As the title of this book identifies clearly, the authors combine the concepts of competitiveness and sustainability, which some may feel are difficult to reconcile, to provide guidance to enhance the management of tourism destinations. The contents of this book are not novel for it does not contain new insights on the topics that are covered or fresh case studies. However, it is innovative in that it introduces, within the same document, competitiveness and sustainability, embellishes these concepts and uses them to develop a conceptual framework. The explication of this framework is both the objective and content of the book. The focus is upon tourism destinations. The emphasis is on places with multiple attractions and accommodation establishments but the framework has applicability to countries and larger regions; states counties and smaller places; and there is also much of utility to the individual operator. The authors are devotees of Porter whose seminal works underpin their thinking, albeit with modifications to fit tourism.

The Competitive Destination: a Sustainable Tourism Perspective

Building on the model by Perdue, Long, and Allen, this study examined residents’ attitudes toward existing and future tourism development in several rural areas at different stages of tourism and economic development. Social exchange theory and destination life cycle model were used to examine the impacts of tourism development on residents’ attitudes when considered in conjunction with a community’s total economic activity. New social predictors and endogenous factors were tested in the model. Overall, residents of three distinct rural county-level areas were supportive of tourism development, and little evidence was found that suggests that attitudes toward tourism become negative with higher levels of tourism. After considering the level of tourism development in conjunction with the total economic activity, residents of the three county-level areas showed some signs of destination life cycle influencing their own relationship with tourism.

Residents’ Attitudes toward Existing and Future Tourism Development in Rural Communities

Integrated rural tourism:: Concepts and Practice

The role of individual entrepreneurs in the development of competitiveness for a rural tourism destination – A case study

Tourism Development and the Environment: Beyond Sustainability? challenges the sustainable tourism development paradigm that has come to dominate both theoretical and practical approaches to tourism development over the last two decades. It extends the sustainable tourism debate beyond the arguably managerialist 'blueprint' and destination-focused approach that continues to characterise even the most recent 'sustainability' agenda within tourism development. Reviewing the evolution of the sustainable tourism development concept, its contemporary manifestations in academic literature and policy developments and processes, the author compares its limitations to prevailing political-economic, socio-cultural and environmental contexts. He then proposes alternative approaches to tourism development which, nevertheless, retain environmental sustainability as a prerequisite of tourism development. This book also acts as an introduction to the Earthscan series Tourism, Environment and Development.

About the series: 

'Tourism, Environment and Development' aims to explore, within a variety of contexts, the developmental role of tourism as it relates explicitly to its environmental consequences. Each book will review critically and challenge 'traditional' perspectives on (sustainable) tourism development, exploring new approaches that reflect contemporary economic, socio-cultural and political contexts.

Roz Wornell

Papers

Re-conceptualising rural resources as countryside capital: The case of rural tourism

Chapter 13. Quality as a Key Driver in Sustainable Rural Tourism Businesses