Sustainable Tourism Critical Review

The following paper is a critical review of four articles from the Journals of Sustainable Tourism. The four articles from the April issue of the 2010 edition focus on the challenges that face the tourism industry in its attempt to improve its understanding of climate change, manage the problems it faces and propose important ways to move forward. This paper will critically review, analyse and discuss each of the four articles.

In the first article, Adapting to climate change and climate policy: progress, problems and potentials, authors Scott & Becken (2010) explain that the challenges of climate change are evident across the tourism industry, but they are limited and not widespread. Scott & Becken’s article is of great importance in a time when tourism worldwide is developing rapidly. Scott & Becken (2010) state that the 2009 Climate Summit in Copenhagen brought about a mutual consensus that changes must be made in the tourism industry in regards to climate change. Major stakeholders of the tourism industry were present at Copenhagen but unfortunately limited action has been taken since. This is despite the tourism sector recognising a growing contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (Scott & Becken 2010). In Australia, the economic impacts of climate change have been analysed, however “the impacts of climate change via tourism activities has been overlooked” (Travel & Leisure Week 2010).

The poor use of statistics was the most significant weakness of this article. The use of statistics would have been beneficial in supporting some of Scott & Becken’s (2010) claims, although they admit that climate change research is “hampered by issues relating to data availability, accessibility and compatibility. Data quality is also a major problem when trying to quantify tourism’s GHG emissions” (Scott & Becken 2010).

The ability to construct strong, influential and persuasive statements is one of Scott & Becken’s strengths in this article. This is achieved with the authors using twenty strong additional resources which they make reference to throughout the article. The diagram (see Appendix) on page three strengthens Scott & Becken’s statement that little progress has been made in regards to the tourism industry’s attempt to combat the implications of climate change. This is despite the first scientific paper, presenting these implications of climate change, being published 25 years ago.

The second article, Estimating the Carbon Footprint of Australian Tourism by Dwyer, Forsyth, Spurr & Hoque, investigates the amount of greenhouse gas emissions Australia’s tourism industry is responsible for. The authors compare this emissions figure with other industries of the Australian economy. Dwyer, Forsyth, Spurr & Hoque (2010) also identify in this article the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. The authors explore the theory that there

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