Introduction

The juggernaut of global tourism continues to roll inexorably in the early years of the new millennium, with major geopolitical events such as 9/11 and the Iraq war causing little more than minor and temporary interruptions in the pattern of increased tourist arrivals and revenues that has persisted since the end of World War II. Mass tourism destinations are now evolving into mega tourism destinations, ever more remote places are being incorporated into the global tourism system and the exploding domestic and outbound tourist markets of China and India are poised to propel global tourism into yet another period of accelerated expansion. Intensifying tourism activity is affecting more and more places – mostly on earth, but now also in outer space – and there can no longer be any doubt as to the potential of this sector to effect fundamental economic, environmental and sociocultural change on destination as well as origin and transit regions. This change, depending on how this sector is managed, can be either positive or negative and it is the understandable desire to maxi-mize the former and minimize the latter that has given rise to the now ubiquitous engagement of stakeholders with the concept of sustainable tourism.

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