Post-development and pre-apocalypse: tourism on borrowed time?
My Session Status
Tourism, identified just a few years ago as an inescapable global phenomenon, has been called into question in terms of its trajectory, its effects and even... its relevance. Theories suggesting that certain countries will catch up on the basis of quantitative criteria, or proposing a set of measures to accelerate economic growth, appear to be clearly out of step with the acceleration in inequalities and the multiplication of climatic challenges observed in recent years. Tourism is at the centre of this nexus, being both a catalyst for these changes (economic, social and climatic) and a sector that is particularly sensitive to them. China's rise to power, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and their determination to shatter the Western development model are reminders of the extent to which travel is both permeable to geopolitical risks and particularly resilient in its ability to reconfigure flows according to the perceived image of destinations. It is important to explore the trajectory of tourism in a context where the tectonic plates of geopolitics and climate are challenging the dominance of the model of the last 80 years.
(This conference will be in French with instant translation).