Abstract
Sustainable tourism (ST) has recently become the mainstream of the tourism industry and, accordingly, has influenced contemporary tourism research. However, ST is not just theories about indications and contraindications of global travel, but also a specific language that needs mastering to take sustainability work forward. In other words, what research receives recognition depends on the proficiency in how the articulation in research proposals and within assessment under the heading of “research impact”. The aim of this paper is to investigate how tourism research gains recognition within research evaluation, by investigating the national research appraisal in the United Kingdom (Research Excellence Framework). By using content analysis, we disentangle the rhetorical choices and narrative constructions within researchers’ impact claims. Our findings suggest that researchers adopt a rhetorical style that implies causality and promotes good outcomes facilitating ST. However, the structure of the assessment format enforces an articulation of sustainable research impact without stating the methodological limitations of that such claim. Therefore, the rhetorical choices of ST researchers merely represent a proxy indicator of the claimed impact. We conclude that the lack of rigor in accounting for the impact of ST research may inadvertently restrict attaining ST.
Highlights
Sustainable tourism as an idea implies that “tourism which is in a form which can maintain its viability in an area for an indefinite period of time” [1] (p. 36)
The contribution of this article is to outline the issues around proxy indicators of impact quality within the context of sustainable tourism
We found that if scholars want to engage in the impact realm, meaning promoting the social benefits of their research they need to tread carefully not to jeopardize their own integrity
Summary
Sustainable tourism as an idea implies that “tourism which is in a form which can maintain its viability in an area for an indefinite period of time” [1] (p. 36). Whilst quantifying and theorizing the impact of the tourism industry can be difficult, it undoubtedly influences the environment and society through its use of resources [4]. When talking about research that aims to facilitate sustainable tourism, similar complexities arise. What impact tourism scholars themselves hold when contributing to sustainable tourism in general may be more difficult to trace [8]. The REF is the successor of what was the Research Assessment. Exercise, which had represented a nationalized assessment of research within the UK from. Such national research evaluations occur every seven years, with the one to commence in the beginning of 2021. The nationalized research assessment elevates research based on their output (i.e., publications), environment (i.e., community), and based on their societal influence
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