Chapter 1 Introduction

Abstract

More than one century ago, in a revolutionary piece of prose, D. H. Lawrence wrote: “And barrenly, the professors in their gowns offered commercial commodity that could be turned to good account in the examination room; ready-made stuff too, and not really worth the money it was intended to fetch; which they all knew” ([1914] 1995: 367). One of the most important challenges facing the world today is educating the leaders of today and tomorrow. In order to avoid blind reproduction, as implied in the opening quote by D.H. Lawrence, and to create challenging vistas, these leaders should be equipped with a holistic understanding of the concepts, values and principles of collaboration and sustainable tourism development. The reader is hereby challenged not only to think about the means to current problem solving but to reflect philosophically upon processes and ethics in the context of desirable futures with others. Reflecting upon the kind of tourism we wish to have does not imply moving away from one’s own, or industry’s, needs and demands of the market place, nor of meeting those of society. More funda- mentally it raises the issues of stewardship, the kind of tourism to be developed, by whom, how it should be governed, and what the objectives behind these activities should be.