Journey or destination? Framing change in Swedish sustainable tourism initiatives

Abstract

Addressing sustainability challenges requires profound changes and transformations across all sectors, including tourism. Bound up in the operationalisation of transformation is the discursive aspects of change: the claims around how change can and should happen. This is a hitherto under-researched area, especially in sustainable tourism governance. This paper responds to this gap by investigating how two Swedish tourism organisations and their sustainability initiatives navigate and conceptualise change. Viewed as norm entrepreneurs, these organisations construct and disseminate narratives that shape sector-wide understandings of how sustainability should, and can, be achieved. The analysis explores their diagnostic and prescriptive framing strategies for addressing challenges in change (towards sustainability), focusing on the rationale, progress, and structure of change. Using a qualitative case study approach, the paper draws on semi-structured interviews (n=13) and document analysis to reveal contrasting change orientations: one initiative frames change as a journey, emphasising flexibility and incremental progress, while the other views it as a destination, focusing on well-defined targets and standardisation as shaping change. These orientations reflect underlying trade-offs between accessibility and rigour in achieving sustainability goals. The findings provide insights into how framing processes influence the communication and implementation of change, offering valuable lessons for sustainable tourism practitioners and researchers in Sweden and beyond.