Please note that this is an on-going project.
Project Description
The Griffith Institute for Tourism (GIFT) officially launched a groundbreaking project in October 2024 that addresses the intersection of climate justice and tourism. This innovative initiative aims to ensure that climate policies and tourism actions incorporate justice considerations for a just and sustainable future. The project will explore how tourism can play a pivotal role in addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities while contributing to global sustainability goals.
Project Personnel and Beneficiaries
The success of this project depends on collaboration with stakeholders from across sectors, including scholars, government agencies, tourism operators, local communities, and climate justice advocates. The project is designed to offer actionable recommendations that ensure tourism becomes an avenue for equitable and sustainable change. The project team welcomes collaborators to join in addressing the urgent challenges of climate justice and tourism. By working together, the project aims to drive the global conversation on how tourism can be harnessed as a tool for both climate resilience and justice.
This project represents a bold step toward integrating justice into climate policies relevant to tourism, positioning GIFT as a leader in addressing the critical intersection of climate change and global tourism. Through its collaborative and forward-thinking approach, the project aims to drive meaningful change and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable future for all.
Outcomes to Date
Please visit the project webpage for the list of activities and outputs.
Project Significance
This project is driven by the pressing need to embed justice within climate policy and actions to ensure that climate change impacts and initiatives do not perpetuate historical and ongoing social and environmental vulnerabilities. While discussions around sustainability and justice in the context of climate change have been significant, there remains a gap in efforts to integrate these two aspects for a truly just sustainability transition. This project aims to explore the complex relationship between climate change, climate justice, and tourism, focusing on the interconnected challenges that arise in tourism-related sustainable development.
By analysing notions of justice and the narratives that underpin them, the project seeks to systematically identify and address context-specific justice challenges within climate policies and practices relevant to tourism. This approach is particularly important because economic factors often dominate policymaking, potentially overlooking local contexts and sidelining essential social, cultural, and political considerations. Through targeted empirical research, the project will substantiate these justice challenges, providing practical insights for effectively integrating justice considerations into the climate discourse and actions relevant to tourism.