Key Takeaways

• Rising tourism creates both benefits and challenges: High visitation rates can boost local economies and jobs but strain communities by increasing housing costs and causing environmental degradation.
• Sustainable tourism maximizes benefits while minimizing negatives: By addressing economic, social and environmental impacts, sustainable tourism helps ensure destinations and tourism businesses remain viable over the long term.
• Collaboration and planning are essential for sustainable tourism: Successful sustainable tourism requires engagement from residents, businesses, employees and tourists along with proactive planning and adaptive strategies.

Tourism is rising worldwide, increasing both opportunities for economic growth and pressure on local environments and communities, underscoring the need for sustainable tourism practices that balance long-term environmental, social and economic impacts.

In the United States alone, major tourist destinations are experiencing high visitation levels, driven by a combination of post-pandemic travel recovery, growing interest in outdoor and nature-based experiences and the continued popularity of iconic cities and theme parks.

While surges in tourism can strengthen local economies and create jobs, they can also raise the cost of living and put natural resources at risk from overuse, according to Whitney Knollenberg, associate professor and Extension lead in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University.

Knollenberg works with residents, businesses and other stakeholders in North Carolina communities to identify opportunities for sustainable tourism development, focusing on balancing economic growth with protecting natural resources, preserving local culture and ensuring long-term community resilience.

In the following Q&A, Knollenberg explains the principles of sustainable tourism, why it is necessary, how it can be implemented, the challenges it presents and provides a concrete example of these practices in action.

• What is sustainable tourism?
• Why is sustainable tourism important?
• How can sustainable tourism be implemented?
• What are the challenges of sustainable tourism?
• What is one example of sustainable tourism?

What is sustainable tourism?

Whitney Knollenberg: Tourism generates economic, environmental and social impacts on all destinations and those who visit, do business and live in them. Sustainable tourism is an approach to tourism development and management that aims to maximize the positive impacts that tourism has on a destination and minimize the negative impacts. Environmental impacts are often the focus of sustainable tourism development and management, but social and economic impacts are equally important. By maximizing the positive impacts, destination communities and tourism businesses remain viable for generations to come.

Why is sustainable tourism important?

Knollenberg: Tourism is a powerful force. Some people compare it to a fire; it can cook your dinner or it can burn your house down. This means that while tourism can bring many positive impacts to a community — improved quality of life for residents, protection of natural resources and jobs — it also can bring negative impacts. Sustainable tourism is needed as a way to develop and manage tourism to ensure that the positive impacts are maximized.

How can sustainable tourism be implemented?

Knollenberg: Sustainable tourism can be implemented at the community level, within individual businesses or by tourists themselves. Implementing sustainable tourism requires buy-in and support from those who are impacted by tourism, including residents, businesses, employees and others. Because tourism impacts each of these stakeholders in different ways, destination and industry leaders must engage with each stakeholder group to determine which positive impacts they want to maximize and which negative impacts they want to minimize. 

What are the challenges of sustainable tourism?

Knollenberg: Sustainable tourism requires a considerable amount of proactive planning and consistent assessment of tourism’s impacts on destinations. As tourism destinations change over time, the positive and negative impacts of tourism change as well. Community and industry leaders must be proactive and collaborative to identify who is being impacted by tourism and what impacts they are experiencing. They must be willing to adapt plans and policies to ensure that the positive impacts of tourism are maximized. 

What is one example of sustainable tourism?

Knollenberg: One example of a sustainable tourism practice that I’ve identified through my research is implemented in Ocracoke, North Carolina where the economy is heavily dependent on tourism. As an island accessible only by ferry and with limited housing availability, Ocracoke faces challenges with attracting and maintaining a workforce for tourism businesses. 

Business owners and community leaders in Ocracoke recognize that the people of the tourism workforce are the heart of the industry and without them it doesn’t function. So to minimize the negative economic impacts of tourism for tourism employees and residents, many local restaurants keep a few menu items at a lower price to allow tourism employees to enjoy the local dining scene just as the tourists do. 

To maximize the positive social impacts of tourism, local leaders utilize taxes generated through tourism to host events that celebrate and connect residents and tourism employees, building a strong network of support and appreciation that increases the community’s resilience and appeal to those looking to live and work in Ocracoke.

This post was originally published in College of Natural Resources News.