The Future of Tourism in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This article undertakes a comprehensive review of tourism's impacts on social-ecological systems and the use of the local to global commons. It examines a wide range of issues from climate change and air travel to biodiversity loss, pollution, and overtourism. It reinforces that tourism in modernity has pursued a dominant growth-driven paradigm of development and market expansion that is unsustainable. The review raises critical questions about how to move forward in the Anthropocene, where climate change is an existential threat to which travel and tourism must adjust. We offer directions for knowledge creation to develop nature-positive tourism that decouples from greenhouse gas emissions and seeks the regeneration of natural capital and communal health and well-being. This direction includes rethinking the purposes and values of tourism by addressing equity and ethical issues. It also calls for inclusivity of diverse worldviews and knowledge systems, including traditional and Indigenous knowledge. Such a pluralistic paradigm replaces the unsustainable modernist tourism paradigm that has dominated its evolution. We conclude with suggestions for research to advance nature-positive tourism.