The quotes in this article have been lightly edited for clarity.
- The tourism sector is at a crossroads: it represents a huge driver of the economy, but faces many challenges.
- A new World Economic Forum report shows how taking an “ecosystem approach” can reimagine tourism as a force for shared prosperity.
- Professor Marina Novelli, Director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Centre at Nottingham Business School, shares her insights with the Forum on the trends affecting the industry and how to make tourism more inclusive.
For centuries, the concept of travel for pleasure and cultural exploration was a marker of privilege. Tourism as we now know it has its roots in The Grand Tour – a pilgrimage to Europe’s most beautiful cities dating back to the 1600s, which was really only possible for those with leisure time and money.
Today, as the World Economic Forum launches its new report Beyond Tourism: Coordinated Pathways to Inclusive Prosperity, the sector stands at a pivotal crossroads.
Tourism is projected to contribute $16 trillion to GDP and generate more than 100 million jobs by 2034. But, at the same time, there are multiple challenges – from overcrowding to impact on the environment – that require an “ecosystem approach” to reimagine tourism as a force for shared prosperity.
The report builds on previous Forum work that identified 10 principles for transformative change and sustainable sector development. It highlights case studies of ecosystem tourism development, from Portugal to New Zealand, where the principles have been applied to address the sector’s tension points and challenges.
How tourism is changing
The post-pandemic travel landscape shows both the industry’s dynamism and its shortcomings. In the years following COVID-19, the sector experienced what commentators described as “revenge travel” – a surge of pent-up demand from those eager to reclaim lost experiences.
Alongside this trend, a more sophisticated shift has emerged.
“We have seen the surge of what we often refer to as experiential travel,” explains Professor Marina Novelli, Director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Centre at Nottingham Business School. “People seeking more purposeful and meaningful experiences, and therefore the sector adapting to that kind of consumer demand.”
This transformation reflects a deeper evolution in how travellers view their journeys: no longer as escapes from reality, but as bridges for cultural exchange and personal growth.
The digital disruption of the sector, exemplified by platforms like Airbnb, has democratized access to travel experiences, while also creating new tensions around housing affordability and community displacement.
“Tourism brings a lot of inequalities as well, both in terms of production of tourism experiences and of course, in terms of who can experience the benefit of tourism,” says Novelli.
What appears as innovation from a consumer perspective often manifests as extraction in destination communities. This contradiction demands a new lens: viewing tourism through an ecosystemic approach that place both travellers and local communities at the centre and designs strategies around shared goals and mutual benefits, says the Forum report.
Addressing the challenges facing the tourism sector
As tourism demand grows, so does the problem of overtourism and growing imbalances in popular destinations. Some locations have become “the victims of their own success”, as Novelli puts it.
“We’ve seen an increasing narrative and debate around the negative impact of tourism on destinations which are being affected by issues such as overcrowding and overtourism,” she notes.
However, the solutions cannot be purely technical. “Overcrowding and overtourism are obviously complex, wicked problems that we need to look at from different perspectives. Some people refer to it as a management problem. But I’m a great believer that [it] goes far beyond that.”
Viewing these challenges as merely operational issues overlooks the deeper causes. “If you look at it from a management problem, you’re actually only trying to find the cure for the disease,” Novelli explains. “But you don’t actually address the root cause of the problem.”th
She uses the metaphor of an iceberg: “You have the tip of the iceberg, where obviously the effects of tourism are actually visible. But underneath them, there are a lot of other socio-political, economic and environmental issues that need to be addressed, both in terms of urban planning, if you’re talking about urban settings, but also looking at other set-ups. It could be an overcrowded set-up in a mountainous area or in a coastal area.”
The challenge, she argues, requires looking at the problems from a systemic perspective: “The systemic failures that are associated with the extractive model of tourism, [over] the past 50 years, have been used as measures of success as well.”
Traditional metrics have focused on volume rather than value. “The shift needs to look far beyond numbers, but far more at the return on investment,” Novelli explains. “And of course, when you look at return on investment, we need to look at it in terms of social and environmental impact as well.”
Right or privilege?
Central to this reimagining is a fundamental question: is travel and tourism a right or a privilege? For Novelli, travel and tourism are a right but should be treated as a privilege.
“The global majority in this world don’t travel not because they don’t want to travel, but because they cannot travel,” she emphasizes. The challenge becomes: how do we expand accessibility while maintaining the responsibility and intentionality that should accompany any travel experience?
—Professor Marina Novelli
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— Professor Marina Novelli
In the Global North, sustainability conversations often focus on managing demand and protecting destinations. While in the Global South, particularly in Africa and Asia, the conversation centres on access and economic opportunity. Colonial legacies persist in how tourism products are consumed and managed.
“Opportunities [are] very much linked to resources, whether it is financial resources, or access resources.”
Novelli stresses the importance of shifting these mindsets: “When it comes to consumption of wildlife, for instance, or management of wildlife, we need to actually start questioning those knowledge systems that we’ve been using. To actually preserve wildlife and understand which alternative ways we could use to make sure that those products are more accessible.”
Regional travel trends, accelerated by the pandemic, show promise. “There is an increasing trend of regional travel,” Novelli notes. “If you look at Africa or Asia, for instance, there is a huge increase in intra-regional travel. Which comes very much as a consequence of what we experienced during COVID.”
These disruptions forced adaptation. Speaking about her research in Kenya, Novelli observed how much of Kenya and its coastal area have been relying on domestic tourism.
“So, what that means is that they had to apply dynamic pricing. They could not charge what they would charge for somebody coming from Europe for local visitors. These kinds of disruptions are really important because they make the sector more agile and more adaptable to … the variable and very unpredictable … global economic set-up.”
Tourism and the future of work
As the industry evolves, one critical dimension remains underdeveloped: the future of work. After the pandemic, many workers left and haven’t returned, viewing hospitality as a stepping stone rather than a career.
The sector directly and indirectly contributes to one in 10 jobs worldwide, but this talent exodus threatens its viability. Novelli identifies this as urgent: “One of the aspects that needs to be addressed is the issue of skills and of course workforce development, but also most importantly the future of work in the sector.”
It extends beyond skills training. “If we are pushing tourism as one of the sectors that creates one of the largest job opportunities in the world, we need to make sure we ask the question, what kind of jobs? Are they good jobs?”
The solution lies in creating pathways that allow workers to upgrade their skills and move across opportunities. “Could they upgrade their driving to become a tour guide? Could they actually create an opportunity for themself to move horizontally in another sector, where, for instance, customer services are transferable skills?” Novelli envisions tourism becoming “the best top employer in our economic, global economic setup”.
Importantly, workforce development must address overlooked populations. While efforts to empower women in tourism have rightfully expanded opportunities, some destinations now face unintended consequences.
“A lot of male youth are left behind. And of course, they get involved in crime, they become very disillusioned, they don’t have job opportunities,” Novelli explains. “So very often the inequalities that we were trying to address through engaging women have sometimes created imbalances in some societal settings.” True inclusive prosperity means creating opportunities that don’t leave any group behind.
The broader imperative, as reflected in the new Forum report, involves cross-sector collaboration spanning technology, finance, infrastructure and sustainability. Most fundamentally, it requires a shift in mindset.
Novelli challenges those entering the field directly: “Do you want to be part of the problem or do you want to be part of the solution? [It’s the] personal responsibility of each person, whether you travel or not, [to] implement more responsible ways of living in your everyday life. We’ve got a much better opportunity to leave the world in a better way than we’ve found it before.”
The Grand Tour once belonged to the privileged few. The challenge now is ensuring that travel, in all its forms, becomes genuinely accessible – as a carefully stewarded right.