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Recent decades have witnessed a rising concern regarding the prosperity of the environment and utilisation of resources. A sustainable approach is being promoted in all sectors. In the field of tourism, sustainable tourism is widely discussed among researchers and practitioners. On the other hand, luxury tourism is criticised for lavish resource utilisation to serve the few luxury tourists. There is a need to include sustainability in luxury tourism to benefit the environment, local communities, tourist destination and luxury tourists. However, sustainable luxury tourism is an emerging concept and needs more investigation. This chapter attempts to present the existing knowledge about sustainable luxury tourism by implementing a systematic literature review. Further, the opportunities and challenges associated with sustainable luxury tourism are being highlighted. This study has identified the factors that need to be considered to promote sustainable luxury tourism. Moreover, suggestions of the researchers are being presented to serve as guidelines. This study includes an example of the Diphlu river lodge, which has practised sustainable luxury tourism for many years. The viewpoint of luxury tourists are being understood by analysing the reviews of tourists from TripAdvisor using NVIVO-12 qualitative data analysis software. The combination of literature review and practical information provides insight into sustainable luxury tourism.

The euphoria of tourism development in Indonesia as one of the leading industries of the country’s economy requires proper planning and an advanced strategy to maintain its sustainability. This chapter discusses strategies used by the Indonesian government for the implementation of sustainable tourism development. The strategy comprises three tourism programs: sustainable destination, sustainable observatory, and sustainable certification. The discussion developed in this chapter stresses that sustainable programs require serious commitment from the government and a carefully developed framework that suits the Indonesian context. Further, the proposed programs have to be introduced in closely monitored stages and are perhaps best developed through a certification program that may encourage positive impacts.

Ecotourism is a sustainability approach that has emerged as an alternative to the negative environmental impacts of tourism, where natural, cultural and historical values are used as sources. Ecotourism is a nature-based tourism activity that ensures the sustainability of natural resources and promotes the economic development of local populations. It also preserves sociocultural values and protects the ecological system for future generations. However, if ecotourism is well-controlled, it can positively affect nature, natural life, local people and the local and national economy. This study highlights the importance of ecotourism for sustainability in the tourism industry. It examines ways to deal with the ecotourism phenomenon. In this direction, the study defines the concepts of ecological tourism and sustainability. It describes the general characteristics of ecotourism and sustainable tourism and the developing and potential environmental impacts associated with them. The study highlights that any tourist activity that does not have a sustainable quality cannot be long-term and will increase awareness on this topic.

The tourism industry is known to be both famous and infamous in a way that there is a blurred line between how much tourism is sustainable and how much it is not. However, there is no denying of the fact that the industry is in need of innovative and upgraded mechanisms to ensure sustainability. Technology, on the other hand, is making great strides in providing support to ensure sustainable development across various sectors. Taking cues from the existing work, this chapter investigates the various facets of technology in imbibing sustainability, especially in the tourism sector, and proposes a framework for technology-led sustainable tourism development process. The chapter concludes that both technology and sustainable development concept share the common principles of being holistic, futuristic and interrelated (integrated). Therefore, technology can be a proper solution to develop a sustainable model.

Sustainable development of tourism depends on the fragile balance between its fast growth and the tendency to “consume” its own life support systems: nature, culture, and communities. Finding equilibrium between the two conflicting aspects requires a shared rule making, which is seldom encountered, especially in tourism-centric approaches. The emergent new technologies, and particularly the evolution of social media, seem to offer a neutral ground that favors open participation and stakeholder dialogue. This chapter explores the employment of social media by individual users of TripAdvisor and by institutional actors (destination organizations) as platforms for initiating stakeholder dialogues that focus on sustainable tourism. The findings show that individual and institutional actors are slow in adopting social media as a means to discuss the sustainability of tourism.

This research aims to explore the potential of big data technology for sustainable management and investigate its impact on tourism. Its goal is to obtain meaningful results related to sustainable tourism to understand better how big data technology plays a role in decision-making by looking at it through the lens of various studies.

A systematic review, which is a qualitative method, was used in this study. The analysis was conducted using secondary data from the Web of Science Core Collections databases.

Big data technology has many economic benefits for businesses, but it also has managerial benefits such as forecasting, decision-making and tracking human and machine behaviour. Furthermore, big data technology offers sustainability benefits such as resource efficiency, preventive quality systems, carbon reduction and environmentally friendly production.

