Opinion: Shepherding our hills with sustainable tourism development

David Perkins

Last edited 9:13 a.m., June 4, 2025 

With summer here, tourism is something many of us have on our minds. While we focus on our personal itineraries, we often forget tourism is serious business. Simply put, tourism enhances local economic growth and development, is vital to communities and vastly important to Springfield and the Ozarks region.

Financially, you benefit from tourism. Chances are at some point in your life, you have probably worked in tourism, as nearly 1 in 10 U.S. jobs are tied to the travel and tourism sector. That represents nearly 15 million employees. These jobs include restaurants, hotels, transportation and entertainment, to name a few. 

Even if you have not worked in this sector, tourism still benefits you. When you travel, have you ever seen tourism taxes on your bill? Those funds are usually deferred to localities providing community development without raising taxes, your community included. According to the Missouri Division of Tourism, in fiscal year 2024, tourism generated $18.3 billion taxable sales, $641.5 million tax revenues, 42.4 million visitors and $20.8 billion economic impact in the state. 

Tourism assets in the Ozarks are well positioned and can benefit greatly from sustainable tourism. In the Springfield metro area, Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk and Dallas counties encompass over 23,000 jobs and tourism-relevant spending of nearly $1.3 billion. Expand that to Branson’s contribution in Taney County and you have over 35,000 jobs and nearly $2.2 billion. 

This is not lost on Jefferson City, nor is it lost on our business leaders. The Springfield and greater Ozarks region represents half of the Missouri Tourism Commission: Sen. Lincoln Hough, Rep. Brian Seitz, Rep. Betsy Fogle, Jennifer Blair Dowdney and Joseph Passanise. 

Furthermore, we see continued tourism infrastructure investment in the Ozarks from both local “VRBO entrepreneurs” to multinational business leaders such as Johnny Morris.

Unsustainable tourism
While tourism seems excellent, we must realize all that glitters is not gold. Tourism, when developed unsustainably, may blight communities and regions.

Here are some examples:

• Tourism can be transient, seasonal and trendy, resulting in income instability and exploitative part-time employment.
• Tourism can facilitate cultural appropriation, resulting in misunderstandings and stereotypes.
• Tourism can take money away from local communities, resulting in capital leakage where revenues do not recirculate locally.
• Tourism can harm the environment from misuse and overuse, resulting in a bleak outlook for return visits and future income generation.

What is sustainable tourism?
Sustainable tourism is a solution to correct the unfortunate ills of typical tourism development. It’s defined as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry the environment and host communities,” according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. 

From an applied standpoint, a sustainable destination must be livable and successful for the locals first. Without a sound foundation for a local community, others will not want to visit and tourism will not work. Understanding this critical foundation, sustainable tourism incorporates planning and decisions on four key cornerstones with their respective critical questions:

1. Economic sustainability. How can tourism provide long-term adequate and stable income generation?
2. Social sustainability. How can tourism enhance community development for locals?
3. Cultural sustainability. How can tourism preserve valuable cultural heritage assets?
4. Environmental sustainability. How can tourism strike a balance between use and conservation of nature?

Only when all of these aspects of sustainability are adequately addressed in tourism development do you have successful sustainable tourism development and a positive roadmap for the future.

Sustainable principles implemented in tourism are more than just theory; they are grounded in practical implementation with real results. The practice of sustainable tourism informs theory, and the outcome is a translatable process that can be tailored for locations both near and far. From applied student coursework in Missouri State University’s new tourism degree programs to consultative sustainable tourism work from multinational firms, the results show us our future in tourism is bright.

David Perkins is an associate professor in the School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability at Missouri State University. He can be reached at davidperkins@missouristate.edu.