Understanding collaboration and sustainable tourism development

This chapter will provide conceptual clarifications of collaboration and sustainable development, and their application to tourism. Collaboration is not new in the contexts of tourism research, tourism higher education or the tourism industry. Academic life thrives on selection, classification and informed judgement, which are not at odds with collaboration. Without argument and counterargument, knowledge cannot be advanced. Tourism destinations are made up of many industry actors and stakeholders who are engaged in a myriad of networks and collaborative efforts. Tourists readily choose between destinations in a globally competitive field. Many travel to over-crowded destinations, where the tourism sector drives the destination to accommodate its demands, which may be at odds with sustainably living within the needs and wants of the destination and its local inhabitants. This chapter will attempt to overcome the all too frequent gap between sustainability in tourism theory and practice, by focusing on collaborative dimensions and possible critical engagements. The overall objective is to add three aspects to the current literature and appreciative understanding of the importance of collaboration for sustainable tourism development.