Linking Culture and the Environment

52 Sustainable Tourism Development on a ‘Mediterranean Isle’
transformation of sustainable development from words into actions
(Campbell, 1996; McCool and Stankey, 1999).
The purpose of this chapter is twofold. It briefly reminds the reader of the
major obstacles to implementing sustainable solutions in touristic environments.
A principal impediment is that sustainability is a term fraught with
‘imprecision’ (Wall, 1997, p.33), since it holds varying meanings for different
stakeholders (see also McCool and Stankey, 1999; Sauter and Leisen, 1999;
Kousis, 2001). While researchers are well aware of this obstacle, the majority of
existing studies examine these differences in attitudes from a cross-sectional
standpoint. That is, investigations of the differing attitudes of players involved
directly or indirectly in tourism’s development (e.g. developers, local government
bureaucrats and politicians, national policy makers, tour operators, environmental
protection groups and local residents) tend to focus on a particular
place at a single point in time. Johnson and Snepenger (2006, p. 222) argue that
the reason for this fixation on cross-sectional studies is predictable since ‘it is
pragmatically easier to acquire information at one point in time’ but also because
most researchers are under pressure to turn out publications within a short time
frame and do not have the luxury to commit themselves to lengthy studies.
Unfortunately, however, the prevalence of such research inhibits our
ability to understand the manner in which attitudes towards tourism of each
set of stakeholders in a single locality are likely to change over time. In other
words, while one group of players may be extremely accepting towards tourism
compared to another at an early stage of the sector’s development, the
respective perceptions of these two groups based on their experiences will
probably shift through time. In some cases perhaps the varying perceptions
will become increasingly convergent, while in others differences in opinion
may be enhanced. Given that it is crucial in any destination to include as
many stakeholders as possible in the plan-making process to generate effective
policy, it is apparent that adopting a longitudinal approach, examining
changes over time, could prove extremely helpful for prescribing a general
agenda for sustainable tourism development.
Thus, the chapter reiterates the need for a conceptual framework that
recognizes the effect that spatial/geographic and temporal/historic contingencies
may have in influencing the attitudes of various stakeholders towards
sustainability. A primary aim is to demonstrate the value of adopting a longitudinal
model such as Butler’s (1980) widely used tourist-area life cycle to
investigate the perspectives of different actors towards balanced-oriented
growth at each stage of destination’s development. In order to illustrate the
use of such a conceptual framework for examining the shifting perceptions
of stakeholders over time, the chapter draws on the experiences of island
destinations in the Mediterranean.
Barriers to Sustainability in the Context of Tourism
The idea of sustainable development has gained broad acceptance globally.
Campbell (1996, p. 301) argues that this widespread acceptance is inevitable