ABSTRACT

Regional tourism growth often occurs around a central theme or central place which has the most appeal to the broadest audience, usually leading to an identifiable regional brand. This pattern is seen all over the world in mass tourism destinations. Throughout the development of mass tourism in recent decades this approach was not generally seen as a problem by local stakeholders. However, as concerns over the sustainability of mass tourism have been raised (Saarinen 2006), a clear need to take a closer look at tourism development has emerged. This chapter identifies two challenges to sustainable tourism development. First, mass tourism development often tends towards homogenization by both espousing a limited view of what a particular destination has to offer and obfuscating the heterogeneous nature of tourism supply in regions with an established brand. As a result, diversity is not necessarily embraced or understood in many destinations. Second, as more and more mass tourism destinations face persistent stagnation, or even decline, there is a need to reassess the internal path development of tourism. Thus, while success breeds success, the self-reinforcing nature of tourism development is not without its limits. These two challenges are of particular importance as the sustainable development agenda has gained traction in recent times and as questions of governance have been assessed (Bramwell 2011).