From ‘sustainable tourism’ to ‘sustainability transitions in tourism’?

Abstract Although sustainable tourism research is a rich and diverse field, it still suffers from a few important shortcomings. Negligible attention has been given to various possible pathways to sustainable tourism (as opposed to sustainable tourism as a ‘goalpost’) and there is an insufficient understanding of how the interconnections and interdependencies within tourism as a complex system shape the pursuit of sustainability. What is therefore needed is a sharper focus on the actual processes that must unfold for a transition to sustainable tourism to take place, and a better conceptualisation of the tourism industry as a multi-actor and multi-dimensional socio-technical system. We argue here that the sustainability transitions agenda, which has developed over the last two decades at the interface of innovation studies, evolutionary economics, studies of technology and science, and various other fields, offers a promising way forward for the desired pathway towards sustainable tourism to be comprehensively understood and more effectively followed. In order to set the scene for the individual contributions to this collection, we elaborate on this argument by highlighting the key strengths of the sustainability transitions agenda and identifying their potential to help tourism scholars move the work on sustainable tourism in new, unprecedented, and imperative directions. Our overarching aim is to lay the foundations for bridging the gap between (sustainable) tourism research and the sustainability transitions literature to move this combined agenda forward.

Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2023, p. 5).While CoP 28 focussed on the role of national level governments, the same imperative applies to economic sectors such as tourism. in fact, scholarly interest in the complex, multi-faceted challenge of how to reconcile the economic importance of tourism with the need to protect the natural environment, mitigate the contribution of tourism to climate change, and ensure the social well-being of host communities, is anything but new. it can be traced back at least to the 1970s when the constant growth of (mass) international tourism from the end of WWii led to serious concerns over the environmental and social impacts of tourism over the long term, provoking important questions about the future of tourism (e.g.Bryden, 1973;Coppock, 1977;Wall & Mathieson, 1982).one of the critical milestones shaping this interest was the emergence of the concept of sustainable development, defined as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (World Commission on Environment & development, 1987, p. 43).While the notion of sustainable development subsequently gave rise to the idea of sustainable tourism, which is now broadly defined as 'tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities' (United Nations World tourism organization [UNWto], 2023; see also : Bramwell & lane, 1993;Swarbrooke, 1999), it also helped spark abundant research on sustainable tourism and the place and role of tourism in sustainable development more widely (Bramwell & lane, 1993;Hunter, 1997).as a result, research on sustainable tourism has significantly increased in profile and become an important, diverse and interdisciplinary research agenda in its own right.the evidence for this includes (but is not limited to): various reviews (e.g.Butler, 1999;Zolfani et al., 2015); commentaries (e.g.Bramwell et al., 2017); monographs (e.g.Mowforth & Munt, 2016); edited volumes (e.g.Booyens & Brouder, 2022;Gössling et al., 2009;McCool & Moisey, 2008;reddy & Wilkes, 2013;Saarinen, 2020); and special issues of journals, including Tourism Geographies (see the guest editorial by Jansen-Verbeke & dewailly, 1999), not to mention the Journal of Sustainable Tourism that is dedicated to this one subject entirely.as such, sustainable tourism research remains an important field that attracts and interconnects scholars from various academic backgrounds who share the same normative ambition -to help make tourism more environmentally friendly, more socially just, and more economically equitable.
