Tourism, Development and the Environment - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 263

tourism development at that time (Dowling, 1992). In particular, tourism
was increasingly considered to be in conflict with the environment, the
debate dominated by dependency and limits to growth theorists. However,
in parallel with the evolution of sustainable development discourse, concerns
about the environmental and social impacts of tourism have continued to
escalate in recent years. In this respect, the concepts of ecological limits,
sustainable resource use and defined carrying capacities have found wide
applicability. As Butler (1991: 203) inferred, 'unless specific steps are taken,
tourist destination areas and resources will inevitably become over-used,
unattractive, and eventually experience declining use'. At the same time,
however, it has also been recognised that tourism planning and management
must be undertaken in the wider context of global commerce and its social,
political, economic and environmental impacts. For example, Garrod and
Fyall (1998: 199) claim that, '[t]o the extent that the tourism industry oper-
ates by appropriating environmental resources and transforming them for
sale in consumer markets, it is really no different in principle to the extrac-
tion of petrochemicals, the mining of metals or any other of the “heavy”
industries about which environmental concern is so frequently raised'.
Research into the impacts of tourism has embraced the well-established
academic pursuit of examining, defining and assessing the applicability of
mainstream or sustainable development to the specificities of tourism and
recreation. Consequently, a plethora of sustainable tourism definitions have
emerged over the last two decades, reflecting some or all of the social, cul-
tural, economic and environmental connotations of the sustainable develop-
ment enigma. Typically, early definitions of sustainable tourism were
founded upon the principle of inter-generational equity, but differ according
to authors' ideological standpoints (see Figure 9.2 for examples).
The concept of sustainability or, more precisely, sustainable tourism
development, has since become a guiding principle for both the industry and
pressure groups. For example, Tourism Concern has long advocated that
'tourism and associated infrastructures [should], both now and in the future,
operate within natural capacities for the regeneration and future productivity
of natural resources; recognise the contribution that the people and commu-
nities, customs and lifestyles, make to the tourism experience; accept that
these people must have an equitable share in the economic benefits of tour-
ism; are guided by the wishes of local people and communities in the host
areas' (www.tourismconcern.org.uk).
Despite the attention paid to the subject, however, academic ambivalence
over what constitutes sustainable tourism continues. Indeed, as discussed in
more detail in Chapter 15, some would argue that the sustainable tourism
development debate has reached an impasse, that the time has come to move
beyond the restrictive rhetoric of the concept. Specifically, this debate has
long been polarised between, on the one hand, sustainable tourism develop-
ment (i.e. sustainable development through tourism as advocated by, for