Tourism is at a quiet but critical inflection point

Tourism is at a quiet but critical inflection point.

After decades of measuring success through arrivals and scale, destinations around the world are confronting the unintended consequences of volume-driven growth. The question is no longer how to grow, but how to engage with place deliberately and responsibly.

In this short report, I revisit an unlikely but timely lens: Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Not as nostalgia, but as a framework for thinking about intention, restraint, governance, and long-term value in tourism and hospitality.

This is not an argument against travel. It is an argument for designing tourism systems that endure.

I would welcome perspectives from those shaping destinations, hospitality projects, and investment decisions.