However, as numerous authors have observed (e.g.Hall, 2011, Moisey & McCool, 2008;Butler, 2018), there are serious reasons to question whether the progress towards sustainable tourism made over the last few decades is anywhere near what was initially intended and expected or what is, indeed, required.although the concept of sustainable tourism has been widely adopted across the world not only by academics, but also politicians and practitioners, the implementation of its principles on the ground has faced multiple obstacles, while its outcomes have been, at best, doubtful (Butler, 2018;Hall, 2011).the vagueness and the contested nature of the term, the lack of clarity on how to consistently apply it to such a diverse and complex sector, and the implicit association of the concept with capitalist growth which is often deemed to be the main driver of environmental degradation, make it difficult (if not impossible) to apply the concept in practice (Brouder, 2017;Butler, 2018;Hall, 2011;Niewiadomski & Brouder, 2022).as such, Moisey & McCool (2008, p. 286) contend that the notion of sustainable tourism has become a 'guiding fiction' or 'a moving target of an idealized end state' , while stakeholders feel 'paralyzed when it comes to taking action' .thus, as Bramwell et al. (2017) suggest, there is a need for sustainable tourism research, first, to focus on possible pathways towards sustainable tourism and the changes required to follow these pathways successfully, and second, to look at tourism as a complex human-natural system and account for the interconnections and interdependencies within that system.one helpful approach that can move the sustainable tourism research field forward and address its inherent shortcomings is the sustainability transitions agenda, which has developed over the last 15-20 years at the interface of innovation studies, evolutionary economics, studies of technology and science, and various other fields (see Essletzbichler, 2012;Hansen & Coenen, 2015;Smith et al., 2010).the sustainability transitions literature defines sustainability transitions (usually referred to in plural form to highlight the multi-dimensionality) as complex shifts from current, carbon-intensive, and largely unsustainable socio-technical configurations to new, more sustainable modes of production and consumption (Coenen et al., 2012;Geels, 2010Geels, , 2011;;Markard et al., 2012).Such transitions are considered necessary for societies and economies if climate change is to be mitigated and various environmental problems and challenges are to be addressed (Coenen et al., 2012).Moreover, to be effective and to achieve desired results, sustainability transitions must go beyond technological fixes and infrastructural improvements, and encompass corresponding changes in governance systems, institutional frameworks, legal regulations, policies, market structures, consumption patterns and cultural discourses (Coenen et al., 2012;Geels, 2010Geels, , 2011;;Smith et al., 2010). in this respect, sustainability transitions are much more than energy transitions, although a shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is inevitably an integral element of wider sustainability transitions.Finally, the sustainability transitions agenda recognises that sustainability transitions possess a number of particular characteristics.Not only are they purposive, complex and multi-dimensional, but they are also evolutionary in nature (i.e.shaped by history that is often difficult to overcome), and multi-actor (including firms, governments, policy makers, social movements, scientific communities, the media and many other stakeholders), which also makes them contested, disruptive and non-linear (Bridge et al., 2013;Coenen et al., 2012;Geels, 2011;Geels et al., 2017;Kivimaa & Kern, 2016).as such, the sustainability transitions agenda offers a holistic and comprehensive view on the changes that need to take place (and those already taking place, as research on sectors such as energy, transport and agriculture has shown -see Köhler et al. (2019), for a comprehensive review of the field) for the current socio-technical system to be adequately re-configured.
although the sustainability transitions agenda has spawned abundant research on various sectors, the dialogue between tourism research and the scholarly work on sustainability transitions has been, at best, minimal.Proponents of the sustainability transitions agenda have not recognised tourism as a sector deserving more nuanced attention, nor have tourism researchers adequately engaged with the sustainability transitions research to benefit their field (Niewiadomski & Brouder, 2022).United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP]'s (2011) adoption of the term 'transition' in sustainable tourism policy has made very little difference, while the work by Gössling et al. (2012), who adopted the transitions management framework, is a noteworthy exemplar of sustainability transitions in tourism.Meanwhile, the promise which the sustainability transitions agenda holds for further research on sustainable tourism deserves a much deeper engagement.its potential to inform the further development of the sustainable tourism literature lies in its three important strengths.
First, while not downplaying the importance of political and theoretical discourses around sustainability at a more general and abstract level, the sustainability transitions approach sharpens the focus on the actual processes that need to unfold and the mechanisms that need to be developed for a transition to sustainability to take place.as such, it moves the attention from sustainability as a 'goalpost' , i.e. what must be achieved, to what needs to be done to achieve it -a problem long recognised (albeit not effectively addressed) in sustainable tourism research.Second, because of its holistic and comprehensive orientation, the sustainability transitions agenda can prove helpful in conceptualising tourism as a complex, multi-actor, multi-dimensional, and vastly interconnected socio-technical system that is simultaneously a part of a wider socio-technical system (rather than one that operates in isolation) and that needs to embark on a transition to sustainability no less than other sectors.although the tourism industry has long been recognised as a complex, composite and matrix industry (Smith, 1998), the general understanding of the various interdependencies within the tourism system and between tourism and other industries needs to be significantly enhanced for any radical changes (like those towards sustainability) to be implemented successfully.third, the sustainability transitions agenda has made numerous theoretical and empirical advancements that may help complement (and subtly re-orientate?)sustainable tourism research.in theoretical terms, for example, there is a lot of potential in the multi-level perspective (MlP) which is now a common theoretical framework for analysing sustainability transitions, but which has been used in tourism studies very negligibly and superficially, despite its popularity in research on other sectors. in empirical terms, in turn, the findings generated by the sustainability transitions literature can serve as an important benchmark and a window on the changes which tourism needs to undergo to become more sustainable (Niewiadomski & Brouder, 2022).
