Travel Reference
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no-one owns the shared communal space (i.e. the commons - for example the quality of the
natural environment in all its aspects), no individual is motivated to protect it. Every individual
behaves according to their personal interests and benefi ts, yet these personal interests and benefi ts
may be in opposition to the wider interests of society. For example, it may be in the interests of
the individual to take a short haul fl ight for a weekend break (rest, relaxation, sense of adventure,
exploration, self-development, time out with the family etc.) but not for society and the natural
environment (fuel emissions, air quality, noise pollution, waste generation at the destination, fresh
water consumption etc.). The problem lies not with the behaviour of a solitary individual but in
the multiplication of these individuals in their thousands and millions. Thus the tragedy of the
commons draws attention to the calamity of the accumulation of self-interested individual
behaviour and its inherent destruction of the value of shared resources, spaces and environments.
It highlights the inherent confl ict between benefi ts for the individual (person or business) and
the wider goals of society including those for the natural environment (Polonsky 2011). Over
time we have evolved to see ourselves as a consumer society, and with individual identities as
consumers rather than as citizens. But consumers, unlike citizens, hold no obligations to other
consumers (Varey 2010) and there is no intrinsic collective responsibility so that the sense of
unity is eroded. Hall and Brown (2006: 62) contend that the morality of self-interest has acquired
considerable social legitimacy in our way of living today and that this is refl ected in the decline
of once strong moral authorities such as church, community, family and State.
The macromarketing commentary on sustainability is one that largely rejects change within
the current systems and seeks transformative change - to the DSP and its systems, norms and
values, and to the behaviour of individuals and businesses within this new order. In doing so, it
questions the degree to which sustainability can be achieved within existing Western mindsets
and behaviours, both for consumers and for businesses. The commentators on macromarketing
are unafraid to illuminate the essential quarrels between consumption, marketing and the quest
for sustainability; an illumination of importance that extends to tourism as much as to any other
product category. Our DSP is rooted in unremitting consumption (the imperative for continuous
economic growth) and marketing has evolved as one of society's mechanisms for delivering this.
Thus for marketing academics and practitioners, sustainability becomes 'the elephant in the
marketing living room' (Kilbourne 2010: 110). This thinking within tourism is echoed in
the emergence of de-growth tourism (Hall 2011) and its ilk (the slow tourism movement;
steady-state tourism; and proposals for no tourism). These, in essence, argue for an alternative
interpretation of sustainable development from the balancing of environmental, social and
economic concerns to one insistent on prioritizing the need to conserve natural capital (Hall
2011), a seismic shift to a new order.
The behaviour of tourists as responsible consumers
The behaviour of tourists in the context of sustainability extends beyond the consumption
practice of buying greener tourism products to behaviours relating to responsible consumption,
consumption reduction (fewer tourist trips), voluntary simplicity and sustainable lifestyles.
A review of consumer behaviour and demand responses of tourists to climate change noted
the large adaptive capacity of tourists as consumers to substitute destination, timing and type
of holiday, creating shifts in macro-demand for different destinations and patterns of tourist
migration fl ows between countries as tempered by varying cultural perceptions of climatic
attractiveness (Gossling, Scott, Hall, Ceron and Dubois 2012). For example, British tourists are
drawn towards climates with average daytime temperatures of about 29
0
C (Benfi eld UCL
Hazard Research Centre 2007) so by 2030 the level of physical comfort for British tourists in
