Sektion Politik Ostasiens

Ulrike Solmecke

Title of research

The development of tourism in China with regard to sustainability goals

Short abstract of project

Although mass tourism has already long ago lost its reputation as a “white industry”, more “sustainable” forms of tourism are widely considered as an efficient tool for poverty alleviation as well as for nature conservation. Thus, combining socio-economic goals with ecological imperatives sustainable tourism has come to be valued as a well suited instrument within an overall development towards sustainability. Nevertheless, the still prevalent “triple-bottom-line” (TBL) approach which has coined the understanding of sustainable development and is used as reference framework for this positive appraisal is not only lacking a sound theoretical basis but also operational practicability. The equal weighting of social, economic and ecological goals sought for in the TBL approach is difficult to achieve and often results in prioritizing economic objectives to the detriment of ecological needs. The thesis formulates an alternative concept based on a theory of strong sustainability, integrating quality of life and intra- and intergenerational justice as core objectives while accepting that maintaining ecological viability is constituting the bottleneck problem. Fundamental requirements and constraints influencing the usability of tourism as an instrument for sustainable development are determined and analysed – in general as well as with reference to the Chinese tourism sector in particular.