This qualitative field study is conducted on the Andaman Islands in India and focuses on the sustainable destination development and SCUBA diving tourism. The island in focus, Havelock, is an emerging tourist destination and an international airport is scheduled to open in the Andamans in 2021. The topic is approached through observation and interviews with people involved with the SCUBA diving industry, selected informants, and diving tourists. Different scales that operate with the island’s development - global, national, regional and local - are investigated. Global warming poses a threat to the coral reefs that is the main resource for tourism at the location and the longterm residents’ education in the subject is absent. The communication between state and nation is a problem as laws are passed without participation or awareness from the local community which makes it difficult for businessowners to invest. Furthermore, diver motivation and satisfaction are investigated. The main motivation of beginner level diving tourists from India are not educated in how the underwater world looks like, but are motivated to see what they already know through movies like “Finding Nemo”. The study reveals that a degraded coral reef does not affect diver satisfaction where the divers are not educated in how a healthy reef looks like. The local Marine Protected Area - Rani Jhansi Marine National Park - is in 2019 funded by the government and there are currently no entrance fees for diving tourists. However, this has been proved successful in other destinations. The Marine Protected Area is perceived as positive by the local SCUBA industry, but it is not interacting with its regulation and governing.

Hållbar destinationsutveckling ses idag som en viktig motor för regional tillväxt och utveckling. Trots detta råder en osäkerhet om vad det innebär i praktiken och det saknas en tydlig vägledning för hur destinationer kan utvecklas utan bekostnad på samhällsutvecklingen och den befintliga omgivningen. Genom en diskursanalys av material inhämtad via plandokument och en intervju har vi undersökt hållbarhetsaspekter samt drivkrafter och motsättningar i samband med etableringen av semesterresorten Lalandia i Motala kommun. Vi finner att avvägningar mellan ekonomiska, ekologiska och sociala värden görs till förmån för den ekonomiska tillväxt som är en stark drivkraft i etableringen av Lalandia. Studien talar därmed för att tillväxtdiskursen dominerar i projektet, vilket föranletts av kommunens starka ekonomiska intresse i projektet. Resultaten påvisar även att vad som bedöms hållbart respektive ohållbart beror på den enskilda aktörens tolkning av begreppet hållbarhet, vilket bekräftar vad som återfunnits i tidigare forskningsstudier. / Sustainable destination development is regarded as an important engine for regional growth and development. Despite this, there is an uncertainty about what it means in practice and there is no clear guidance to how destinations can be developed without expense at the development of society and the existing environment. Through a discourse analysis of material obtained via planning documents and an interview, we have investigated sustainability aspects as well as the driving forces and contradictions in the establishment of Lalandia, a holiday destination, in Motala municipality. We find that trade-offs between economical, ecological and social values are made in favor of economic growth, which is a strong driving force in the establishment of Lalandia. The study thus indicate that the growth discourse dominates in the project, which is a result of the municipality's strong economic interest in the project.The results also show that what is considered sustainable or unsustainable depends on the individual actor's interpretation of the concept of sustainability, which confirms what has been found in previous research studies.

Seasonality in tourism has been present in the literature for decades. It is a universally phenomenon connected to climate and institutional factors which contributes to an imbalance in demand. It can be expressed through numbers of tourists, bed nights and expenditure. Seasonality is most obvious in peripheral destinations and it has generally been described as an issue that needs to be solved. Previous studies have put much attention on macro levels which includes how destinations could mitigate seasonality and create all-year around tourism. This study examines seasonality at a micro level by using Gotland as a case. The aim of the study was to explore perspective of Gotlandic nature-based tourism companies on seasonality, all in order to increase the understanding on seasonality aspects in tourism. The data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews with nature-based companies on Gotland. The results of the study indicate that lifestyle motives are strong for running a nature-based company on Gotland and the short, intense summer-season make it possible. Seasonality is therefore not considered as an issue that needs to be urgently solved. Other themes related to sustainable destination development such as carrying capacity, employment, possibilities of growth and regional strategies are also being deeply discussed in this study.

Modern society is faced with an increasing level of environmental degradation. One effect of this is the loss of possibilities for children to interact with natural environments. Children’s interactions with nature come with a wide range of benefits, both physical and psychological, accentuating the need to develop outdoor spaces for children in areas of preserved nature. One way to approach this challenge is by developing recreational and educational nature trails aimed at children. Länsstyrelsen Gotland (the county administrative board) requested a theoretical suggestion for a children’s nature trail in a prospective nature reserve in Gotland and this study was done to bring forth such a suggestion. The study focused on what educational and recreational elements would be suitable to include in a nature trail for children and how to build ecological knowledge among its visitors in effective and creative ways. The material for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with children’s caregivers and educators in combination with observations at existing nature trails for children using a geosemiotic approach. The results were analysed through a thematic analysis that extracted four main themes from the two sets of data with sub-themes to broaden the results. The themes and sub-themes were used to highlight elements suitable to include at the stations in terms of activities and layout of the trail, and how to get and keep children’s attention along the trail. A suggestion for a nature trail for children with eight stations was put together, steeped in the non-consumptive standards of ecotourism and with a clear focus on getting the visitors to learn about nature, especially through the framework of ecological literacy. Fun and play were seen as essential components to effectively build ecological knowledge and it is argued that perhaps the objects and activities provided at built-up ecotourism sites are necessary to get more people to visit nature in the first place.

