“Travel and tourism are everybody’s business…if you sat on a beach deckchair at least once in your life, you must be an expert!”
Travel and tourism are broadly performed through the active engagement of people as consumers or service providers, planners, policymakers and destination communities. This happens while development priorities are reshuffled in relation to sustainability ambitions. Politics, levels of power, consumers and local communities’ needs, social justice, natural resources’ protection, fair trade principles, poverty reductions strategies, climate change, ethics and corporate social responsibility are all core dimensions of the prominent sustainability agenda, promoted through the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Rio+ Protocol.
Within the tourism and sustainability realm, Professor Novelli has had an active presence. Her critical scholarship, multi-disciplinary and participatory research approaches have made a difference to the quality of decision-making that underpins the development and management of tourism in destinations across Africa, Asia and Europe. She has also provided new insights into the socio-economic, cultural and natural environments in which travel and tourism occur.
By drawing upon some of her most significant research, enterprise and teaching experiences, Professor Novelli’s inaugural lecture offered key reflections on her use of critical social science perspectives in understanding travel and tourism. It also highlighted her pro-activist and impact-orientated commitment to the development of programmes and practices that actively promote progressive social change, tackle social problems and promote positive outcomes beyond travel and tourism.