ABSTRACT
Consumerism in the tourism sector came with the opening up of aviation in the second half of the twentieth century – and specifically the trends of: (i) declining real cost of air travel, which rendered air travel accessible to the middle classes; (ii) the rapid increase in the number of direct city pair air connections; as well as (iii) the rise of hub- and-spoke airlift configurations (Pearce 2013). This predominantly occurred in the United States (US), Europe and Australia, with most new growth expected in the Asia-Pacific (Airbus 2013). However, in recent times, consumer-related travel has grown substantially across all countries. This was fuelled by the rise of democracy, the globalisation of trade, a growing middle class in emerging markets and the internet. Travel websites, such as TripAdvisor, have provided individuals with easy access to booking and other travel-related products and information. Individuals co-create the experience by adding comments to the website and social media platforms to assist other consumers. With the rise of tourism consumerism, the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 placed the travel and tourism sector in the context of those global goals and aspirations aimed at increasing economic growth and employment, reducing poverty and moving towards responsible tourism. Sustainable tourism is multi-faceted and cannot be addressed within the travel and tourism industry in isolation. Consumers are an integral part of tourism and should contribute to sustainable tourism.
