Female Population, percentage 57.2% 51

to realize. The SDGs are “the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice” (WCED 2018). Each of the seventeen goals includes specific targets and areas of focus (United Nations SDG Annual Report 2018).

The SDG 11, “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” is of interest in this study because it works to address “common urban challenges that include congestion, lack of funds to provide basic services, a shortage of adequate housing, declining infrastructure and rising air pollution within cities.” A sustainable city must include adequate housing and transportation, “enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management,” and “strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” (WCED 2018).

For Asheville, this means a “complex balancing act for a city that has won widespread praise over the last few years largely due to the success of the social-entrepreneurial coalition in integrating a vibrant downtown that complements the natural environment, attractive residential neighborhoods, and long-standing tourist destinations such as the Grove Park Inn and the Biltmore Estates” (Strom 2017). For Greenville, this means considering the industries that are moving into the city and ensuring they align with their own vision for the city (Greenville Online Survey).

Models of Sustainability

The Doughnut Model is a visual framework for sustainable development (Figure 1). The Doughnut Model was designed to ensure that we are living within the threshold of our natural environments while also ensuring that social wellbeing is accessible for all. We fundamentally “depend on a stable climate, fertile soils and a protective ozone layer,” (Raworth, 2018) to carry out our daily lives.

The Doughnut Model inner boundary is occupied by the essential human “social foundations.” In the research we are concerned with the social foundations of political voice, income, work and social equity. The outer boundary of the model is the “environmental ceiling.” The ceiling “consists of nine planetary boundaries, as set out by Rockström et al, beyond which lie unacceptable environmental degradation and potential tipping points in Earth systems” (Raworth 2018). Between the social foundations and the planetary boundaries is the “doughnut” that represents the “environmentally safe and socially just space for humanity to thrive. Humans must maintain and sustain a position in this area represented by the green doughnut to have a “regenerative and distributive economy” (Raworth 2012).

This thesis focuses on the social foundations of housing, social equity, political voice, and income & work. This model can determine if urban tourism has compromised the sustainability of each region.

Figure 1. Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Model of Sustainability.

Sustainable Tourism Common Practices and Assessment

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism is the fastest growing economic sector in the world. The economic value of tourism “equals or even surpasses that of oil, food products or automobiles,” making the industry a key driver of socio-economic growth (UNWTO 2019). Tourism is responsible for creating jobs, funding infrastructure and development, and increasing GDP. Our global Tourism & Travel sector generated $8.8 trillion as well as 319 million jobs in 2018, well above the world GDP growth rate for the last eight years (WTTC 2019). Despite this contribution to economic growth, tourism can be damaging and unsustainable when designed or practiced improperly.

A study done in 2008 on the impacts of traditional tourism and community impacts “high-lighted many negative consequences from tourism development including:  Modest or no economic returns from tourism for locals (Kiss 2004)  Negative impacts on local culture and social structure (Forstner 2004)  Restriction of access to land for traditional activities (Vail and Hultkrantz 2000)  Disruption of traditional subsistence and other activities (Abakerli 2001)  Damage to natural and cultural heritage (Briassoulis 2002).” (Moscaardo 2008)

Sustainable tourism is not new to the travel and leisure industry. It is a term that is attached to many different meanings. Moscarrdo warns us to focus on “sustainable tourism rather than tourism for sustainable development is the disempowerment of local residents and other local stakeholders in the tourism development and management process” (Moscaardo 2008). The UN General Assembly in 2015 declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, a recognition by all countries of the potential of tourism to help transform our world” (UNWTO 2017). Mascarrdo argues that this definition of “‘sustainable tourism’ tends to