Creating and implementing a model for sustainable development in tourism enterprises

The quest for sustainable tourism presents a challenge to integrate economic, social and environmental issues in tourism planning and—in order to implement this—to change attitudes and traditions among the different stakeholders within tourism. This calls for involvement of the different stakeholders in the change processes towards sustainable tourism and, accordingly, the creation of new patterns of interaction and collaboration between the stakeholders. This paper analyses how a project on sustainable tourism development in Mid- and North Jutland, Denmark, has engaged 26 small and medium sized tourism enterprises in an incremental change process towards sustainable tourism. Using the theory of collaboration, the paper analyses the process of identifying the common interests, defining the problems, setting the directions, and developing and starting the implementation of a four-step model for sustainable development in tourism enterprises. The question addressed is how to create a change process in the enterprises that is at the same time realistic and innovative.