Introduction

The aim of this section is to analyse the contemporary and future issues that are of importance to the tourism–environment relationship. From this perspective, tourism scholars have over the past decade begun to delve into important inter-disciplinary themes for the purpose of examining more deeply the entrenched problems that exist in practice. This lateral shift will continue to be important in efforts to better understand very dynamic issues in a richly complex world. The issues have become that much more important because of many imminent global challenges that have a direct effect on the tourism industry. But it is not just these issues that impact tourism. Tourism, because of its magnitude and distribution, contributes its fair share to the global environmental dilemma with which we are now faced.