Sustainability and mass tourism: a contradiction in terms?

Abstract

Abstract It is argued in this chapter that sustainable mass tourism is not a contradiction in terms, but rather the largely unrecognized normative form of sustainable tourism. The chapter begins by outlining a three-dimensional model as to what fundamentally constitutes the 'sustainability' in sustainable tourism, however the latter is conceived. The next section then examines the evolution of sustainable tourism from initial contexts of mass tourism/alternative tourism polarity to repositionings of increased convergence. Enlightened mass tourism is presented as the logical culmination of amalgamation. Heavily visited protected areas and urban beach resorts are subsequently investigated as localized manifestations of mass tourism that appear to increasingly embody the ideal of sustainable or possibly even enlightened mass tourism.