Changing (dis)course: How a Destination Management Organisation navigates sufficiency-oriented sustainability

Tourism must undergo a fundamental transformation if it is to align with climate targets. However, strategies in the sector have mainly prioritised eco-efficiency over more radical approaches. This paper brings the concept of sufficiency into tourism research – understood here as sustainability strategies that seek to reduce overall resource use and demand within ecological and social boundaries. Such strategies often conflict with dominant growth logics and may therefore require careful “navigation” to resonate widely. The aim of this paper is thus to understand how such navigation may be done. Focusing on the Western Sweden Tourism Board (WSTB) and its initiative, The Sustainability Stride (TSS), we investigate how a Destination Management Organisation – an actor well-placed to shape tourism development – engages with sufficiency-oriented forms of sustainability while operating within a promotional mandate. Using a qualitative case study approach and drawing on framing theory, we identify five dimensions of TSS in which sufficiency logics are present, and how WSTB utilises framing techniques to maintain alignment with sectoral norms. This paper contributes a new perspective to tourism research and practice by analysing how sufficiency can be framed and made actionable in destination-level strategies.