James Higham | University of Otago (original) (raw)

Tourism and climate change by James Higham

While transportation currently accounts for 23% of total global energy-related CO 2 emissions, tr... more While transportation currently accounts for 23% of total global energy-related CO 2 emissions, transport emissions are projected to double by 2050, driven significantly by continued high growth in global passenger demand for air travel. Addressing high growth in aviation emissions is critical to climate stabilization. Currently we rely on individual decisions to forego air travel as the means of reducing these high-risk emissions. In this paper we argue that encouraging voluntary responses to such risks cannot succeed due to the nature of human reason and the structure of the problem itself. We use decision making theory to explore why individuals have been generally unwilling or unable to act upon these risks, and collective action theory to illustrate the futility of relying on uncoordinated actors in such cases. Participation in the high-carbon air travel regime is a social convention, and transition from social conventions requires coordination among players. Our theoretical discussions lead us to conclude that it is our moral duty to promote coordinated collective action, via national or global policy mechanisms, to address tourist aviation emissions. We offer various avenues of future research to advance this moral duty.

Aviation emissions are an important contributor to global climatic change. As growth in travel de... more Aviation emissions are an important contributor to global climatic change. As growth in travel demand continues to outstrip improvements in the fuel efficiency of air travel, the aviation contribution to climate change is likely to grow substantially. Consequently, measures that effectively reduce travel demand are required if atmospheric carbon concentrations are to be limited. The efficacy of the Australian Clean Energy Future policy which placed a 23.00AUD(FY2012)to23.00AUD (FY 2012) to 23.00AUD(FY2012)to24.15 AUD (FY 2013) per tonne levy on carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions from July 2012 to June 2014 is tested. Specifically, time-series regression is used to estimate the effect of this carbon price policy on the level of domestic passenger kilometres flown in Australia, while adjusting for costs of production (i.e. fuel and labour costs), economic activity (i.e. gross domestic product), competitive effects (i.e. airline capacity), and exogenous shocks. There was no evidence that the carbon price reduced the level of domestic aviation in Australia. Carbon pricing measures may have to be levied at a greater rate to affect behavioural change, particularly given the limited potential for future aviation efficiency gains.

Emissions from aviation will continue to increase in the future, in contradiction of global clima... more Emissions from aviation will continue to increase in the future, in contradiction of global climate policy objectives. Yet, airlines and airline organizations suggest that aviation will become climatically sustainable. This paper investigates this paradox by reviewing fuel-efficiency gains since the 1960s in comparison to aviation growth, and by linking these results to technology discourses, based on a two-tiered approach tracing technology-focused discourses over 20 years (1994-2013). Findings indicate that a wide range of solutions to growing emissions from aviation have been presented by industry, hyped in global media, and subsequently vanished to be replaced by new technology discourses. Redundant discourses often linger in the public domain, where they continue to be associated with industry aspirations of ‘sustainable aviation’ and ‘zero-emission flight’. The paper highlights and discusses a number of technology discourses that constitute ‘technology myths’, also outlining how policy makers embrace technology myths, and how this may have adversely impacted progress in climate policy for aviation.

This overview paper examines three areas crucial to understanding why, despite clear scientific e... more This overview paper examines three areas crucial to understanding why, despite clear scientific evidence for the growing environmental impacts of tourism transport, there is large-scale inertia in structural transitions and a lack of political will to enact meaningful sustainable mobility policies. These include the importance of addressing socio-technical factors, barriers posed by 'technology myths' and the need to overcome 'transport taboos' in policymaking. The paper seeks pathways to sustainable mobility by bridging the science – policy gap between academic research and researchers, and policymakers and practitioners. It introduces key papers presented at the Freiburg 2014 workshop, covering the case for researcher engagement using advocacy and participatory approaches, the role of universities in creating their own social mobility policies, the power of social mechanisms encouraging long-haul travel, issues in consumer responsibility development, industry self regulation and the operation of realpolitik decision making and implementation inside formal and informal destination based mobility partnerships. Overall, the paper argues that governments and the tourism and transport industries must take a more cautious approach to the technological optimism that fosters policy inertia, and that policymakers must take a more open approach to implementing sustainable transport policies. A research agenda for desirable transport futures is suggested.

• A thorough exploration of low carbon mobility transitions from a range of disciplinary and theo... more • A thorough exploration of low carbon mobility transitions from a range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives; • A broad view of low carbon transition across travel, transport, tourism and mobilities studies; • A critical exploration of the global, regional and local prospects for low carbon mobility transitions; • Illustrating examples of low carbon transition, from leading scholars researching in a wide range of geographic contexts. Arranged in three interrelated sections; People and Place, Structures in Transition, and Innovations for Low Carbon Mobility, Low Carbon Mobility Transitions presents nineteen theoretically-informed, empirically grounded chapters and case studies that comprehensively address the prospects for global, regional, and local systemic transitions to low carbon mobility. Bringing together the work of leading researchers from 26 universities, research centres and consultancies, spanning six continents, it critically explores the wide-ranging regional contexts in which a low carbon transition has been, is being, or can be achieved. In doing so, it highlights the place-specific, geopolitical and cultural sensitivities of low carbon transitions at national, regional and local (urban) scales. The overlapping roles of technological innovation, behaviour change and policy frameworks are critically examined in this book, providing timely insights into the opportunities for decarbonising the current systems of transport, in order to achieve the radical emissions reductions required to prevent lasting impacts of climate change. Must-have and essential reading for all researchers, teachers and upper level students.

Hopkins, D., Higham, J.E.S., Tapp, S. & Duncan, T. (2016). Academic travel in the Anthropocene: A comparative study of university policy at three New Zealand institutions. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 24(2) (in press)., Jun 2015

Anthropogenic climate change is a wicked problem, requiring fundamental behavioural and technolog... more Anthropogenic climate change is a wicked problem, requiring fundamental behavioural and technological responses now, in the Anthropocene, a term denoting the current era of human dominance of biological, chemical and geological processes on Earth. Travel and transport policies are key to effective responses, confronting both leisure and business travellers, including academics. This paper explores in detail the factors that promote or suppress academic travel, examining institutional policies which frame academic mobility practices at three New Zealand universities; University of Otago, University of Auckland and, Victoria, University of Wellington. It finds evidence of little congruence between sustainability statements, with their wide discourses on environmental sustainability, and the institutional policies governing academic mobility. Three overriding themes emerging from the analysis are presented: ‘hollow words’, (describing a lack of meaningful commitment to sustainability, with disconnections between sustainability rhetoric and key policies), ‘unspoken words’, (assumptions about the necessity of travel), and ‘facilitating mobilities’ (promoting travel, rewarding those who travel). These themes highlight varying degrees of divergence between the sustainability imperatives of these universities and the carbon emissions of institutionalised academic mobilities. Concluding remarks highlight opportunities for New Zealand’s academic institutions to align travel policies with growing sustainability imperatives and discuss future research directions.

