Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of degrowth within tourism research and introduces the main themes of the book. It is broadly divided into three parts. The first section provides a broad overview of the degrowth literature via a scoping review of how the notion of degrowth has grown as a research subject in general and in tourism studies in particular. It is noted that the first degrowth oriented studies emerged in the late 2000s in response to both the global financial crisis and concerns over global environmental change. The second section then examines some of the main implications and challenges of employing degrowth in tourism research and the potential link to practice. A strong connection is noted between overtourism and interest in degrowth. However, substantial questions exist with respect to the scale of analysis and the extent to which proposed responses and practices fundamentally challenge the tourism industry’s focus on growth. The final section introduces the reader to the various chapters in this book and how they resonate with some of the identified implications and challenges.