THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Injunctions towards more sustainable forms of development now characterize official as well as pressure group manifestos. In tourism this is marked by a discourse of sustainable tourism and the sponsorship of initiatives addressing the relationship between tourism and the environment. This paper, using a Scottish example, demonstrates that the dominant approach to sustainable tourism is technical, rational and scientific. It suggests that, while necessary, this has eclipsed the emergence of an ethical response. The paper concludes with some tentative strategies for sustainable tourism fashioned out of an ethical interest in the development of people, as tourists, and destination populations, as communities.