Big data's capabilities enable businesses to make more informed business decisions, improve overall business performance and contribute to achieving various SDGs. Big data, which aids in developing smart and sustainable tourism in the tourism sector, assists tourism managers in making economically, socially and environmentally sound decisions.

At the core of understanding the practice of marketing sustainable tourism lies an appreciation not only of the evolution of the concept of sustainability, but also of the co-productive process between consumer and producer. This chapter establishes a conceptual overview on sustainable tourism and its alternative terms (ecotourism, responsible tourism, soft tourism, ethical tourism). Its origins stem from the pivotal works of the Brundtland Report. The author considers the complex structures that interact with the tourism industry, such as the social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in vulnerable or sensitive climates. For example, in Central Thailand, cities such as Bangkok have experienced rapid urbanisation as well as burgeoning tourism. This has resulted in high levels of air pollution from traffic congestion and manufacturing, while escalation in the tourism industry places burdens on waste management systems. Further strains on waste management in both the Eastern and Southern regions, particularly along the coastlines, which suffer from high levels of coastal litter, are attributed to the rising tourism industry – a process other popular destinations have undergone, such as Costa Rica. Examination of cases such as Thailand will elicit further discussion of public awareness of the impacts of the tourism industry in vulnerable climates. Lastly, the chapter will look at cases of demotion or de-marketing of tourism in certain regions in order to limit the number of visitors, such as that of the Blue Mountains National Park in Australia. In addition to the case studies reviewed in this chapter, there is a practice exercise in developing an environmental performance index, based on existing data on country-specific environmental performance.

The development of the tourism industry is closely linked to its sustainability. The need to reconcile economic growth and sustainable development is imperative and cannot be delayed.

Long-term sustainability requires a balance between three different dimensions: economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability. The competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism industry is, in turn, extensively dependent on the proper and efficient functioning of the transport system. There is no tourism without travel and transport or mobility. The tourism industry benefits when public transport is widely used by tourists.

The need of a well-functioning sustainable transport system rises in the maritime transport sector before the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972) that for the first time has paid attention on the durable long-term preservation of the ecological balance, taking account of the interests of future generations. In fact, at international level, the Civil Liability Convention was adopted in 1969 to ensure an adequate compensation for oil pollution damage (including loss profit of the seaside tourism), resulting from maritime casualties involving oil carriers.

The European Commission works on a number of legislative initiatives in this area for a long time, before the Single European Act of 1986 recognised the European Community competence in the field of environment. In the same year, the ‘official’ definition of sustainable development was developed for the first time in the Brundtland Report in 1987. According to this definition, sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In spite of the quick evolution in this field, the Brundtland definition remains still valid, but it has been supplemented by an integration with the aim to make it less anthropocentric and more ecocentric. According to the Lisbon Treaty, in force today, one of the main objectives of EU is to operate and co-operate to ensure sustainable development in Europe, maintaining a high level of environment protection. This Treaty considers sustainable development, regarded as economic prosperity, security and social justice, an objective pursued both in Europe and in external relations with third States. It demands that environmental protection requirements are integrated into the definition and implementation of the community policies and activities, with a view to promoting sustainable development. Therefore, one of the fundamental objectives of the EU is to promote sustainable tourism development in Europe.

The search for luxurious hospitality experiences increasingly coincides with the imperative to mitigate negative impacts in the pursuit of greater sustainability. This is a task often understood as being complex particularly in the context of luxury hospitality which often resonates with conspicuous consumption. This chapter uses a case study approach to analyze the complex relationship between luxury tourism and sustainability. The study focuses on the development of “luxury” from a materialistic perspective toward an experience economy and relates this to the concept of sustainability and agreements relevant to the tourism industry. The environmental impact of luxury hospitality is then discussed. The case study on properties in Costa Rica, South Africa, the Maldives, Vietnam, and French Polynesia focuses on philosophy, facilities, energy and waste consumption, food and beverage, conservational and educational activities, and alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The focus is on the properties and shows limitations in that it is not applicable to the whole tourist journey and experience. All properties understand luxury as based on experiences and involvement in nature. Measures to mitigate environmental impact and foster conservational and educational activities are mainstream practices. Comparing the cases with academic literature on luxury, sustainability, ecotourism, and environmental policies underline that sustainability-driven luxury hospitality shows valuable steps toward a more sustainable product but is ultimately faced with the dilemma of taking into consideration and ultimately mitigating the impacts of the entire travel value chain.