Tourism and Degrowth develops a conceptual framework and research agenda for exploring the relationship between tourism and degrowth.
Rapid and uneven expansion of tourism as a response to the 2008 economic crisis has proceeded in parallel with the rise of social discontent concerning so-called "overtourism." Meanwhile, despite decades of concerted global effort to achieve sustainable development, socioecological conflicts and inequality have rarely reversed, but in fact increased in many places. Degrowth, understood as both social theory and social movement, has emerged within the context of this global crisis. However, thus far the vibrant degrowth discussion has yet to engage systematically with the tourism industry in particular, while, by the same token, tourism research has largely neglected explicit discussion of degrowth.
This volume brings the two discussions together to interrogate their complementarity. Identifying a growth imperative in the basic structure of the capitalist economy, the contributors contend that mounting critique of overtourism can be understood as a structural response to the ravages of capitalist development more broadly. Debate concerning overtourism thus offers a valuable opportunity to re-politicise discussion of tourism development generally.
Exploring of the potential for degrowth to facilitate a truly sustainable tourism, Tourism and Degrowth will be of great interest to scholars of tourism, environmental sustainability and development. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
Foreword by Filka Sekulova 1. Tourism and degrowth: an emerging agenda for research and praxis Robert Fletcher, Ivan Murray Mas, Asuncion Blanco-Romero and Macia Blazquez-Salom 2. Territorial tourism planning in Spain: from boosterism to tourism degrowth? Macia Blazquez-Salom, Asuncion Blanco-Romero, Fernando Vera-Rebollo and Josep Ivars-Baidal 3. Growth machines and social movements in mature tourist destinations Costa del Sol-Malaga Enrique Navarro-Jurado, Yolanda Romero-Padilla, Jose Maria Romero-Martinez, Eduardo Serrano-Munoz, Sabina Habegger and Ruben Mora-Esteban 4. Overtourism, optimisation, and destination performance indicators: a case study of activities in Fjord Norway Ove Oklevik, Stefan Gossling, C. Michael Hall, Jens Kristian Steen Jacobsen, Ivar Petter Grøtte and Scott McCabe 5. Tourism as a right: a "frivolous claim" against degrowth? Jordi Gascon 6. Post-growth in the Tropics? Contestations over Tri Hita Karana and a tourism megaproject in Bali Made Adityanandana and Julien-Francois Gerber 7. Overtourism and degrowth: a social movements perspective Claudio Milano, Marina Novelli and Joseph M. Cheer 8. The social construction of the tourism degrowth discourse in the Balearic Islands Joaquin Valdivielso and Joan Moranta 9. Community-owned tourism and degrowth: a case study in the Kichwa Anangu community Sarah Rachelle Renkert 10. Buen Vivir: Degrowing extractivism and growing wellbeing through tourism Natasha Chassagne and Phoebe Everingham 11. Degrowing tourism: rethinking tourism Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Sandro Carnicelli, Chris Krolikowski, Gayathri Wijesinghe and Karla Boluk Postscript
