Tourism and the green economy: inspiring or averting change?

This paper investigates how tourism stakeholders conceptualise tourism in a green economy and how they foresee the transition to progress. With the meaning of a green economy remaining contested, the political agenda that the concept entails in a particular context can be far from clear. The paper provides a qualitative analysis of Towards a Green Economy and the publication Green Growth and Travelism to explore the implementation strategies and political agendas of tourism stakeholders. It outlines how stakeholders argue in line with international organisations that tourism can contribute to growth, development and poverty alleviation, while reducing environmental impacts. However, some researchers challenge the foundations of the green growth discourse. An exploration of these contradictions and of the political and economic implications of climate change leads the paper to argue that the particular framing of the green economy presents tourism in a way that sets the industry up for continued growth, while marginalising a much-needed radical transformation.