Sustainable tourism has remained the dominant tourism development paradigm within both academic and policy circles for more than three decades. However, little if any progress has been made towards implementing sustainable tourism in practice. Reflecting on this failure to achieve a more sustainable tourism sector, manifested not least in its increasing contribution to climate change, this paper argues that the problem lies in the continuing adherence to the economic growth model that underpins (sustainable) development policies in general and tourism development in particular. Highlighting the unsustainability of unabated growth, the paper goes on to suggest that the solution lies in the adoption of sustainable (reduced) levels of consumption. Yet, based on a recent exploratory study, voluntary limiting the consumption of tourism, even amongst the allegedly environmentally aware post-millennial generation, is an unlikely scenario. Hence, the path to sustainable tourism production and consumption lies only in effective regulation.

在过去的三十多年中，可持续的旅游业一直是学术界和政策界主导的旅游业发展范式。但是，在实践中实施可持续旅游业几乎没有进展。考虑到这种无法实现更可持续发展的旅游业的失败，尤其是它对气候变化的贡献日益增加，本文认为，问题在于持续坚持经济增长模型，该模型是总体（可持续）发展政策和旅游业的基础特别是发展。强调持续增长的不可持续性，论文继续指出解决方案在于采用可持续的（减少的）消费水平。然而，根据最近的一项探索性研究，自愿限制旅游业的消费，即使在所谓的环保意识的后千年一代中，这也是一个不太可能的情况。因此，可持续旅游业生产和消费的途径仅在于有效的监管。