PhD Student: Su Arnall

Details

Thesis Title: Protecting Paradise: Exploring the Drivers for a Sustainable Tourism Industry

Start Year: 2010

Supervisor

Outline of Thesis

My research explores the significance of the various potential drivers of sustainable tourism, including the role of both governance drivers, such as certification systems and state laws; and structural drivers, such as the location, price and size of a hotel. Much of the existing literature on sustainable tourism focuses on defining the concept, as well as the way in which a large proportion of the tourism industry fails to practice sustainability. I am seeking to avoid these controversial and well-discussed topics in order to explore the potential drivers that might explain the differing degrees of sustainability that exist within the industry, a task that has been little addressed. In order to do this, I draw on a hybrid theoretical framework to define the governance factors and the meaning of sustainable tourism. I develop an understanding of “sustainable tourism” that includes the defining characteristics of economic growth, social equality, environmental protection and local participation. This is complemented by a theoretical model of governance that identifies the different governance mechanisms that might be a driving force for sustainable tourism. These include, for example, state laws, voluntary certification systems and the lobbying of non-governmental organisations.

This research focuses on the sustainable tourism industry as a whole, utilising interviews and documentary analysis as the key methods of data collection. However, it draws in particular on fieldwork in Costa Rica, one of the locations where sustainable tourism has been most effectively embedded in society. As a result, Costa Rica likely has an effective governance framework for sustainable tourism and lessons can be learned from its experience. From this research I hope to produce a number of insights into how sustainable tourism might be effectively pursued in the future, both in Costa Rica and further afield. This includes an understanding of the relative significance both within different governance mechanisms and structural factors, such as voluntary certification systems versus state laws; and the impact of the size of a hotel versus its location; as well as the significance more generally of governance mechanisms versus structural factors.

Research Interests

International development, sustainable development, local and participatory forms of development, governance; tourism and forms of “eco” and “sustainable” tourism, international political economy, Latin America and the Caribbean.