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Author : Janne J. Liburd & Jack Carlsen
School/Work Place : University of Southern Denmark, Denmark (Janne J. Liburd), Curtin University of Technology, Australia (Jack Carlsen)
Contact : liburd@sitkom.sdu.dk
Year : 2006

Family businesses, that is, businesses owned and/or operated my members of a single family, are predominant in Western economies. This is also an important category of business within tourism hospitality, particularly in rural areas where research indicates that they form the majority (Getz et al 2004). Whereas lifestyle is a main reason for the establishment of these businesses, they are also motivated by conservation (Carlsen et al 2001, Schaper and Carlsen 2004), and sustainability remains an option as well (Bramwell and Alletorp 2001; Getz et al 2004). Key issues for family business are the role of family members, cultural practice and quality of life. Understanding these dimensions is important to a large number of people in the tourism and hospitality industry, tourism planning and sustainable development, especially in ecologically and socially sensitive rural areas.

This paper proposes that our understanding of sustainable tourism should be extended to embrace the dynamics of cultural practice and sense of belonging. Culture is constantly appropriated as a tourism resource, which is used to generate economic opportunities and simultaneously reinforce a positive sense of place, identity, tradition, professional pride and mutual respect. The latter is of particular relevance since tourism is also well known for producing unequal encounters between visiting tourists, hosts and local residents (Liburd 2006). Moreover, sustainable development is not a static target to be achieved but a process of transformation where acceptable levels of change by those involved in hospitality and tourism are of key importance. It will be argued that inter-generational collaboration and democratic equity are critical to sustainability within family businesses in tourism and hospitality. Previous research by Getz and Carlsen (2000) indicates that the most important goal for family businesses was the sharing of key decisions. Moreover, the cumulative decisions of the multitude of family businesses in tourism and hospitality have more influence on sustainable development than do the singular programs and policies of corporations, which invariably focus on profits not people. This paper will demonstrate that family businesses, not corporations, are best placed to embrace the transformation towards sustainable tourism development because principles of equity and concern for matters beyond profitability are paramount for these businesses.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
5 Think Tank XIII Conceptualising a Framework to Analyse the Factors Inf... file 19049 Nov 06, 2013

As the tourism industry continues to grow globally, sustainable tourism development has drawn interests among researchers, practitioners, governments and stakeholders. There are several studies on the local residents’ support for tourism, lo...

Author: Samuel Folorunso Adeyinka-Ojo, Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore & Vikneswaran Nair 

Year: 2013 

4 Think Tank XIII Linking tourism with Sustainable Development in Post-R... file 2986 Nov 06, 2013

This paper examines relationships between tourism and sustainable development via a case study that took place in Egypt from September 2011 to March 2012. The study, hosted by the Planeterra Foundation and G Adventures travel and conducted t...

Author: Laura Carroll 

Year: 2013 

3 Think Tank XIII Tourism investment and sustainable development: A comp... file 15277 Nov 06, 2013

Despite the growing importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) for tourism in developing countries and its perceived importance for stimulating sustainable development, few empirical studies have examined its impact. This paper explored t...

Author: Lee Davidson & Mondher Sahli 

Year: 2013 

2 Think Tank XIII Sustainable Tourism in Kerala - Chances for Local Comm... file 9117 Nov 06, 2013

The Indian state Kerala is positioned by Kerala Tourism as a sustainable tourism destination for domestic and foreign markets (cf. Jean-Francois 2011). Indeed sustainable tourism projects take place and are conducted either by NGOs like Kaba...

Author: Tatjana Thimm 

Year: 2013 

1 Think Tank XV Perceptions of the business community on the sustainab... file 7227 Jul 27, 2015

The holiday property market has seen a genuine boom in the last years with second homes being an integral part of today’s tourism and an important pillar in the accommodation sector. Today second homes are seen as an enabler for destination ...

Author: Anita Zehrer 

Year: 2015 

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