Young, M., Markham, F., Reis, A. & Higham, J.E.S. (2015). ‘Flights of fantasy’: A theoretical reformulation of the ‘flyers’ dilemma’. Annals of Tourism Research

We position pleasure travel within Beck’s risk society as a contradictory form of consumption tha... more We position pleasure travel within Beck’s risk society as a contradictory form of consumption that simultaneously produces individual pleasure and global environmental risk. We examine the paradoxical emergence of the ‘anxious traveler’ from this contradiction, arguing that this social category is necessary to individualize and apportion the global, environmental risk associated with frequent flying, and hence legitimate the reproduction of unsustainable travel practices. We identify several future scenarios that may synthesize this frequent-flying dialectic. On reflection, these scenarios themselves appear as cultural productions, suggesting that our attempts to imagine the future are crippled by the hegemonic ahistoricism associated with contemporary capitalism.

Higham, J., Reis, A.C. and Cohen, S.A. (2015). Australian climate concern and the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’. Current Issues in Tourism., 2015

Anthropogenic climate change poses considerable challenges to all societies and economies. One si... more Anthropogenic climate change poses considerable challenges to all societies and economies. One significant contributor to human-induced climate change is tourism transportation, particularly aviation. This paper addresses the relationship between climate change concerns, the energy-intensive nature of tourist consumption, and unrestrained tourist air travel behaviour in the context of Australia. Following Barr, Shaw, Coles and Prillwitz (2010), it seeks to understand public climate concern within the context of routine everyday (‘home’) lives and occasional tourist (‘away’) decision-making, with a specific focus on air travel. It draws upon 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in Australia between March and June 2011. The findings highlight the contradictory nature of environmental concerns and consumption decisions in everyday and tourist contexts. This is evident in widespread domestic consumer practices that are motivated, all or in large part, by climate concerns, set against almost complete disregard and neglect of responsibility to modify existing air travel practices. Our results highlight the magnitude of the challenge involved in shifting deeply entrenched air travel behaviours despite the growing urgency of radical emission reductions. It also highlights the need to consider consumer responses to climate change not in isolation, but in relation to industry drivers and strong government policy interventions.

Journal of Cleaner Production , 2015

Tourism has been critiqued as an environmentally destructive industry on account of the greenhous... more Tourism has been critiqued as an environmentally destructive industry on account of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with tourist mobility. From a policy perspective, current and projected growth in aviation is fundamentally incompatible with radical emissions reduction and decarbonisation of the global energy system. Efforts to address the aviation-climate change ‘policy clash’ must be informed by an understanding of public sentiments towards climate change, air travel and carbon mitigation. This article examines how consumers across four western nations are responding to the environmental excesses of contemporary air travel consumption. It focuses on individual receptiveness to voluntarily measures aimed at changing flying behaviours, industry responses and degrees of government regulation. Its theoretical context harnesses lessons from public health to inform a discussion of bottom up (social marketing, nudge) and top down (government regulation) approaches to the urgent challenge of radical air travel emissions reduction. The findings of its comparative empirical analysis are presented, based upon 68 in-depth interviews conducted in Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. We highlight contrasts in how consumers are beginning to internalise and process the environmental excesses of contemporary air travel consumption. Whereas voluntary measures, such as carbon off-setting, are viewed with widespread scepticism, divergence was found across the four study contexts in willingness to accept regulatory measures. Norwegians were far more willing to accommodate strong government intervention through taxation, whereas participants from the other three nations favoured softer strategies that are not perceived as restricting individual freedoms to travel. We conclude that voluntary approaches will be insufficient alone, and that behavioural change in public flying behaviour requires diverse policy measures. These must be informed by insights into the public’s willingness to palate stronger mitigation interventions, which varies within and between societies.

Annals of Tourism Research, 2014

The ‘flyers’ dilemma’, where an individual’s self-identity as an environmentally-responsible cons... more The ‘flyers’ dilemma’, where an individual’s self-identity as an environmentally-responsible consumer conflicts with the environmental impacts of frequent air travel, has been shown to produce a range of negative psychological effects. Some have argued that frequent flying may represent a site of behavioural addiction, characterized by guilt, suppression and denial. While this sort of pathologisation finds parallels in other forms of excessive consumption, its application in a tourist context is problematic in terms of classification validity, attribution of negative consequences, transfer of responsibility, and tendency towards social control and domination. We argue for an alternative conceptual approach to frequent flying which elaborates the structural reproduction of the ‘flyers’ dilemma’, rather than its individual, psychological effects.

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2015

The period leading to and immediately after the release of the IPCC’s fifth series of climate cha... more The period leading to and immediately after the release of the IPCC’s fifth series of climate change assessments saw substantial efforts by climate change denial interests to portray anthropogenic climate change (ACC) as either unproven theory or a negligible contribution to natural climate variability, including the relationship between tourism and climate change. This paper responds to those claims by stressing that the extent of scientific consensus suggests that human-induced warming of the climate system is unequivocal. Secondly, it responds in the context of tourism research and ACC, highlighting tourism’s significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as climate change’s potential impacts on tourism at different scales. The paper exposes the tactics used in ACC denial papers to question climate change science by referring to non-peer reviewed literature, outlier studies and misinterpretation of research, as well as potential links to think-tanks and interest groups. The paper concludes that climate change science does need to improve its communication strategies but that the world-view of some individuals and interests likely precludes acceptance. The connection between ACC and sustainability illustrates the need for debate on adaptation and mitigation strategies, but that debate needs to be grounded in scientific principles not unsupported skepticism.