Given that very little is known about how transitions to sustainable forms of tourism unfold on the ground, how tourism contributes to wider sustainability transitions, and how the pursuit of sustainable tourism is informed and shaped by wider sustainability transitions, the sustainability transitions agenda can help move (sustainable) tourism research in new, previously unexplored directions.So, one might ask, how can the potential of the sustainability transitions agenda be realised in tourism research and help academics, policymakers and practitioners instigate a desired change without regressing to being 'old wine in new bottles' , as Wilkinson & Coles (2024) ask?While this potential has yet to be realised, the aim of this collection is to set this process in motion.this special issue is a development of our previous work (Niewiadomski & Brouder, 2022) where we explored the synergies between the research on sustainable tourism and tourism evolution on the one hand and the sustainability transitions agenda on the other.We also called for a closer dialogue between these bodies of work, arguing that the most promising path forward lies at the intersection of these agendas.all papers in this collection respond to this call constructively and creatively, demonstrating the richness of this agenda.
However, apart from making a case for a closer conversation between these two fields, we include an additional and important element here, namely: geography.Because of the spatial fixity of tourism supply and the fact that 'place' (often including the local natural environment) is always a part of the tourist product, tourism evolution is an inherently geographical and place-specific phenomenon, as the research on tourism development informed by evolutionary approaches has shown (e.g.Brouder et al., 2017).importantly, the same has been recognised with regard to sustainability transitions, with geographers playing a key role in explaining the uneven spatial and multi-scalar patterns of technological change (Coenen et al., 2012;Hansen & Coenen, 2015;raven et al., 2012;truffer et al., 2015) and 'geography of sustainability transitions' being a core sub-field of the sustainability transitions literature (see Köhler et al., 2019).therefore, the dialogue between these two fields would be incomplete without attention to how the processes of sustainability transitions in tourism differ between places and how they manifest in different economic, political, institutional, environmental, and socio-cultural contexts.Moreover, it is not only the sustainability transitions agenda that can shed new light on how tourism could transition to sustainability, but, because of the high place-specificity of tourism, research on (sustainable) tourism evolution can also enrich the sustainability transitions field, particularly in terms of the spatial diversity of sustainability transitions processes (Niewiadomski & Brouder, 2022).

Sustainability transitions and tourism -this special issue
an important indicator of any field of inquiry is its geographical reach.this special issue includes contributions from four continents (africa, asia, australia, and Europe) with cases from both developed economies (australia, Netherlands, Sweden, and UK) and developing economies (South africa and Philippines).Moreover, the diversity of the tourism profiles among the cases implies broad relevance of sustainability transitions in rural and urban places whether in more central or remote locations.While this may be typical of sustainable tourism research, it is an important consideration for studies in sustainability transitions which, given their tendency to focus on socio-technical systems, have arguably featured less diversity in case studies. of further note are the methodological orientations applied in this collection.While only one paper utilises quantitative methods through visitor surveys (Wilkinson & Coles, 2024) several use classic qualitative methods (e.g.documentary analysis, interviews) to detail sustainability transitions in tourism.Such grounded evidentiary practice reveals the nuances occurring within sustainability transitions.Whether quantitative or qualitative, the methods applied amplify voices that might have otherwise been muted in large scale studies of sustainability transitions.
one major strength of tourism research is its openness to drawing inspiration from, and acting on, existing theoretical frameworks.as the papers in this collection demonstrate, 'sustainability transitions' is the key that holds several frameworks together as they all move forward in unison.the multi-level perspective is featured (e.g.Flood Chavez et al., 2024) as a common perspective in sustainability transitions research and this dovetails with the more recent perspective of doughnut economics (e.g.Nieuwland, 2024) in that both try to treat the systems of change in a holistic manner.in addition, a number of papers highlight elements of evolutionary economic geographies (EEG) (e.g.Booyens et al., 2024;Niewiadomski & Mellon, 2024) and show that, while EEG seems to be an insufficient framework to fully understand change in tourism, it is nevertheless a necessary epistemological perspective when attempting to understand mechanisms of change at the micro and meso levels in particular (cf.Magnusson et al., 2024).