Background: Sustainable development is considered to be one of today's most comprehensive challenges, which will require extensive changes, adaptations and innovation in all levels of the society worldwide. Simultaneously, the social and economic phenomenon of tourism has seen remarkable growth and development over the last decades, leading to become one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the world, as well as a key component of the evolving socio-economic progress. However, the integration between these two requires extensive adjustments and further knowledge in the process of sustainable destination development, where this study takes an intermediary perspective.  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to evaluate and explore how a tourism intermediary in Sweden is working with sustainable development and how they can utilize their position in the process of developing a geographical area as a sustainable destination.  Method: This thesis is a qualitative study with an exploratory nature, where in-depth phenomenologically based interviews build knowledge upon exploring the participant’s responses through a series of three separate interviews. Thematic analysis was used to find patterns and relationships in order to analyze and validate the raw data, which later was applied to frameworks and previous literature to strengthen and build a final analysis.  Conclusion: This study shows how sustainability efforts need to be enhanced and extended beyond internal processes to successfully strive towards sustainable destination development. By taking collective responsibility and putting more pressure on co-operations, creating strong networks to communicate and collaborate, incorporate internal education of sustainability and familiarize with frameworks and follow-up tools, the intermediary position can be utilized to its full potential.

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Tourism represents 10.3% of the global GDP. Moving abroad for holidays has never been simpler and cheaper. Destinations answer tourist's demands, they build more hotel complex, create new fun activities, provide more resources. This way of life seems paradisiac for visitors; however it does not look that good for local communities. Often left aside by capitalist corporations, their resources and environment are depleting, crowds of visitors invade their space and unsustainability is deeply rooted. The result is the installation of more inequalities and gap between social classes. An alternative to this Pandora's box was created about 50 years ago, although it only started to develop recently, claiming it is the solution to most of our environmental tourism issues: ecotourism. If you look for this type of holidays, you will find the Azores. Eight award winner as a green destination. It was decided this research would focus on its biggest island: Sao Miguel. One will investigate what is the reality behind the green curtain. To do so, the learning of local stakeholders towards ecotourism and how it affects their current actions and their sight for the future of the island's tourism will be explored.

Food culture emerges as a social culture and can be summarized through its historicaldevelopment process. The exploration of socio-cultural analysis of food with sociologicalapproaches has emerged in research due to the increased awareness of modern societies’motivations to discover other cultures through food. However, in the context of Sweden,limitations exist in analyzing the continuous ongoing process of a food product’s cultural valueand its potential ‘added value to local cultural expression. This research focuses on evaluatingPike-Perch’s culture value through its historical developed process and how utilization of theproduct has established present brand identity. By targeting the local stakeholder community, theperception of Pike-Perch’s recognized cultural value could be captured and utilized as addedvalue for local cultural expression. The stakeholder’s perspectives were collected via interviewsand observations through the geographical boundaries connected to the lakes of Mälaren andHjälmaren. The findings point towards a recent transformation of Pike-Perch market value,giving the fish a new sociological appearance. As a result, a change of traditional utilization hasreinvented/reproduced Pike-Perch with a different positioning within its socio-cultural setting.The stakeholders acknowledge the success in its development process that has establishedpresent identity; however, to the cost of preserving its intangible heritage. In return, thetraditional food culture appeared fragmented. By reintroducing traditional elements from the pastthat satisfy the imaginations and need for visitors to acknowledge its distinctiveness, the brandcould be strengthened and potentially justify its new market position. This research contributedto understanding the value of food culture from a stakeholder perspective and how post-modernsocieties influence its potential for sustainable destination development.

The tourism industry has been faced with immense growth worldwide. Due to the industry being resource-heavy, this development has been problematic in terms of sustainable development. This has resulted in overtourism becoming the reality of multiple destinations, which have then faced ecological and social degradation. Therefore, it is important to explore alternative pathways toward sustainable development that do not prioritise growth. The pathway that will be explored in this thesis is degrowth. In the past, degrowth has been under-researched within tourism studies, especially in terms of practical solutions. This research aims to fill that research gap by exploring the compatibility of Icelandic tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs running small to medium -sized businesses in rural Iceland. But Iceland has been one of the destinations that have been faced with overtourism. This research is conducted by using an exploratory research design where data was collected through eight in-depth interviews with tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs across Iceland. The findings of this thesis suggest that while Icelandic tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs are compatible with the degrowth concept, it is important for the sake of sustainable tourism development to re-shift the focus away from growth and more towards well-being.

This study aims to determine the role of Amazigh/Berber women in maintaining and preserving the cultural heritage of their people through carpet weaving, as well as how this tradition contributes to gender norms and tourism in rural Morocco. The research method consisted of conducting semi-structured interviews and a literature review of intangible cultural heritage preservation, traditional gender norms in rural areas, and nomadic tourism theories. Analysis of the interviews concluded that Amazigh women keep their traditional culture alive through carpet weaving, and they are simultaneously valued and marginalized within their society. The necessity and pressure placed upon them leads to issues related to gender equality and girls’ rights/accessibility to a quality education in the modern context. Though in a constant state of change and shifting with time, the nomadic lifestyle and traditional Berber carpet weaving are still participated in today and nevertheless hold deep significance for those who partake in these activities. Traditional mentalities regarding gender norms remain intact, although they are challenged more frequently. Women’s weavings are critical in preserving Amazigh culture and symbolize a heritage identity in an overt manner, making women central to the Berber story and Berber heritage.