Tourism Policy-Making in the Context of Contested Wicked Problems: Sustainability Paradox, Climate Emergency and COVID-19: Volume 17A

According to Head (2008), wicked problems are not just wicked problems in the sense of complex challenges, but situations that are confusing, unique, diffuse, without clear responsibilities or accountabilities, and difficult to resolve. These problems stand out for their uncertain nature, lack of clear solutions and possible irreversible consequences of attempted interventions. Recognising the pertinence of wicked problems in contemporary public policy discourse, this chapter aims to explore and better understand political decision-makers’ handling of these issues, in a tourism-specific context. The discourse on wicked problems, in accordance with 10 characteristics outlined by Rittel and Webber (1973), remains relevant when examining policy responses to mega trends, such as indigenous disparities, sustainability, digital transformation and demographic change. Against this backdrop and positioned within current academic discourse, this introductory chapter briefly foreshadows the volume’s various contributions by academics from around the world who present a wide range of wicked problems in tourism from their respective perspectives and contexts.

The term sustainable tourism has been in existence for many years, yet the concept is still lacking universal agreement in terms of definition, a situation reflected in the difficulties encountered in producing, particularly implementing and related policies. The broad range of issues involved with sustainable development makes integrated policy and governance difficult even in the more specific fields such as sustainable tourism. This chapter begins by reviewing the basic elements of sustainable tourism, its links with the parent subject of sustainable development, and the issues involved in applying the ‘triple bottom line’ concept to tourism. It then examines the relationship between policy formulation and application in the context of governance, and the links between governance and power at different levels. While one of the achievements of sustainable tourism has been its widespread acceptance and official adoption of the concept in many countries, regions and communities, this acceptance has not been translated very often into effective action, owing partly to the lack of integration between stakeholders and partly to the multiple viewpoints making up the tourism landscape which rarely achieve unanimity of policy issues. The chapter includes a discussion of case studies at different scales to illustrate the positive and negative results of the implementation of such policies and concludes with a general summation.

There are profound challenges inherent in understanding and addressing complex and contested issues. Divergent perspectives abound, at local, national and global levels. This is not surprising, given the different interests, experiences and resources of key stakeholders. When they cannot agree about the nature of the problem and their conflicting perspectives are shaped by divergent values and priorities, the situation can be described as a ‘wicked problem’. It is wicked in the sense of unruly, unmanageable, and resistant to consensual problem-solving. A low level of agreement about the key features of the problem, and disagreement about the values which should guide solutions, make the task of developing shared goals and strategies impossibly difficult. Governments can respond to such difficult problems in a variety of ways. Common approaches are to deny responsibility for the issue; attribute blame to other actors; or deflect attention to other issues. Other common approaches are to facilitate incremental adjustments to current policy settings, while deferring to ‘business-as-usual’ continuity and stability to impose an ideologically driven solution that will reflect the influence of dominant interests; or determine that a knowledge-rich solution pathway is needed, to explore robust long-term shifts in policy approaches. This can entail technocratic investment in science and technology to generate rational evidence-based solutions and ‘depoliticise’ conflicts; or investment in collaborative dialogue with multiple stakeholders to generate short- and long-term social objectives and to develop adaptive management strategies for implementing agreed policy directions. There is no single best solution, and various tensions and paradoxes are likely to persist.

The effects of climate change are no longer a distant, slow-paced, future phenomenon. Due to the high dependency on reliable snow conditions, the tourism sector in Austria will need to rapidly implement adaptation measures to forego further negative impacts. However, the framing of the subject in tourism is already difficult and complex. Despite an increase in climate change awareness, the necessary collective change seems to be deliberately tardy and adaptation processes are slowly considered in political decision-making. Strategic documents on tourism policy are still lacking clear information about this challenging task and suitable strategies. Against this background, the chapter at hand discusses instruments and pathways to deal with wicked problems using climate change and winter tourism in Austria as an example. The adaptation processes for winter tourism make it possible to describe different strategies, such as normative authoritative ones, evidence-based technocratic problem-solving, incremental adjustments or participatory processes and to analyse them using case studies. It becomes clear that evidence-based, normative or participatory approaches all have their strengths and weaknesses. While, on the policy level in Austria, the discussion about the right instruments has just started, a closer look at the project-based level shows the significant potential of a bottom-up approach. However, what is required is more exchange between governmental levels, a transparent distribution of responsibilities, detailed adaptation monitoring and reliable climate-proofing of new and existing policies. Currently, it is the bottom-up processes that show more courage for change and effective implementation of measures against global warming.

The tourism sector is facing significant challenges due to global climate change. The sector is a major contributor to carbon emissions while at the same time relied upon to drive regional development in Arctic Finland. This paradoxical situation highlights the urgent need for effective mitigation and adaptation policies and governance frameworks for both climate change and tourism. Finland has set one of the world’s most ambitious national climate mitigation targets into a legally binding framework. The state aims to be the first country in the global North to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. The new Climate Change Act 2022 outlines the key requirements for climate change policy planning and related monitoring and defines the national climate objectives. However, the tourism industry’s future growth potential in the Arctic Finland relies heavily on international tourism, which is largely based on the aviation sector. Tourism therefore faces a paradoxical situation for growth thinking in the current climate change policy context. Against this backdrop, this chapter aims to explore the complex issue of sustainable tourism development governance in the context of carbon neutrality policy in Arctic Finland. Specifically, it focusses on the potential contradictions between the role and needs of the tourism sector in regional development policies, and the responsibilities outlined in the Climate Change Act. This ‘wicked problem’ requires careful consideration and innovative solutions to ensure that tourism can continue to drive economic growth while also addressing the challenges of climate change.