Sustainability transitions in tourism -a blueprint for future sustainable tourism research
as sustainable tourism research has developed over the decades, it has embraced cognate concepts and has remained the umbrella concept for appraising the development of tourism.that said, this spreading out over the long-term has brought its own challenges, mainly that the term has become too malleable.While it has served its purpose as a 'guiding fiction' , it has evolved over the years to be less 'guiding' and more 'fiction' .We posit that the sustainability transitions framework is a compass to orient sustainable tourism for the years ahead.Papers in this special issue show how sustainability transitions perspectives can augment sustainable tourism research.three exemplary themes illustrate this: 1. tourism as an evolving, multi-actor endeavour where change towards sustainability is afoot (e.g.Flood Chavez et al., 2024;Nieuwland, 2024;Niewiadomski & Mellon, 2024;tops & lamers, 2024) 2. tourism as an important element in the changing spaces and places of energy systems (e.g.Booyens et al., 2024;Prince et al., 2024) 3. tourism as a people first sector where social justice and perceptions of place matter (e.g.Prince et al., 2024;tops & lamers, 2024;Wilkinson & Coles, 2024) the first theme shows that tourism is a rich empirical space for studies of sustainability transitions, the second highlights tourism's place within broader socio-technical system changes, and the third shows how studies of sustainability transitions in tourism can augment the extant sustainability transitions literature with compelling social insights.We hold that this special issue has brought together the seemingly disparate fields of sustainability transitions and tourism and has presented a compelling case for further studies of sustainability transitions in tourism.

Moving forward
We argue here that the sustainability transitions agenda offers the sustainable tourism research field a new way of thinking about the contemporary challenges exactly where the work on sustainable tourism needs it the most.rather than downplaying or contradicting the research on sustainable tourism conducted to date, the advancements made within the sustainability transitions literature can effectively complement the field and help address some of the most significant shortcomings of the sustainable tourism agenda.indeed, by moving the focus from sustainability as an ultimate objective to the mechanisms and processes that need to unfold for sustainability to be achieved, and by offering a comprehensive, holistic and perspective on the complex set of changes that need to take place, the sustainability transitions agenda constitutes a promising approach for the tourism system to become more sustainable.While the theoretical developments from the sustainability transitions literature (e.g. the multi-level perspective and its various sister concepts) offer a way to more comprehensively conceptualise tourism as a complex inter-connected socio-technical system, and thus systematise our understanding of various pathways towards sustainable tourism, the empirical findings spawned by the sustainability transitions agenda exemplify many of the processes (and foci of analysis) which the work on sustainable tourism may have so far left under-researched.Simultaneously, at a more general level, the sustainability transitions approach serves as a consistent platform from which various aspects of the pursuit of sustainable tourism can be explored in more depth (especially where the research so far has been scattered and fragmented), and where many theoretical frameworks and perspectives from both fields can be conveniently integrated to the benefit of both bodies of work (especially where the research so far has been lacking coherent theoretical foundations).Because of the inherently place-specific nature of both sustainability transitions and (sustainable) tourism development, tourism geographers are well positioned to play a key role in moving this agenda forward both in theoretical and empirical terms.
However, the engagement of tourism scholars with the sustainability transitions agenda must be undertaken critically.While the sustainability transitions literature will open new, sometimes unprecedented research avenues for scholars interested in sustainable tourism, a degree of caution is required when it comes to adopting theories and concepts from other fields to tourism research or transferring findings related to other sectors to a tourism context.it is here where tourism geographers, as representatives of an empirical field that has been so far largely overlooked by the sustainability transitions agenda, have the potential not only to benefit from the sustainability transitions literature, but also to make a significant contribution to it.although each paper in this collection is different, they help bridge the gap between the two fields.this transition in thought has only begun, but these initial steps have opened the agenda for a transformative development of sustainability transitions in tourism.

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Notes on contributors
Piotr Niewiadomski is an economic geographer interested in the worldwide development of the tourism production system, the global production networks of tourist firms, the impacts of tourism on economic development in host destinations, and sustainability transitions in tourism. is a Senior lecturer in Human Geography the School of Geosciences, University of aberdeen, UK.
Patrick Brouder is a tourism geographer with a spatial interest in rural and remote places.His research focuses on three interrelated aspects of tourism across western Canada: indigenous tourism, creative tourism, and tourism evolution.He is an associate Professor in the Faculty of adventure, Culinary arts and tourism at thompson rivers University.His university is in Kamloops on the traditional lands of the tk'emlúps te Secwépemc within Secwepemcúl'ecw.He is also a Senior research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg, South africa.