Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Timothy Tyrrell & Robert Johnston
School/Work Place : Arizona State University, USA (Timothy Tyrrell), University of Connecticut, USA (Robert Johnston)
Contact : timt@asu.edu
Year : 2007

"Operational definitions of tourism sustainability require details regarding what is to be sustained, for whom it is to be sustained, and the level at which it is to be sustained." This is the introductory sentence to "A Dynamic Model of Sustainable Tourism" (Tyrrell and Johnston, 2005). In it we develop a dynamic model illustrating the interrelated behavior of tourism-related economic and environmental conditions over time. We are proud that this work was awarded the Charles Goeldner, Outstanding Journal Article of 2005 by the Travel and Tourism Research Association. Subsequent writings have suggested practical situations and observable phenomena that validate the model (Johnston and Tyrrell, 2007). However, to date, we have never presented the model at a professional meeting, nor presented simplified implications of the model for tourism tradeoffs and management.

In its published form, the model is mathematically formal and somewhat complex. However, the fundamental implications of the model are straightforward, with intuitive implications for tourism management. We propose to present the model in a  “math-lite,” user-friendly version, and describe findings derived by integral calculus using common language. That is, we will present the formal aspects of the model in a simple, user-friendly form useful for those less familiar with complex mathematical models. We do this with no disrespect to the professional expertise of the audience. Rather, the goal is to expose the model and ourselves to new realms of professional conversation, engaging in dialog regarding practical implications for tourism.

The underlying optimization model is designed to assist tourism planners in conceptualizing choices and tradeoffs implicit in various options for environmentally sustainable tourism, at a general level. For simplicity, we will focus the presentation on two stylized groups—industry and residents—although the presented models may be easily adapted to accommodate greater numbers of stakeholder groups. The formal mathematical structure of the proposed model is analogous to that used in certain applications of optimal control theory to biological resources. However, as noted above we will eschew complex mathematical presentations in favor of a more widely-accessible format.

The model is presented as a template—an alternative mechanism that may be added to the toolbox available to those assessing tradeoffs in sustainable tourism. It formally conceptualizes tradeoffs implicit in the search for sustainable tourism outcomes provides greater clarity to that which is necessarily implied—and not implied—by environmentally sustainable tourism. As such, the model is meant to provide a preliminary step towards greater structure and precision in the discussion of tourism sustainability—a concept that has been subject to considerable ambiguity in prior writings and discourse.

The presentation, based on the underlying dynamic model, will characterize fundamental notions of sustainable tourism. We will present key model findings relevant to the search for sustainable outcomes, and characterize the potential conflicts, hazards, and tradeoffs implicit in the choice among different sustainable futures. Implications of the model will be discussed with regard to a patterns of tourism found in a specific destination—the Okavango Delta of northwestern Botswana. Evidence from this high-value tourist destination illustrates the major findings of the theoretical model as well as divergences between visions of sustainable tourism among different stakeholder groups.


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
122 Think Tank XI Visualising Sustainability: Reflections on Applied Stu... file 7000 Oct 14, 2013

As Sontag (1979) stated, we live in an image-based world within which we are continuously bombarded with visuals in countless formats and guises. However, despite such image saturation, academic engagement whether through teaching or resear...

Author: Caroline Scarles 

Year: 2011 

121 Think Tank XII Creating Tourism Transport Flow Maps with GIS: A Pract... file 6960 Nov 06, 2013

This paper explores various options to visualize tourism transport flows with spatial analysis tools and show them on maps. To facilitate implementation of these options, procedures for data preparation and map creation are explained through...

Author: Martin Landré & Paul Peeters 

Year: 2012 

120 Think Tank XIV Can "Slow Travel" Contribute to Sustainable Tourism? file 6874 Jun 27, 2014

Slow travel as a research field has increased in popularity in the last decade. The concept started to gain attention through online communities, and tourism researchers have become interested in the possible benefits that slow travel may ha...

Author: Tina Roenhovde Tiller 

Year: 2014 

119 Think Tank VII Volunteer Tourism: Sustainable Innovation in Tourism, ... file 6826 Oct 13, 2013

This is a study of the relationships between two volunteer tourism host communities and the volunteer tourists who visit them. One is a declining rural community located in the Appalachian mountains of the United States. The other is in a ra...

Author: Nancy McGehee 

Year: 2007 

118 Think Tank XIII Measuring Tourism: Developing a Regional Level Framewo... file 6782 Nov 06, 2013

In the field of tourism impacts research it is often assumed that certain characteristics of tourism are related to the nature and extent of tourism impacts on the destination’s community well-being. However, a standard set of measures for t...

Author: Elena Konovalov, Laurie Murphy & Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2013 

117 Think Tank XIV The Roles of the Public, Private and Voluntary Sector ... file 6714 Jun 26, 2014

Social tourism refers to initiatives that aim to include groups into tourism that would otherwise be excluded from it. The earliest definition of social tourism by Hunzicker (1951) described social tourism as ‘‘the relationships and phenomen...

