Article: Economist Creates Sustainable Tourism Model

Economist Creates Sustainable Tourism Model

Tourism may be the largest industry in the world, but according to ASU professor and tourism economist Tim Tyrrell, it is lacking the knowledge of how to obtain maximum profits while sustaining a high quality of life for the residents of tourism communities.

Tyrrell collaborated with Robert Johnston of the University of Connecticut to provide the first concrete, theoretical basis for the analysis of sustainability in the tourism industry.

This emerging issue is recognized internationally, and it was the topic of much discussion at the Travel and Tourism Research Association's (TTRA) annual conference in Dublin, Ireland, in June.

Phoenix – and Arizona – soon could become a nexus for this type of research. Tyrell, who is building on the core strength of the tourism and public policy research at the ASU College of Public Programs, is leading an effort to create a Megapolitan Tourism Research Center at ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus.

The center will be unique in the world based on its focus on critical issues facing rapidly growing urban areas, such as transportation, migration, communication, unemployment, education, natural resources and economic development.

Before Tyrrell's study, “A Dynamic Model of Sustainable Tourism,” which appeared in the November 2005 issue of the Journal of Travel Research, tourism research and policy-making have only discussed the notions of sustainability in vague terms. This new bioeconomic model clearly demonstrates that, in all but the rarest of circumstances, there is no single, universal, sustainable optimum level for visitation, environmental quality or profits.

The model proves mathematically that a policy that maintains overly pristine environmental quality may be just as unsustainable as a policy that causes excessive environmental decay.

“Unlike other resource-intensive industries such as fisheries or forestry, tourism scholarly work has, until now, been unable to provide a generally accepted theoretical model to describe progress toward sustainability,” Tyrrell says.

The search for sustainability, the article notes, “implies that at least one group will be worse off, compared to their most preferred environmentally sustainable outcome.” What this means is that, even if a tourist destination is at an environmentally sustainable, optimal solution from the perspective of one group (such as industry), there still may be political pressure from the other groups (such as residents) to depart from that level.

“While tourism research centers and metropolitan research centers exist in many areas, there is no center that seeks to understand the role of the travel and tourism industry in determining the sustainability of the interrelated systems in large, densely populated regions,” says Debra Friedman, dean of the College of Public Programs . “With Tim's leadership and the intellect we can bring to bear on this topic, we can fill that gap in the research agenda for the tourism industry.

Tyrrell and Johnston were honored at the Dublin conference for their seminal work on this topic with the TTRA's top article of the year award.

TTRA, the pre-eminent organization in the world committed to tourism research, also has invited Tyrrell to serve on its prestigious international board of directors. He was the guest editor for the organization's August issue of the Journal of Travel Research, which will focus on measuring the economic impacts of tourism.

Tyrrell, who has been conducting tourism research in the United States and abroad for 30 years, was a popular figure during the Dublin conference. He played host to two sessions on the economic impact of tourism, and he co-chaired an academic roundtable where 60 of the world's top scholars discussed emerging research priorities.