Slow tourism insights inspiring fast travel forms via sustainable development, the triple bottom line, and environmental communication

Abstract

This research first develops slow tourism as rooted in various social and sustainability movements, concepts and practices of multicultural studies, and lifestyle philosophies. Second, it places slow tourism in the context of worldwide sustainability concerns, substantiated by the business triple bottom line, here placed within the framework of the global travel and tourism industry. Third, it compares two modes of fast tourism, namely, airline and business travel, to two modes of slow tourism, namely, student and religious travel. This comparison prepares the ground for suggestions of how slow travel models and philosophies could inspire and transform fast travel forms regarding their business practices and sustainability implementations in the interests of the global tourism industry. Fourth, those slow tourism inspirations, triple bottom line substantiations and fast tourism transformations are connected to the dynamically evolving field of environmental communication, presented beyond concerns of global warming and environmental protection, and based on media principles such as discursiveness, subsidies, balance and objectivity, frames and agendas, news holes, and environmental reporting. The conceptual contribution of this research lies in connecting slow and fast tourism, sustainability, the triple bottom line and environmental communication. Its practical contribution is the development of action and reflection models as well as transformation motivations for fast tourism forms and expressions. Its overall contribution is a first step toward a new framework of public discourse that now unites global travel and tourism practices and philosophies, worldwide environmental concerns, sustainability substantiations, and their open and fruitful sharing and discussion in global media communication.