Keywords: climate change denial; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); climate change consensus; climate models; climate change mitigation; greenhouse gas emissions

Tourism Management, 2015

Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessme... more Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessments regarding climate change, and that anthropogenic climate change was a “fashionable” and “highly controversial scientific topic”. This brief rejoinder provides the balance that is missing from such climate change denial and skepticism studies on climate change and tourism. Recent research provides substantial evidence that reports on anthropogenic climate change are accurate, and that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, including from the tourism industry, play a significant role in climate change. Some positive net effects may be experienced by some destinations in the short-term, but in the long-term all elements of the tourism system will be impacted. The expansion of tourism emissions at a rate greater than efficiency gains means that it is increasingly urgent that the tourism sector acknowledge, accept and respond to climate change. Debate on tourism-related adaptation and mitigation measures is to be encouraged and welcomed. Climate change denial is not.

"Despite a growing contribution to climate change, tourist and traveller behaviour is currently n... more "Despite a growing contribution to climate change, tourist and traveller behaviour is currently not acknowledged as an important sector within the development of climate policy. Whilst tourists may be increasingly aware of potential impacts on climate change there is evidence that most are unwilling to modify their actual behaviours. Influencing individual behaviour in tourism and informing effective governance is therefore an essential part of climate change mitigation.
This significant volume is the first to explore the psychological and social factors that may contribute to and inhibit sustainable change in the context of tourist and traveller behaviour. It draws on a range of disciplines to offer a critical review of the psychological understandings and behavioural aspects of climate change and tourism mobilities, in addition to governance and policies based upon psychological, behavioural and social mechanisms. It therefore provides a more informed understanding of how technology, infrastructure and cost distribution can be developed in order to reach stronger mitigation goals whilst ensuring that resistance from consumers for socio-psychological reasons are minimised. Written by leading academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and regions this ground-breaking volume is essential reading for all those interested in the effective governance of tourism’s contribution to climate change now and in the future."

Journal of Travel Research, 2014

The ‘flyers’ dilemma’ describes the tension that now exists between the personal benefits of tour... more The ‘flyers’ dilemma’ describes the tension that now exists between the personal benefits of tourism and the climate concerns associated with high levels of personal aeromobility. This article presents the first international comparative analysis of attitudes towards climate change and discretionary air travel, providing insights into areas of convergence and divergence across three European societies - Norway, the United Kingdom and Germany. Employing a critical interpretive approach and drawing upon 48 indepth semi-structured interviews, we document evidence of widespread neglect of the ‘flyers’ dilemma’. Our comparative analysis confirms that although current discretionary air travel practices are deeply embedded and resistent to change, attitudes towards the climate crisis and barriers to behaviour change offer points of important contrast between different societies. Efforts to reformulate excessive discretionary air travel in response to accelerating global climate change must accommodate the unique issues and contrasting perspectives that exist in sections of these socieites.

"Recent popular press suggests that ‘binge flying’ constitutes a new site of behavioural addictio... more "Recent popular press suggests that ‘binge flying’ constitutes a new site of behavioural addiction. We theoretically appraise and empirically support this proposition through interviews with consumers in Norway and the United Kingdom conducted in 2009. Consistent findings from across two national contexts evidence a growing negative discourse towards frequent short-haul tourist air travel and illustrate strategies of guilt suppression and denial used to span a cognitive dissonance between the short-term personal benefits of tourism and the air travel’s associated long-term consequences for climate change. Tensions between tourism consumption and changing social norms towards acceptable flying practice exemplify how this social group is beginning to (re)frame what constitutes ‘excessive’ holiday flying, despite concomitantly continuing their own frequent air travels.

Keywords: behavioural addiction, air travel, climate change, social norms"

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2013

This paper introduces and explores the psychological and social factors that both contribute to a... more This paper introduces and explores the psychological and social factors that both contribute to and inhibit behaviour change vis-à-vis sustainable (tourist) mobility. It is based on papers presented at the Freiburg 2012 workshop. Specifically, it reviews climate change attitudes and perceptions, the psychological benefits of tourism mobilities, addictive elements of mobility and social norming effects, the attitude-behaviour gap (i.e., cognitive dissonance between understandings of, and responses to, climate change), the psychology of modal shifts, the psychology of travel speed/time, and psychological explanations for the perceived importance of long distance travel. It notes that anthropogenic climate change is an inescapable reality, and that tourism’s share of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions appears set to rise substantially. There is little prospect of technical solutions adequately addressing this problem. The paper concludes that, while a comprehensive understanding of tourist psychology is necessary to inform policy makers, it alone will be insufficient to achieve emission reductions, and bring tourism to a climatically sustainable pathway, if treated in isolation. Radical change in the structures of provision is also necessary. That change may take the form of infrastructure planning, including financial and economic infrastructure (e.g. taxation regimes and emission trading schemes) for sustainable mobility.

"Accelerating global climate change poses considerable challenges to all societies and economies.... more "Accelerating global climate change poses considerable challenges to all societies and economies. The European Union now targets a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. Indeed, the Labour-led Norwegian government is committed to carbon neutrality across all sectors of the economy by 2030. Aviation has been identified as a rapidly growing contributor to CO2 emissions. This article reports on a research project that explored Norwegian attitudes towards climate change, particularly as they relate to extreme long-haul air travel to Aotearoa/New Zealand. It reveals that the 'dream trip' to New Zealand for Norwegians is still largely intact. It also finds evidence of 'air travel with a carbon conscience' arising from growing concern for high frequency discretionary air travel. Evidence of denial of the climate impact of air travel that recent studies have revealed was largely absent. Interviewees expressed a greater concern for short-haul air travel emissions than for the climate impact of long-haul travel. However, intentions to adapt long-haul travel behaviours were expressed, highlighting the need to monitor consumer attitudes towards the impact of air travel on climate change. We conclude that Norway is a vanguard European tourism market in terms of climate sensitivity.

