ABSTRACT
Destinations face increasing pressure from ever-growing tourist visitation driven by an overall increase in expendable income and the emergences of new tourism markets. This places considerable stress on both the ecological and social fabric of both established and emerging tourist locales. Recent calls for more sustainable and responsible tourism practices have trended towards degrowth as a viable alternative to traditional economic activity. However, the application of these policies can be complicated in mature destinations that are very economically reliant on tourism. Similarly, emerging destinations may overlook the signs of growing resource depletion in the name of steady local economic growth. This chapter presents policies and practices with evidence from a mature World Heritage destination (Cinque Terre, Italy) and an emerging World Heritage destination (Northern Dolomites, Italy), where recent ecological disasters as well as tourist congestion concerns have led to a shift towards the implementation of certain degrowth measures. These examples will be used to critically examine the application of degrowth concepts within mature and emerging World Heritage destinations.
