Travel and Tourism’s Most Pressing Issues for the 21st Century

Travel and tourism in the 21st century are decisively impacting, and are impacted by, a number of issues across political, economic, social, environmental, and cultural dimensions. One issue that has been strongly reverberating with public opinion, travelers, and tourism stakeholders alike is the sustainability of travel and tourism at the intersection of economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The development of this argument can be traced along the two decades that frame the turn of the millennium, documented by a series of political events such as world summits or conferences and their official reports, declarations, or guidelines.

A key concept that emerged from these sustainability discussions and that has been made operational for travel and tourism practice is the triple bottom line (TBL, informally also 3BL), which ...