Keywords: climate change; aviation; CO2 emissions; extreme long-haul travel; Norway; New Zealand"

Current Issues in Tourism, 2011

"The purview of climate change concern has implicated air travel, as evidenced in a growing body ... more "The purview of climate change concern has implicated air travel, as evidenced in a growing body of academic literature concerned with aviation CO2 emissions. This article assesses the relevance of climate change to long haul air travel decisions to New Zealand for United Kingdom consumers. Based on 15 semi-structured open-ended interviews conducted in Bournemouth, UK during June 2009, it was found that participants were unlikely to forgo potential travel decisions to New Zealand because of concern over air travel emissions. Underpinning the interviewees’ understandings and responses to air travel’s climate impact was a spectrum of awareness and attitudes to air travel and climate change. This spectrum ranged from individuals who were unaware of air travel’s climate impact to those who were beginning to consume air travel with a ‘carbon conscience’. Within this spectrum were some who were aware of the impact but not willing to change their travel behaviours at all. Rather than implicating long haul air travel, the empirical evidence instead exemplifies changing perceptions towards frequent short haul air travel and voices calls for both government and media in the UK to deliver more concrete messages on air travel’s climate impact.

Keywords: air travel; climate change; impact perceptions; behavioural intentions; New Zealand; UK"

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2013

Encouraging positive public behaviour change has been touted as a pathway for mitigating the clim... more Encouraging positive public behaviour change has been touted as a pathway for mitigating the climate impacts of air travel. There is, however, growing evidence that two gaps, one between attitudes and behaviour, and the other between practices of “home” and “away”, pose significant barriers to changing discretionary air travel behaviour. This article uses modern sociological theory on tourism as liminoid space, and postmodern theory that views identities as contextual, to provide a deeper understanding of why these gaps occur in the context of tourism spaces. Based on 50 in-depth interviews with consumers in Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom, our findings confirm that tourism spaces are often subject to lower levels of environmental concern than day-to-day contexts. These findings, which suggest that scope for positive behaviour change in the context of discretionary air travel practices is limited, are of crucial significance to policy makers who may seek reductions in air travel’s climate impacts, through even a partial reliance on voluntary public behavioural change.

Cohen, S.A. and Higham, J.E.S. (2012). Contradictions in climate concern: Performances of home and away. In V. Reddy & K. Wilkes (Eds.) Tourism, climate change and sustainability. London: Routledge, pp. 257-270., 2012

Young, M., Markham, F., Reis, A. & Higham, J.E.S. (2015). ‘Flights of fantasy’: A theoretical reformulation of the ‘flyers’ dilemma’. Annals of Tourism Research

Higham, J., Reis, A.C. and Cohen, S.A. (2015). Australian climate concern and the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’. Current Issues in Tourism., 2015

Journal of Cleaner Production , 2015

Annals of Tourism Research, 2014

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2015

Keywords: climate change denial; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); climate change consensus; climate models; climate change mitigation; greenhouse gas emissions

Tourism Management, 2015

Journal of Travel Research, 2014

Keywords: behavioural addiction, air travel, climate change, social norms"

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2013

Keywords: climate change; aviation; CO2 emissions; extreme long-haul travel; Norway; New Zealand"

Current Issues in Tourism, 2011

Keywords: air travel; climate change; impact perceptions; behavioural intentions; New Zealand; UK"

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2013

Marine tourism is a new frontier of late-capitalist transformation, generating more global revenu... more Marine tourism is a new frontier of late-capitalist transformation, generating more global revenue than aquaculture and fisheries combined. This transformation created whale-watching, a commercial tourism form that, despite recent critiques, has been accepted as non-consumptive activity. This paper uses four academic discourses to critique whale-watching as a form of capitalist exploitation: (1) commercial whale-watching and global capitalist transformation, (2) global capitalist politics and the promoted belief that whale-watching is non-consumptive, (3) the inherent contradictions of non-consumptive capitalist exploitation, and (4) whale-watching as a common-pool resource. These discourses lead us to critique whale-watching practices in relation to the common capitalist sequence of resource diversification, exploitation, depletion and collapse. Using specific impact studies, we conclude that a sustainability paradigm shift is required, whereby whale-watching (and other forms of wildlife tourism) is recognised as a form of non-lethal consumptive exploitation, understood in terms of sub-lethal anthropogenic stress and energetic impacts. We argue the need for a paradigm shift in the regulation and management of commercial whale-watching, and present the case for a unified, international framework for managing the negative externalities of whale-watching. The relevance of the issues raised about neoliberal policy making extends beyond whale-watching to all forms of wildlife and nature-based tourism.

Higham, J.E.S., & Neves, K. (2015). Whales, tourism and manifold capitalist fixes: New relationships with the driving force of capitalism. In K. Markwell (Ed). Tourism and Animals: Understanding Diverse Relationships. Clevedon: Channel View Publications (invited). pp. 109-126. , May 2015

Ecotourism is a powerful, but highly contentious, form of contemporary economic development (Whee... more Ecotourism is a powerful, but highly contentious, form of contemporary economic development (Wheeler, 1994; Cater, 2006). It expresses a strong desire amongst alienated middle classes in post-industrial societies to get back in touch with nature (Fletcher 2014). It also reflects an attempt to overcome individual anxiety relating to irreversible environmental degradation and biodiversity loss caused by capitalism (Zizek 2009) through the conflation of eco-consumption with biodiversity conservation (Duffy et al. 2008; Neves 2010a). Within this context wildlife tourism, it may be argued, represents one of a range of new strategies of capital accumulation and expansion (Fletcher and Neves 2012; Neves and Igoe 2012). This chapter addresses the capacity of ecotourism to employ capitalist mechanisms to address some of the more acute problems of capitalism itself. It addresses ecotourism in terms of a range of capitalist ‘fixes’ including: economic stagnation due to over-accumulation (time/space fix); limitations on capital accumulation resulting from ecological degradation (environmental fix); growing inequality and social unrest (social fix); and a widespread sense of alienation between humans and nonhuman natures (psychological fix). We consider the widespread advocacy of ecotourism as a panacea for the diverse social and environmental problems of capitalism in terms of endorsement of its potential as a manifold capitalist fix. In doing so, we find that rather than coming to fruition as solutions to the shortcomings of capitalist processes, these promised fixes tend to reproduce and exacerbate existing socio-ecological problems (e.g. Neves and Igoe 2012; see also Silva 2013).

