Challenges and opportunities in the transition towards sustainability

The lack of progress in implementing the variously interpreted ‘grand’ concept of sustainability has resulted in increasing calls to divert the discourse surrounding sustainability and adopt more transitional approaches (Kemp, Loorbach, and Rotmans, 2007; Loorbach, 2010). McCool, Butler, Buckley, Weaver, and Wheeller (2013, p. 213) have questioned the saliency of the existing construct of ‘sustainable tourism’ to a rapidly changing twenty-first-century world and suggested “a reformulation of the concept to one of enhancing resiliency in the face of stresses and strains on communities.” In this volume we have sought to contribute to the growing body of academic interest within the realm of sustainable tourism studies by conceiving resilience as a necessary component of sustainability planning and management. We have focused on issues of governance and how resilience can be built into practices of good governance that contribute to developing ‘resilient destinations.’ We interpret ‘governance’ as encompassing “the values, rules, institutions and processes through which public and private stakeholders seek to achieve common objectives and make decisions” (Gill and Williams, 2011, p. 631).