Social sustainability: what does it say to tourism employment?

It is over 40 years since Emmanuel de Kadt (1979) highlighted tourism as a possible 'passport to development' for communities and countries in the Global South. While offering a balanced assessment of the benefits and limitations of tourism as a development tool, he brought together the experience of experts who had been involved globally in supporting the development of tourism in the Global South over the previous 20 years. The potential for tourism was presented in a predominantly positive way and, since when Passport to Development (without de Kadt's question mark) has been used as the intellectual springboard for international agencies and governments to drive aid and investment in tourism. The tone of debate at this time was substantively positive and constructive and tourism was promoted as bringing economic, social and, crucially, employment benefits that far out-weighed any negative outcomes. More recent contributions have, however, been rather more critical in their approach (see, for example, Jenkins, 2015 for a historical perspective of this area).