![Research paper thumbnail of Using Ostrom’s common pool resource theory to build towards an integrated ecosystem based sustainable cetacean tourism system in Hawai`i.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/35996026/thumbnails/1.jpg)

Heenehan, H., Basurto, X., Bejder, L. Tyne, J., Higham, J.E.S. & Johnston, D.W. (2015). Using Ostrom’s common pool resource theory to build towards an integrated ecosystem based sustainable cetacean tourism system in Hawai`i. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 23(6): June 2015., 2015

This paper explores the suitability of community-based conservation measures to complement a prop... more This paper explores the suitability of community-based conservation measures to complement a proposed command-and-control approach for two multi-user bays with spinner dolphins in Hawai`i, USA which have considerable dolphin watching tourist activities and human-dolphin interactions. The paper uses Ostrom’s common-pool resource theory as an analytical lens, with an assessment of the attributes of the resource and the user(s) to explore questions of governance and sustainability. In Hawai`i, spinner dolphins move predictably from offshore overnight feeding grounds into shallow bays for daytime rest, interacting frequently with humans using these bays for tourism and other social, recreational, and subsistence purposes. To reduce the current negative interactions with dolphins, managers are seeking to implement a command-and-control approach, namely time-area closures. Our analysis indicates that viewing the bay as a resource with tourism as one of many human demands, instead of specifically focusing on dolphins, reflects an ecosystem-based approach and acknowledges complex management demands. We found that while unrealistic to expect community-based conservation to spontaneously emerge here, cultivating some of Ostrom’s attributes among stakeholders might lead to a more productive set of institutional arrangements that would benefit the dolphin population, with the methodology used potentially leading to a global management model.

Whale-watching, sustainable tourism and ecological management. , Mar 2014

Within little more than a generation, whale-watching has been subject to global industrial develo... more Within little more than a generation, whale-watching has been subject to global industrial development. It has been portrayed by destinations and business operators, and advocated by environmental groups, as a sustainable activity and an alternative to whaling. However, in recent years the sustainability of these activities has increasingly been questioned, as research shows that repeated disturbance by boat
traffic can severely disrupt critical behaviours of cetaceans in the wild.
Bringing together contributions by international experts, this volume addresses complex issues associated with commercial whale-watching, sustainable development and conservation of the global marine environment. It highlights widely expressed concerns for the failure of policy, planning and management, and pinpoints both long-standing and emerging barriers to sustainable practice. Featuring numerous case studies, the book provides critical insights into the diverse socio-cultural, political, economic and ecological contexts of this global industry, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that arise along the pathways to sustainability.

This comprehensive text, ideal for academics and students, sees Higham and Hinch write an engagin... more This comprehensive text, ideal for academics and students, sees Higham and Hinch write an engaging critical appraisal of the key development characteristics of sport tourism. This updated edition retains the excellent variety of examples from across the globe. Drawing on the latest research and empirical evidence, this work is a timely reappraisal of this dynamic industry sector. Claire Humphreys, University of Westminster, UK This third edition gives an updated and comprehensive overview of the development of sport tourism. Its accessible style and critical insights make it not only required reading for those new to the subject, but also an invaluable source for those currently researching and working in the field. Sean Gammon, University of Central Lancashire, UK The third edition of Sport Tourism Development is a welcome addition to the sport tourism literature. The book considers the range and breadth of sport tourism, and it provides a nicely integrated model of sport tourism phenomena. The complex array of work in the field is coherently organized and analyzed. This edition of the book is a significant contribution to an increasingly vital realm of study. Laurence Chalip, University of Illinois, USA This book critically explores sport-related tourism drawing on the fields of sport management, the sociology of sport, consumer behaviour, sports marketing, economic, urban and sports geography, and tourism studies. It presents multidisciplinary perspectives of sport tourism, as structured by the geographical concepts of space, place and environment. The volume offers a comprehensive update of the discussions presented in the two previous editions, recognising the significant growth in sub-elite participation sports and addresses spectator-based sport events, participation-based sport events, active sport, and sport heritage activities. It aims to advance theoretical thinking on the subject of sport tourism development and critical thinking on the interplay of local and global forces in sport and tourism development. It continues to be an important text for students and researchers in tourism studies, human geography, sports geography, sociology of sport, sports management, sports marketing and history of sport.

Destinations serve as the spatial context and reference point for this special issue. They are, i... more Destinations serve as the spatial context and reference point for this special issue. They are, in essence, the place where sport tourism is produced and consumed (Higham, 2005). Whether sport tourism development takes the form of sport events, active participation or sport heritage activities, it draws on local resources and forms part of the complex dynamic of community life (Weed, 2008; Preuss, 2015). Sport tourism therefore has implications for destination residents who may benefit from, or incur the costs of this development, with potential impacts ranging across the local-global spatial spectrum (Giampiccoli, Lee & Nauright, 2015). As such, it is essential that the academic community critically question the sustainability of sport tourism destinations.

The Journal of Sport & Tourism is approaching its 20th Anniversary Year. To mark this anniversary... more The Journal of Sport & Tourism is approaching its 20th Anniversary Year. To mark this anniversary four special issues of the journal are planned over the next two years focusing on the ‘Big Questions’ for research into sport and tourism. The first of these was previously announced as ‘Active Sport Tourism,’ with this call related to the second special issue on ‘Sport Tourism Destinations’.
Destinations include the places, landscapes and communities where sport tourism development takes place. Whether sport tourism development takes the form of sport events, active participation in sport, and/or sports nostalgia/heritage, it draws on local resources and forms part of the complex dynamic of daily life. As such, sport tourism has implications for residents and destinations that may benefit from, or incur the costs of development which may or may not be sustainable. This special issue of the Journal of Sport & Tourism will feature papers that provide insight into the sustainability of sport tourism destinations at local, regional, state and national levels.
Three fundamental questions will underpin this issue: (1) What do we know; (2) What don’t we know; and (3) What do we need to know about the role of sport tourism in the sustainability of destinations? To address these critical questions, a multidisciplinary approach will be taken, with contributions encouraged from a range of disciplinary perspectives including: economics, politics, business studies, marketing, geography, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, social anthropology and other relevant fields. Insights into development policy and implications for sports tourism destinations of different scales are particularly encouraged.
Possible topics include, however are not limited to, submissions on:
- Sport mega events and destination sustainability
- Implications of hosting a mega event vs. a portfolio of smaller events
- Life cycles of sports and destinations
- Dynamic and evolving sport tourism markets
- Emerging destinations and markets
- Sport product development and tourism
- Open and closed systems analysis (local – global sustainability issues)
- Environmental impacts of nature-based sports
- Climate change and resource dynamics
- Extreme weather events and seasonality
- Delivery of sport tourism products (e.g., legal issues)
- Destination capacity (e.g. infrastructure)
- Transport and sustainability
- Social capital/impacts
- Government policy and/or regulation in sport tourism development
- Sport tourism strategies for sustainable development
- The role of sport tourism in destination promotion, branding, image and/or the of creation local identity
- Sport tourism and sustainability in less developed contexts
- Host-guest relations
- Crime in sport tourism destinations
- Sport, tourism and community sustainability issues (e.g., volunteerism)

