Mindfulness and Sustainability: Utilizing the Tourism Context

Abstract

After several decades of sustainability efforts humanity is still on track to worst-case climate scenario. Other planetary boundaries have also been transgressed. The symptoms point to a root cause termed by many as a crisis of perception and value system. Our consumption-oriented world view is unsustainable. What can catalyze a perceptual paradigm shift needed to avoid global socio-ecological collapse in the long-run? Besides its manifold beneficial effects tested clinically, mindfulness has been found to be positively correlated with sustainable behavior. The article gives a theoretical grounding of mindfulness highlighting some new aspects and argues that the tourism context serves as an exceptionally suitable medium for learning mindfulness techniques. Expanding on earlier openness to new experience and Google Trends research of the author it is demonstrated that tourists have a markedly raised level of openness to new experience and also that there is a strong demand side business case for developing more mindfulness-based tourism products both globally and specifically for Hungary. The study provides further evidence of the short fade-out period of positive vacation effects and shows what type of destinations and accommodations potential wellness and ecotourists consider best for learning mindfulness.