A clear path towards sustainable mass tourism? Rejoinder to the paper `Organic, incremental and induced paths to sustainable mass tourism convergence' by David B. Weaver

The paper forms a rejoinder to the paper by David Weaver (‘Organic, incremental and induced paths to sustainable mass tourism convergence’). It fully agrees with David Weaver that a sustainable development of tourism should focus on sustainable mass tourism development and not, as is currently the case, so much on niche products labelled ‘sustainable’. However, it critiques Weaver’s operationalization of sustainability, his assumption that sustainable mass tourism (SMT) will be the ‘emergent norm’ due to external factors, and his destination development theory showing different paths that, however, all end in SMT. Finally it is shown that the path development idea might be at odds with systems thinking. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The subject of Weaver’s opinion piece, sustainable development of tourism, is a very relevant one as the tourism sector is not developing in an environmentally sustainable manner (e.g. for climate change Peeters & Dubois, 2010; Scott, Peeters, & Gössling, 2010 and global environmental change Gössling, 2002; Gössling & Hall, 2006). As most tourism is mass tourism, it is very welcome to have a discussion about the sustainability of mass tourism. Too many sustainable tourism papers describe only niches (e.g. pro-poor, ecotourism, community based tourism, volunteer tourism), without clarifying how this fits the changes required for the whole tourism system. Furthermore, Weaver uses ‘regulation’ as a proxy for ‘sustainability’ indicating he is highly aware of the important role of regulation to gain sustainable development. The most challenging statement by Weaver is that ‘sustainable mass tourism’ is the ‘desired and impending’ outcome for the development of tourism. This conclusion is based on a claim that five external factors e conventional/renewable resource price convergence, climate change awareness, the global financial crisis, institutionalised environmentalism and the Internet e will guide the sector into an ‘emergent norm of sustainability’, combined with the ‘entrenched norm of support for growth’. Part of Weaver’s reasoning is based on his destination development theory, operationalized by plotting development paths on two axes, one of scale (tourism volume) and one of level of