This book is a compilation of wide ranging chapters and case studies, written by recognised and e... more This book is a compilation of wide ranging chapters and case studies, written by recognised and emerging scholars worldwide, who research in different areas of mountaineering tourism and recreation. Our treatment of mountaineering tourism in this volume derives its structure from Weed and Bull’s (2004) theorisation of sport and tourism as a complex interplay of activity, people and place. In this context ‘activity’ relates to the geographical, historical and social development of mountaineering. ‘People’ focuses on those who (directly or indirectly) engage in the activity of mountaineering. ‘Place’ addresses unique destination contexts relating to the hosting of mountaineers to facilitate their climb, impacts on environment and host community, together with management practices. The book defines mountaineering tourism as the activities of mountaineering tourists, their interplay with members of the climbing community and all associated stakeholders, together with associated impacts and management at the environmental and local community level.
Employing this tripartite structure, the first major part of the book addresses the activity of mountaineering tourism in terms of geography, history, the concept of wilderness experience and adventure mountaineering, guided mountaineering and the roles of alpine clubs. It is further illustrated by three case studies which address the early development of mountain recreation in New Zealand, mountaineering tourism in Taiwan and the commercial development of Southern Alps Guiding (New Zealand). The second major part attends to ‘people’, exploring the narrative construction of self through a commitment to mountaineering, gender issues in mountaineering, mountaineering tourism experiences, mountaineers’ personality and mountaineering risk. The section is further illustrated by two case studies which are mountaineering flow experience and mountaineers’ responsible behaviour related to safety and security. Thirdly, we deploy the concept of ‘place’ to examine the environmental impacts, mountaineering commodification and risk perception, ethical issues in mountaineering, health and safety issues and management perspective of mountaineering tourism, as they exist in different spatial contexts. Four case studies included in the section are mountaineering and climate change, human waste management in Aconcagua, Mountaineering on Mt Everest and working conditions of high altitude porters on Mt Kilimanjaro. In drawing together the insights provided by these chapters and case studies, we consider critical issues arising from the commercialisation of mountaineering practices, and consider the future of mountaineering tourism and emerging research directions. Our overarching aim is a critical treatment of the possibilities and pitfalls of mountaineering tourism.

Hinch, T.D. & Higham, J.E.S. (2011). Sport Tourism Development (Edition 2). Bristol: Channel View Publications. ISBN-13: 978-1-84541-195-4 (hbk). ISBN-13: 978-1-84541-195-7 (pbk) , 2011

Higham, J.E.S. (Ed) 2004. Sport Tourism Destinations: Issues, opportunities and analysis. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. , 2004

Conservation management in Norway is anchored in the historical tradition of friluftsliv although... more Conservation management in Norway is anchored in the historical tradition of friluftsliv although Norway’s evolving economic policy signals that growing priority is being given to recreation and nature-based tourism development in association with protected natural areas (PNA). Here we present the results of an international comparative study that examined conservation policy and recreation/tourism management in Norway and New Zealand, where a legislated dual mandate of conservation and tourism in PNAs is longstanding. Our analysis of conservation policy and planning documents in Norway and New Zealand highlights important contrasts in conservation and recreation/tourism management that are deeply embedded in national socio-historical contexts. Our findings highlight lessons that may be learned and applied in Norway. However we also caution that the application of lessons from New Zealand’s ‘utilitarian conservation’ policy context may require a reformulation or refinement of the friluftsliv tradition.

Higham, J.E.S. (Ed) 2007. Critical issues in Ecotourism: Understanding a complex tourism phenomenon. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. , 2007

by Daniel Scott, Ghislain Dubois, James Higham, Robin Nunkoo, Ph.D, Paul Upham, Tim Coles, Robert Steiger, Jarkko Saarinen, Susanne Becken, and M Vieira

Tourism Management, 2015

Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management, 2014

... Exponen-tial growth in tourist activities that take place on, in and under water has been a n... more ... Exponen-tial growth in tourist activities that take place on, in and under water has been a notable fea-ture of tourism development in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. ... CAB International 2004. Environmental Impacts of Ecotourism (ed. R. Buckley) 171 Page 188. ...

2 Ecotourism: a research bibliographyACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Market orientation has been a foundation of corporate marketing strategy since the middle of the ... more Market orientation has been a foundation of corporate marketing strategy since the middle of the last century. There is a need for a broader conceptualization of market orientation and a new corporate marketing model is proposed: sustainable market orientation (SMO). Taking a macromarketing perspective, the new conceptualization proposes the use of three key sustainable development objectives in corporate marketing strategy; economic, social, and ecological sustainability. Corporate benefits from a SMO are discussed, a model for empirical testing is presented, and a range of research opportunities are discussed.

Annals of Leisure Research, 2013

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment , 2016

Emissions from aviation will continue to increase in the future, in contradiction of global clima... more Emissions from aviation will continue to increase in the future, in contradiction of global climate policy objectives. Yet, airlines and airline organizations suggest that aviation will become climatically sustainable. This paper investigates this paradox by reviewing fuel-efficiency gains since the 1960s in comparison to aviation growth, and by linking these results to technology discourses, based on a two-tiered approach tracing technology-focused discourses over 20 years (1994-2013). Findings indicate that a wide range of solutions to growing emissions from aviation have been presented by industry, hyped in global media, and subsequently vanished to be replaced by new technology discourses. Redundant discourses often linger in the public domain, where they continue to be associated with industry aspirations of ‘sustainable aviation’ and ‘zero-emission flight’. The paper highlights and discusses a number of technology discourses that constitute ‘technology myths’, and the role these ‘myths’ may be playing in the enduring but flawed promise of sustainable aviation. We conclude that technology myths require policy-makers to interpret and take into account technical uncertainty, which may result in inaction that continues to delay much needed progress in climate policy for aviation.