The aviation industry plays a vital role in supporting tourism and international businesses by providing the fastest transportation network in the world and also boosting economic growth and creating employment. However, it harms the environment, mainly through air pollution due to aircraft engines emitting heat and gases that contribute to global warming, acid rain, smog, and ozone depletion. Air travel has increased considerably over the years, and therefore aircraft emissions have contributed to the build-up of greenhouse gases (GHG), with the resultant changes in weather patterns leading to global warming and environmental deterioration. Although aviation contributes to economic and environmental development, it is a double-edged sword because it is thought to be the most challenging industry for formulating sustainable policies, based on the direct conflict between environmental impacts and economic development. This chapter explores different types of problems associated with the negative impacts of aviation carbon emissions and the carbon footprint of tourism. The chapter will also reflect on policy, regulations, and governance approaches currently in place to combat these negative impacts as well as challenges involved in policy interventions.

Transport is the main enabler of tourism, but also one of its main sources of environmental impact. This paradoxical condition is even more controversial if considering the reluctancy of policymakers to introduce traffic management strategies, as they fear possible drops in tourism demand. This chapter addresses the ‘tourism-traffic paradox’ as a wicked problem and explores adequate and efficient policy interventions to foster sustainable mobility in Alpine destinations, minimising rebound effects in tourism demand. The chapter is focussed on the exemplary case of the Dolomites World Heritage Site (WHS), as this Italian area has experienced a long-lasting process of evidence-informed decision-making in transport, with two pilot actions for traffic calming in 2017 and 2018. The main goal of those actions was to shift the modal choices of tourists, to optimise the traffic network use and to minimise environmental impacts. The policy interventions were rooted in a sustainability governance approach, that is, they were creating a government-led network of stakeholders, including several academic experts, involved in the transport planning and monitoring phase. Advantages and disadvantages of this government-led network to solve the tourism-traffic paradox are discussed in the chapter.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the most ‘over governed’ tourism crisis since World War II. Unlike disruptions prior to 2020, it challenged many long-held paradigms about global tourism including fundamental issues like the right to travel. Therefore, it qualified fully as a ‘wicked problem’ defined by Rittel and Webber (1973) and Head (2022). The extent of government-imposed regulation was central to the management of and response to COVID-19. All tiers of government-mandated measures, including border closures, area lockdowns, quarantine regimes, social distancing, pressure to accept vaccinations, masks and testing requirements applied in most countries and regional territorial jurisdictions throughout 2020 and 2021. In some cases, notably in China, restrictions remained until early 2023. Tourism’s recovery from crises involves rebuilding consumer and stakeholder confidence and focussing on marketing positive perceptions of destinations and enterprises. However, during the COVID-19 crisis, marketing and promotion of tourism recovery were hampered by a regulatory environment restricting tourism activity across sectors. As a ‘wicked problem’ for global tourism, COVID-19 incorporates many of Head’s (2022) seven policy strategies to deal with Rittel and Webber’s (1973) ten elements of wicked problems including authoritative imposition, micro-management and science (health) based technocracy. The Australian response to COVID-19 was significantly complicated by the fact nine governments (one Federal, six states and two territories) frequently had differing policy and regulatory approaches to COVID-19. These affected international and domestic travel to, from and within Australia. Australia’s fragmented, federalist governance of a health-based crisis exacerbated the restrictions imposed on both domestic and international travel.

Since the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 has dictated to the world what can be done or not. Log downs of countries, cities and businesses dominated the daily life of everybody. Especially the hospitality and tourism industry went through constant changes in rules and regulations. Tourists were not sure if they were allowed to travel or have to cancel their vacations. Hotels needed to be aware of COVID-19 registration and hygiene. In China, the Zero-COVID policies were wicked, strict and specific and should support daily businesses in the country. A specially used instrument was the variety of QR codes in place to prevent virus outbreaks and monitored tourism movements. For example, the city health QR code of each city/region in China, or the travel QR code to ensure safe travel. This chapter firstly looking into the ideas and policies behind the QR code system in China and secondly discovers through examples its efficiency. The final step is to propose a universal strategy on how QR codes and their policies can support safe and healthy hospitality and tourism recovery during the current pandemic crisis and protect tourists and the hospitality and tourism industry in future pandemic situations.

The complexity and ambiguity of COVID-19 presented itself as a ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel & Webber, 1973) for tourism policymakers with no definitive solution to stop the virus or restart tourism across the globe. The reliance on expert advice proposed by international organisations (such as World Health Organisation, WHO, and United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UNWTO) varied across government leaders (Head, 2022). This resulted in mixed outcomes for containing the virus and tourism recovery. This chapter selects Maldives as a case study for exploring how the government tackled COVID-19 as a wicked problem despite having no prior experience in managing a health pandemic and an economy heavily dependent on tourism. The chapter outlines the strategies and policies used by the government of Maldives (a) to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on the economy of Maldives; (b) to apply guidelines proposed by international agencies to manage the health pandemic; and (c) to recover and rebuild the tourism industry. Review studies indicate the bulk of research evaluating COVID-19 and tourism focussed on the United States and China (Yang et al., 2022). Although some studies have explored South-East Asia, small island destinations and their journey towards recovery from COVID-19 remain under represented in literature. Despite the challenges of being a small island destination and limited experience of a health crisis, Maldives has been swift in applying international guidelines to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and recovered tourism in a short time.