What is to be sustained? The polysemy of sustainability and sustainable tourism across languages and cultures

Abstract

“Sustainability” and “sustainable tourism” are widely debated concepts in tourism worldwide. However, the specific meaning of both concepts across different cultures has not been fully researched, and the terms are frequently assumed to have identical meanings to audiences from different cultures. We aim to close this research gap by studying how tourists from four different countries define and conceptualise “sustainability” and “sustainable tourism.” Specifically, we asked participants from Germany, Italy, Norway, and the United States to define “sustainability” and “sustainable tourism” using open ended questions in a qualitative study. We study the responses using an interdisciplinary framework which is based on research from tourism, intercultural studies, linguistics, and cognitive psychology. The findings show significant cross-cultural differences in respondents’ interpretations of sustainability and sustainable tourism, regarding both the content and the linguistic form of the definitions. Our research challenges the silent assumption that consumers worldwide share a common understanding of sustainability in tourism. We conclude that strategies for promoting sustainability and sustainable tourism must use strong verbal and visual cues tailored to the culture and language of diverse target groups. This includes the use of meaningful culture-specific symbols representing sustainability. Additionally, tourism researchers should be aware that an injudicious transfer of polysemous terms such as “sustainability” and “sustainable tourism” across different contexts and study designs may bias research results.