Author: Lynn Minnaert 

Year: 2014 

116 Think Tank IX Tourism Relationship Model and Intermediary for Sustai... file 6708 Oct 13, 2013

This paper proposes a simple model that depicts the relationship between community and extra-community stakeholders that will enable the effective development of sustainable tourism. “Sustainable tourism” in this paper is defined as tourism ...

Author: Asami Shikida, Mami Yoda, Akiko Kino & Masayuki Morishige 

Year: 2009 

115 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Travel & Tourism B... file 6700 Oct 13, 2013

This paper discusses some economic, social, and environmental “hard issues” for the travel and tourism (T&T) industry with the aim of shedding some light on little discussed aspects of industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) with ...

Author: David Stipanuk 

Year: 2006 

» Think Tank VII Practical Interpretations of a Dynamic Model of Sustai... file 6679 Oct 13, 2013

"Operational definitions of tourism sustainability require details regarding what is to be sustained, for whom it is to be sustained, and the level at which it is to be sustained." This is the introductory sentence to "A Dynamic Model of Sus...

Author: Timothy Tyrrell & Robert Johnston 

Year: 2007 

113 Think Tank XIII Striving for Environmental Sustainability through Soci... file 6644 Nov 06, 2013

The question how native societies cope with the increasing pressure of global values, such as sustainability, westernization and democratic institutions has been asked in the last decades (Smith, 1989; Honey, 1999; Nash, 2001; Honey, 2008). ...

Author: Peter Varga 

Year: 2013 

112 Think Tank XI Learning Network Sustainable Tourism (LNST) for Touris... file 6608 Oct 14, 2013

Since 2002 the Flemish Tourism Board, the executive agency of the Flemish Ministry of Tourism, has implemented different actions to introduce the principles of sustainable tourism into tourism education in Flanders. The general objective is...

Author: Griet Geudens & Manuel Minne 

Year: 2011 

111 Think Tank X Implementation of the DIT-ACHIEV Model for Sustainable... file 6598 Oct 14, 2013

The DIT-ACHIEV Model is a model of sustainable tourism indicators developed in a previous research project undertaken by the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology. The indicators represent six fields o...

Author: Maeve Morrissey, Kevin Griffin & Sheila Flanagan 

Year: 2010 

110 Think Tank XIV Development of a Certification System for Sustainable ... file 6559 Jun 27, 2014

Tourism destinations are complex entities that can be defined as geographical areas of different sizes that are being visited by tourists. Most definitions then differentiate between the perspectives of those living in and managing a destina...

Author: Wolfgang Strasdas 

Year: 2014 

109 OPA award The Managing Local Tourism Master Class: Communicating... file 6499 Oct 14, 2013

The aim of this paper is to describe an action-based research project entitled the Management Local Tourism Master Class (MLTMC) and to discuss the merits of this extension tool in building sustainable tourism management practices across loc...

Author: Dianne Dredge, Emma-Jane Ford & Michelle Whitford 

Year: 2010 

OPA: 2010 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

108 Think Tank XII Encouraging Environmentally Friendly Transport Mode Ch... file 6495 Nov 06, 2013

The travel between home and destination is a key element of any holiday and has received increasing attention by tourism scholars as its environmental and particularly its climatic impacts have become widely recognized (Gössling 2002; Metz, ...

Author: Astrid Dickinger & Anja Hergesell 

Year: 2012 

107 Think Tank V Managing Risk and Crisis for Sustainable Tourism: Rese... file 6438 Dec 14, 2013

Many tourism professionals are afraid to speak about terms such as tourism security and tourism safety. There is a common feeling among tourism and travel professionals that these terms will frighten customers and that the less said the bett...

Author: Peter E. Tarlow 

Year: 2005 

OPA: Keynote Speech 

106 Think Tank VII Innovations in Volunteer Tourism: A Case Study of Fund... file 6350 Oct 13, 2013

The popularity of volunteer tourism as a form of alternative tourism has grown significantly over the past decade (McGehee, and Norman, 2002). Volunteer tourists can now be found throughout the world participating in a wide array of social, ...

Author: Kevin Lyons 

Year: 2007 

105 Think Tank XII Destination Governance and Tourist Mobilities: New Par... file 6323 Nov 06, 2013

Resort communities are complex systems where destination governance has become increasingly challenged by new mobilities of capital, finance, labor, communication, transportation, leisure and tourism. Popular destinations like the coastal co...

Author: Dianne Dredge & Tazim Jamal 

Year: 2012 

104 Think Tank XII Causality Between Inbound Tourism and Economic Growth:... file 6272 Nov 06, 2013

This paper examines the existing studies of the relationship between inbound tourism and economic growth. After a brief discussion of general economic growth theory and the reasons why a positive causal relationship may exist between export ...

Author: Mondher Sahli & Simon Carey 

Year: 2012 

103 Think Tank XIV The Emergence of Cross-border Governance Structures: t... file 6251 Jun 26, 2014

It is well recognized that the local borders of a tourism destination are not easy to delineate as they are constantly changing through complex practices and discourses due to historical, political, and economic factors. In fact, recent stud...

Author: Dani Blasco, Jaume Guia & Lluís Prats 

Year: 2014 

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