Conclusion − tourism: how to achieve the sustainable development goals?

This concluding paper filters out the main points relating to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) arising from the theme issue. The aim is to provide an insight as to how the hospitality and tourism industry is aligning its actions with the SDGs given the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent issues such as overtourism.

The approach is based on evidence and findings derived from the case studies featured in this issue presented by practitioners and academics.

The overall findings show destinations along with the hospitality and tourism industry are engineering a variety of strategies to make the industry sustainable. The practical solutions recommended by contributors are helpful in terms of sharing good practices and identifying potential barriers to the execution of those practices.

The articles in this theme issue address a theoretical and practical gap while proposing innovative sustainable tourism strategies directed towards the implementation of the United Nations SDGs. The value of this paper lies in the fact that it draws from a variety of original case studies, each unique in their own right and proposes innovative ideas on how the tourism and hospitality industry may implement the SDGs in their businesses while safeguarding the interest of the economy, society and the environment.