This overview paper examines three areas crucial to understanding why, despite clear scientific e... more This overview paper examines three areas crucial to understanding why, despite clear scientific evidence for the growing environmental impacts of tourism transport, there is large-scale inertia in structural transitions and a lack of political will to enact meaningful sustainable mobility policies. These include the importance of addressing socio-technical factors, barriers posed by ‘technology myths’ and the need to overcome ‘transport taboos’ in policymaking. The paper seeks pathways to sustainable mobility by bridging the science – policy gap between academic research and researchers, and policymakers and practitioners. It introduces key papers presented at the Freiburg 2014 workshop, covering the case for researcher engagement using advocacy and participatory approaches, the role of universities in creating their own social mobility policies, the power of social mechanisms encouraging long-haul travel, issues in consumer responsibility development, industry self regulation and the operation of realpolitik decision making and implementation inside formal and informal destination based mobility partnerships. Overall, the paper argues that governments and the tourism and transport industries must take a more cautious approach to the technological optimism that fosters policy inertia, and that policymakers must take a more open approach to implementing sustainable transport policies. A research agenda for desirable transport futures is suggested.

Keywords: climate change, socio-technical factors, technology myths, transport taboos, desirable futures

Tourism Management, 2015

This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights ... more This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights the inaccuracies, misinformation and errors in their commentaries. The obfuscation of scientific research and the consensus on anthropogenic climate change may have significant long-term negative consequences for better understanding the implications of climate change and climate policy for tourism and create confusion and delay in developing and implementing tourism sector responses.

Keywords: Climate change; Global warming; Skepticism; Denial; Agnotology

by Scott Cohen, James Higham, Robin Nunkoo, Ph.D, Edward Huijbens, Jarkko Saarinen, David Weaver, Bas Amelung, Carlo Aall, Daniel Scott, Yael Ram, and Alan Pomering

Tourism Management, 2015

Current Issues in Tourism, 2015

Keywords: Climate change, Australia, attitude-behaviour gap, tourism, air travel, emissions, carbon tax

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016

Keywords: Emissions, aviation, behaviour change, public health, regulation, nudge, social marketing

Despite a growing contribution to climate change, tourist and traveller behaviour is currently no... more Despite a growing contribution to climate change, tourist and traveller behaviour is currently not acknowledged as an important sector within the development of climate policy. Whilst tourists may be increasingly aware of potential impacts on climate change there is evidence that most are unwilling to modify their actual behaviours. Influencing individual behaviour in tourism and informing effective governance is therefore an essential part of climate change mitigation.

This significant volume is the first to explore the psychological and social factors that may contribute to and inhibit sustainable change in the context of tourist and traveller behaviour. It draws on a range of disciplines to offer a critical review of the psychological understandings and behavioural aspects of climate change and tourism mobilities, in addition to governance and policies based upon psychological, behavioural and social mechanisms. It therefore provides a more informed understanding of how technology, infrastructure and cost distribution can be developed in order to reach stronger mitigation goals whilst ensuring that resistance from consumers for socio- psychological reasons are minimized.

Written by leading academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and regions this ground- breaking volume is essential reading for all those interested in the effective governance of tourism’s contribution to climate change now and in the future.

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Sep 2013

""""This paper introduces and explores the psychological and social factors that both contribute ... more """"This paper introduces and explores the psychological and social factors that both contribute to and inhibit behaviour change vis-à-vis sustainable (tourist) mobility. It is based on papers presented at the Freiburg 2012 workshop. Specifically, it reviews climate change attitudes and perceptions, the psychological benefits of tourism mobilities, addictive elements of mobility and social norming effects, the attitude-behaviour gap (i.e., cognitive dissonance between understandings of, and responses to, climate change), the psychology of modal shifts, the psychology of travel speed/time, and psychological explanations for the perceived importance of long distance travel. It notes that anthropogenic climate change is an inescapable reality, and that tourism’s share of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions appears set to rise substantially. There is little prospect of technical solutions adequately addressing this
problem. The paper concludes that, while a comprehensive understanding of tourist psychology is necessary to inform policy makers, it alone will be insufficient to achieve emission reductions, and bring tourism to a climatically sustainable pathway, if treated in isolation. Radical change in the structures of provision is also necessary. That change may take the form of infrastructure planning, including financial and economic infrastructure (e.g. taxation regimes and emission trading schemes) for sustainable mobility.""""

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Sep 2013

"""Encouraging positive public behaviour change has been touted as a pathway for mitigating the c... more """Encouraging positive public behaviour change has been touted as a pathway for mitigating the climate impacts of air travel. There is, however, growing evidence that two gaps, one between attitudes and behaviour, and the other between practices of “home” and “away”, pose significant barriers to changing discretionary air travel behaviour. This article uses both modern sociological theory on tourism as liminoid space, and postmodern theory that views identities as contextual, to provide a deeper understanding of why these gaps occur in the context of tourism spaces. Based on 50 in-depth consumer interviews in Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom, our findings confirm that tourism spaces are often subject to lower levels of environmental concern than daily domestic contexts. The majority of participants reduced, suppressed or abandoned their climate concern when in tourism spaces, and rationalised their resulting behavioural contradictions. Only a minority held there was no difference between the environmental sustainability of their practices in domestic situations versus those on holiday. These findings suggest that scope for voluntary positive behaviour change in the air travel context is limited and will not come without stronger intervention, which is a key finding for policy makers seeking reductions in air travel’s climate impacts.

Keywords – Flying, climate change, attitude-behaviour gap, home and away, identity, behaviour change
"""

Journal of Travel Research, 2014

""The ‘flyers’ dilemma’ describes the tension that now exists between the personal benefits of to... more ""The ‘flyers’ dilemma’ describes the tension that now exists between the personal benefits of tourism and the climate concerns associated with high levels of personal aeromobility. This article presents the first international comparative analysis of attitudes towards climate change and discretionary air travel, providing insights into areas of convergence and divergence across three European societies - Norway, the United Kingdom and Germany. Employing a critical interpretive approach and drawing upon 48 indepth semi-structured interviews, we document evidence of widespread neglect of the ‘flyers’ dilemma’. Our comparative analysis confirms that although current discretionary air travel practices are deeply embedded and resistent to change, attitudes towards the climate crisis and barriers to behaviour change offer points of important contrast between different societies. Efforts to reformulate excessive discretionary air travel in response to accelerating global climate change must accommodate the unique issues and contrasting perspectives that exist in sections of these socieites.

