Geopolitical dimensions of sustainable tourism

Abstract

Contemporary discourses on sustainable tourism aspire to be comprehensive through their emphasis on interrelated environmental, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions of sustainability, yielding so-called 'triple bottom line' outcomes. A more comprehensive approach, however, requires consideration of the geopolitical context that facilitates these outcomes, and subsequently the tourism phenomena which support that context. Global dimensions include entities and strategies that mobilize tourism as a vehicle for world peace and economic equity between rich and poor states. Regional and bilateral initiatives include tourism-focused trans-boundary parks and other inter-state collaborations. State-level considerations include encouragement of wide-ranging domestic tourism, focused especially on national icons. Tourism as a vehicle for supporting the economic and cultural self-actualization of minority groups is a primary sub-state dynamic.