and wellbeing beyond the industry. These reasons are integrated into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and objectives and targets such as: ◼ ◼ sustainable economic growth ◼ ◼ social inclusiveness, employment, and poverty reduction ◼ ◼ resource efficiency, environmental protection ◼ ◼ cultural values, diversity, and heritage ◼ ◼ and mutual understanding, peace, and security In this respect, the World TourismOrganization has indicated that the industry could contribute to inclusive and global sustainable development by continuing its ‘dynamic and resilient growth path’. This growth path has recently been the subject of intensified criticism, as an increasing number of researchers indicate that the impacts of growth-oriented tourism conflict with the mitigation targets of global climate change, for example. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted, there is an urgent need for significant changes in transportation systems and our production and consumption. According to the IPCC targets, we should halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050. However, based on the estimated growth of global tourism, aviation emissions may triple by 2050 to a level that international tourism might account for 25 % of the worldwide carbon budget. Despite all the potential good that tourism can do for sustainable development in local communities and environments, the scale of global impacts will not be acceptable in the future. Therefore, while sustainability was a major innovation for the tourism development of the 1990s, we now face an urgent need for radical innovations in sustainable tourism. The industry has created beneficial mechanisms and technologies for conserving the environment, energy efficiency, and recycling on a destination scale. They all are essential for sustainable tourism destination governance and resilience. Still, globally the immediate priority for truly sustainable tourism development is on mobility: the travel from home to destinations and back, which create a clear majority of the carbon emissions in tourism. This is challenging for future tourism in South Africa, where a major flow of visitors benefitting the country’s tourism industry and tourism-dependent communities are coming from overseas by flying. This calls for developing domestic and regional tourism and related attraction systems, but also novel research on sustainable tourismmobilities that are less dependent on fossil fuels in the future. Searching for Radical Innovations for Sustainable Tourism The connection between tourism and sustainability has not been necessarily limiting. In fact, it has become an empowering and highly successful platform for the development of the global tourism industry S u s t a i n a b i l i t y Professor Jarkko Saarinen is an STH Distinguished Visiting Professor and a Professor of Human Geography, University of Oulu, Finland. This writing is based on Saarinen, J. (2022). ‘Leave no one behind’: Towards sustainable innovations in tourismdevelopment. In I. Booyens & P. Brouder (Eds), Handbook of Innovation for Sustainable Tourism, pp. 21-39. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
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