Cases in Sustainable Tourism: An Experiential Approach to Making Decisions

Make sure your students are prepared for the difficult decisions they’ll face every day in the tourism industry

Cases in Sustainable Tourism is a groundbreaking teaching tool that places students in real-life situations where they’re faced with complex decisions on the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of actual cases from the tourism and hospitality industry. Cases are based on actual organizations or activities and accompanied by resource guides, illustrations, exhibits, multi-media materials, and photographs to help students make difficult but realistic decisions about traveling responsibilities (accommodations and airlines), adventure tourism, the sustainability of national parks, and land development and governance. This unique casebook includes an extensive Instructor’s Manual with additional teaching materials on an accompanying CD.

Each of the 15 cases is based on a real-life incident and flexible enough to present students with a variety of challenges that organizations face. Scenarios range from the state of the whale-watching industry in the Pacific Northwest to the conflict that arises when a banana plantation owner wants to expand onto land adjacent to a national park in Costa Rica to how a backwoods lodge in the Canadian Rockies addresses its responsibility to the environment. And with a little imagination, all 15 cases can be applied to local situations or organizations and embellished with field trips, newspaper articles, and local speakers to turn a classroom project into a real-life experience. Cases were written from a management perspective but are easily adapted for use with graduate and undergraduate courses in business management, environmental design, environmental science, geography, and planning.

Cases in Sustainable Tourism examines:

• the environmental performance of the hotel industry
  
• ecolodges
  
• the changing missions of national parks
  
• environmental concerns surrounding ski resorts
  
• the CAMPFIRE program in Africa
  
• the degradation of coral reefs
  
• clean beaches
  
• sustainable activities for the Amazon region in Brazil
  
• stakeholder involvement in national parks
  
• ecotourism
  
• and much more

Cases in Sustainable Tourism will prepare your students to become “problem solvers” when faced with real-life decisions in the hospitality and tourism industry. The book is equally valuable as a training tool for professional development programs offered by corporations, professional associations, and park personnel.

"A great help to anyone teaching sustainable tourism concepts." -- Carol Patterson, BAdmin, BA, CMA, Sessional Instructor, University of Calgary; President, Kalahari Management Inc.; Author of The Business of Ecotourism and Saving Paradise: The Story of Sukau Rainforest Lodge

"Students using this resource will be well prepared for issues that confront those in the business of developing sustainable tourism." -- Jack Carlsen, PhD, B.Econs, Professor and Co-director, Curtin Sustainable Tourism Centre, Curtin University of Technology