The 2011 BESTEN Think Tank XI highlighted a number of issues and themes related to education and learning for sustainable tourism. The themes addressed issues such as learning tools for sustainability, sustainability courses and curricula and industry perspectives and real-world examples of sustainability and tourism in action. What emerged from last year’s Think Tank was the necessity to educate the students of today and tomorrow about sustainability in a much broader way to ensure that businesses, whether tourism focused or otherwise, are prepared to work, manage and lead in a sustainable way.

While events and event management are strongly linked with the tourism sector, within the academic literature as well as academic curricula, they are nonetheless given far less coverage in relation to some of the major issues that are flavouring current discussion in these two domains. Sustainability, education and knowledge creation and management are points in case. The immediate role of business and leisure events after crises (e.g., the Bali Bombings, see Gurtner 2004) or economic downturns and their long-term function in maintaining international tourism, whilst flattening the impacts of seasonality, serve to highlight the importance of the industry.