Tourism's sacred status isn't a right—and that matters for climate policy
A new study challenges the assumption that unlimited travel is a fundamental freedom, arguing instead that it's a historically constructed privilege incompatible with climate limits and host communities' welfare. For policymakers and travel industry leaders, this reframing opens space for legitimate travel restrictions without abandoning liberal values—if tourism is justified differently.
Originaltitel: Vacation untouchable – a deconstruction of the liberal ‘right to tourism’
This paper examines how the liberal ‘right to tourism’ acquired its contemporary normative meaning and how it conflicts with planetary boundaries. It investigates the historical, structural, and discursive conditions that have rendered tourism a taken-for-granted form of liberal freedom. Unlimited tourism is neither a human nor a legal right, but a historically constructed and socially defended freedom rooted in growth-oriented tourism systems and welfare-state labour arrangements. Drawing on liberal theories, historical analysis, and a socio-technical systems perspective, it shows how high‑carbon tourism is structurally reproduced and how tourism-related freedom claims conflict with rights and living conditions of host communities, as well as inter- and intragenerational justice. Finally, it outlines how tourism freedom may be reinterpreted within a liberal discussion scheme. • Tourism rights are shown to be contingent on relational justice and planetary limits. • Boundaries are enabling conditions of freedom rather than restrictions. • Shows tourism freedom claims conflict with host community rights and future rights • Proposes a staircase model for travel justification within planetary boundaries • Argues that liberal rights discourses require liberal solutions