With growth comes accountability: could a leisure activity turn into a driver for sustainable growth?

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to retrace the past development of the global tourism sector to identify past drivers of growth and try to understand which factors will shape the sector development in the long term. The paper also intends to initiate a discussion on critical areas the global sector needs to address if it wants to establish as a model for sustainable and inclusive growth. Design/methodology/approach - This paper analyses the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors that influenced tourism growth. Findings - The global tourism sector has experienced continuous expansion and diversification to become one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world. With increased recognition of tourism contribution to economic growth and development, more opportunities will arise for tourism to take centre stage in the political and economic agendas worldwide. Such opportunities can be successfully realised only once the global tourism sector eventually engages to mitigate negative impacts.

Keywords

• International tourism
• Sustainable growth
• Growth drivers
• Long-term forecasts
• PEST analysis