Sustainable tourism must be not an oxymoron

For some time, in fact, tourism has been perceived as a controversial source of income: while no one questions its relevant contribution to the growth of cities and the whole areas, social consequences and environmental impacts have been progressively emphasized as well as its lack of coordination among the economic agents, the strong competition and the reluctance to be involved in homogeneous and shared development strategies. After years of steady growth, tourism has become an economic sector with powerful dynamics, but evidencing substantially ungovernable, unpredictable trends and mostly heavy environmental impacts. What seems to be lacking in many touristic contexts, what seems to have not yet been assumed, especially as regards tourism, is therefore a general awareness of the institutions and the necessary political willingness to drive actually and effectively sustainable development policies. To achieve this aim, it is crucial to push the political debate beyond the rhetoric of sustainability, which is often embedded in the communication, and rather affirm – as some authors have argued – an ‘institutional culture of sustainability’ that must permeate the decision-making process and all the administrative actions, making sustainability a practiced subject and not a fetish from time to time used to disguise traditional interventions into innovative and agreeable shapes.