Demarketing Tourism for Sustainability: Degrowing Tourism or Moving the Deckchairs on the Titanic?

Demarketing is generally recognized as that aspect of marketing that aims at discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis and has been increasingly posited as a potential tool to degrow tourism and improve its overall sustainability, particularly as a result of so-called overtourism. The paper provides an overview of the various ways in which demarketing has been applied in a tourism context and assesses the relative value of demarketing as a means of contributing to sustainability and degrowing tourism. It is argued that demarketing can make a substantial contribution to degrowing tourism at a local or even regional scale, but that the capacity to shift visitation in space and time also highlights a core weakness with respect to its contribution at other scales. The paper concludes by noting that the concept of degrowth also needs to be best understood as a continuum of which demarketing is only one aspect.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the application of demarketing in the tourism industry and its value in promoting sustainability and degrowth in tourism. It argues that demarketing can contribute significantly to degrowing tourism at a local or regional scale, but also highlights its weaknesses in contributing at other scales. The concept of degrowth is seen as a continuum, with demarketing being just one aspect of it.