Food and drink tourism has become an important form of the tourism trail and a means through which cultural exploration can occur. As a form of sustainable tourism, the craft beer trail is just beginning to gain recognition in academic tourism studies. Food and drink tourism literature documents the need for collaboration as a means to improve knowledge exchange and streamline destination marketing. This study presents the results of potential collaboration between tourism businesses, specifically between accommodation properties and tour/bus companies, in an effort to construct a new craft beer tourism trail in Loudoun County, Virginia. The results show that these two sectors cater to different tourism types, short-break visitors by the accommodations and day visitors by the tour/bus companies. Furthermore, the autonomy of tour/bus companies does not show viable support at the destination marketing level. Therefore, collaborative partnerships should start between brewers and the accommodations sector, which can lead to the future involvement of tour companies.

Following its 2013 Green Park Plan, the US National Park Service (NPS) has sought to achieve more sustainable operations at park level. However, a history of top-down governance, research aversion, contentious community relationships, and a move towards neoliberal governance has created numerous challenges to operationalising the sustainability agenda. Using comparative case study methodology, this paper approaches sustainability through a five-pillar framework that incorporates the economy, environment, society, good governance and sound science. Data from three very different parks, and from the newly formed Division of Climate Change and Sustainability at Park Headquarters, is presented. Using the National Mall in Washington, DC, Shenandoah in Virginia, and Big Bend in Texas, the paper highlights many successful sustainability initiatives. A number of serious problems remain, however, including lack of funding, the slow working budget cycle, the need for inter-park knowledge sharing, the need for behavioural change at both national and local management levels, issues surrounding the “whiteness” of the visitor mix, and the nature of park visitation, where driving remains the primary transportation mode. Overall, neo-liberalism is placing increased emphasis on concessionaires to encourage sustainable operations, distancing NPS from its core visitor base and encouraging rising visitation levels with their associated impacts.

Good governance is a prerequisite in achieving sustainability objectives, especially in an industry such as tourism which is gaining support as a tool for poverty alleviation in developing countries. Good governance is described as a state's capacity to develop efficient and effective public management processes, and entails participatory, transparent, and accountable processes by government. Economic participation, such as job and small business creation, is dependent on support from federal policy and can be stalled by uncoordinated governments, both intentionally and unintentionally. Tanzania considers tourism to be a leading engine in economic growth and a catalyst in its fight to alleviate poverty. Therefore, tourism as a wage and self-employment option is dependent on policy directives that span many government agencies and are influenced by government advisors and industry partners. Drawing on Kooiman's socio-political theory of governance, this article, first, accesses the images, tools, and action potential held by policy advisors that dictate the use of the poverty alleviation resources, and second, investigates the diversity, complexity, and dynamics of the governance system within the growing Tanzanian tourism economy. Twenty-five interviews of Tanzanian policy-makers, including federal and local government officials, academic policy advisors, and non-governmental administrators at the national level were conducted and analyzed. Five themes were developed from the interviews including economic performance measures, barriers to economic participation, government actions, public/private partnerships, and tourism development. Policy-makers in Tanzania have a thorough understanding of macro-economic development and rural community needs; however, the lack of communication between departments often creates redundancy and gaps in development objectives. Tourism-specific knowledge is absent, and while community tourism initiatives are highly praised by Tanzanian officials, their unfamiliarity with the tourism value chain continues to exclude rural populations. Continued focus on foreign direct investment as a financing mechanism is creating foreign-owned monopolies in tourism destinations. Lastly, aid dependence has left many policy-makers searching internationally for poverty solutions. This paper concludes that while the intentions to solicit involvement of the poor is high, the practical application of poverty alleviation strategies through increased tourism expansion is log jammed by the very administrators tasked with finding solutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the tourism industry worldwide, including the wine industry in the western U.S. due to mandated winery and tasting room closures, followed by restrictions on capacity and food- and drink-handling once wineries reopened. In California, tasting rooms were fully closed from mid-March to mid-May 2020 and could not have visitors indoors through to October 2020. Hence, this study examines the resiliency of wineries in minor California wine regions, including the challenges faced during the pandemic, strategies used to sustain their business, and the attributes of their operation which contributed to success. Data were collected through structured in-person interviews with five wineries in minor California wine regions, specifically Russian River Valley and Sierra Foothills. The four themes which emerged include: lifestyle business; market differentiation; direct marketing; and the effects of COVID-19. These wineries are primarily family-owned, which gives them the ability to control costs and make decisions rapidly. They did not have a large workforce or multiple layers of management, allowing them to pivot quickly to adjust to the regulatory environment. This study on rural winery resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic will assist rural tourism operations in dealing with social and economic shocks in the future.

Attendance of Renaissance festival (Faire), an event that recreates historic medieval living, is motivated by identification within a subculture and a strong sense of belonging, providing an interesting insight into the role of culture in influencing pro-sustainability consumption behaviors. This paper compares at home sustainable consumption practices with sustainable consumption travel behaviors within the Renaissance serious leisure community to determine the role social norms play in sustainable consumption behavior. Using a framework that compares normative (routines) and self-enhancing (habits) sustainability behaviors, evidence supports that demographics, specifically levels of education and gender, positively impact sustainable consumption behaviors, and that social norms positively affect Faire visitation. However, while Faire visitation does not affect normative behavior either at home nor while traveling, it does influence self-enhancing sustainability behavior negatively. Finally, social norms, mediated by Faire visitation, indirectly impact self-enhancing behavior both at home and when traveling. While the cultural ethos of festival communities could foster sustainable living more broadly, results suggest that Faire attendance seemed to undermine the likelihood of being sustainable elsewhere.