Keywords: Climate change, discretionary air travel, ‘flyers’ dilemma’, attitudes, behavior change.
""

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2015

Keywords: climate change denial; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); climate change consensus; climate models; climate change mitigation; greenhouse gas emissions

Annals of Tourism Research, 2011

Keywords: behavioural addiction, air travel, climate change, social norms"

Tourism Management, 2011

Keywords: climate change; aviation; CO2 emissions; extreme long-haul travel; Norway; New Zealand"

Current Issues in Tourism, 2011

Keywords: air travel; climate change; impact perceptions; behavioural intentions; New Zealand; UK"

‘Sustainability’ has endured as an important concept for tourism scholars for over two decades. M... more ‘Sustainability’ has endured as an important concept for tourism scholars for over two decades. More recently, ‘resilience’ has generated appeal as a term that encompasses core aspects of sustainability, while acknowledging the considerable influences that environmental contexts (social, cultural, economic, ecological and physical) have on the capacity of communities to adapt to changing conditions and ultimately sustain their tourism enterprises.

Drawing upon recent empirical case studies of protected area tourism on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, this paper considers the evidence of resilience among tourism stakeholders facing multiple environmental and economic risks, and reflects on the implications for sustainability. Of particular interest are the social adaptations that stakeholders have made as a result of exposure to risk.

While resilience has been characterised as a survival attribute - future-oriented and integrative - there is no guarantee that the decisions communities make in the interests of maintaining the short to medium term economic viability of their tourism enterprises will lead to outcomes that are desirable, responsible or sustainable in the long term. Communities largely dependent on tourism, such as those on the West Coast, and in other New Zealand mountain regions, may exhibit strong elements of resilience, demonstrated by their past and current responses to risks and challenges facing business operations. The degree to which all adaptation behaviour can be considered ‘sustainable’ or ‘responsible’ is far less certain, however, confirming the value of both concepts as distinct, albeit overlapping, lenses through which the tourism system can be better understood.

Dominant sustainability discourses commonly situate Earth as the singular realm of human influenc... more Dominant sustainability discourses commonly situate Earth as the singular realm of human influence and position modern mobility as one of the primary means through which we are destroying the biosphere. The commercialisation of activities in outer space and the development of space tourism have resulted in drastically reduced launch costs, enabling an increased human presence beyond the biosphere. This paper argues that current debates concerning the relationship between tourism mobilities and sustainability are marked by increasingly untenable assumptions concerning the spatial and temporal parameters of human influence. We critique those assumptions by introducing the concept of a sustainable trajectory to examine the relationship between modern mobility and sustainability, a relationship that is being redefined by the rapidly advancing fields of commercial spaceflight and space tourism. Greater attention to space tourism and commercial spaceflights is required in order to develop a coherent, long-term conceptualisation of the implications of modern mobility for sustainability.

'Sustainability' has endured as an important concept for tourism scholars, and volumes have been ... more 'Sustainability' has endured as an important concept for tourism scholars, and volumes have been written about how to achieve this holy grail of the tourism industry. Sustainable tourism destinations are often promoted as the ethical choice for discerning travellers, with some marketers taking full advantage of the widely acknowledged ambiguities implicit in the term. More recently 'resilience' has generated appeal in the academic tourism literature as a term that might capture core aspects of sustainability, while acknowledging the considerable influences that multiple contexts have on the capacity of communities to adapt and ultimately sustain their tourism enterprises. The resilience concept encompasses an inclusive and integrative 'social ecological systems' approach which gives it a firm interdisciplinary underpinning in its application in tourism. While in a tourism context sustainability and resilience are kindred terms, relatively little scholarly effort has been committed to a critical treatment of these concepts. Addressing this deficiency, we present a conceptual model to discuss the relationship between sustainability and resilience in tourism. Drawing on examples from New Zealand's nature-based tourism sector, this conceptual paper explores the insights that a critical treatment of the sustainability-resilience nexus might offer both academics and practitioners with interests in the field of tourism studies.

This Editorial marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the inaugural issue of the Journal of Sustai... more This Editorial marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the inaugural issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. The journal has become the leading research publication dedicated to advancing the understanding and discussion of sustainable tourism, and it is also ranked highly as a journal in the general tourism field. It is important to begin by recalling the early 1990s, when it was difficult to obtain strong papers on sustainable tourism, and when conference speakers, from both the industry and from the academy, could be disparaging of the very concept of sustainable tourism. While the concept of sustainable tourism continues to be a subject of robust and sometimes contentious debate, the field has progressed and matured enormously since the 1990s. The Journal now scores strongly, for example, in such metrics as the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journal Impact Factors: in 2015 its 3-year impact factor was 2.48, putting it in third place among tourism research journals globally. Its 5-year impact factor was 3.44. In some respects the Journal could be seen as a thematic or specialist publication within tourism, rather than a general tourism journal. Yet it is unusual among such specialist tourism journals because of sustainable tourism’s wide relevance: it is a central issue for all kinds and scales of tourist and tourism activities, and it is also a broad and integrating subject field, involving social, economic, environmental, cultural, and governance dimensions. The Journal is also unusual because its subject matter requires both critical and normative assessments. Sustainable tourism entails both critical analysis and a concern with ethical and political questions concerning how things should be: it thus often challenges existing practices and suggests new practices.

There is no doubt that 2015 was a fascinating year for scholars and practitioners with interests ... more There is no doubt that 2015 was a fascinating year for scholars and practitioners with interests in sustainable development and sustainable tourism. In 2015 it was revealed that, for the first time, over 100 million outbound tourists travelled from mainland China to the rest of the world (China Tourism Research Institute, 2015). Total outbound numbers were 107 million, of which 85 million trips were within Asia, but the remainder were long haul, predominantly to European destinations. Interim figures for the first half of 2015 show continuing growth, with a rise of 12.1% in outbound tourists over the same period in 2014. Worldwide, UNWTO statistics showed that international tourist arrivals reached 1,138 million in 2014, a 4.7% increase over the previous year (UNWTO, 2015). Given the strong reliance of contemporary international tourists on carbon intensive transport modes (Gössling & Peeters, 2015), the sheer scale of the global tourism production system poses considerable challenges to those with interests in sustainable development.