This paper is about the position of workforce and employment considerations within the sustainable tourism narrative. The paper aims to address the relative neglect of this area within the discourse of sustainable tourism and highlights references to the workforce within the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The discussion follows the emerging field of sustainable human resource management and the contribution that this can make to meeting both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to enhancing the recognition of workforce and employment issues within the related debate in tourism. The body of the paper highlights examples of key dimensions of work and employment across varied tourism contexts, where sustainability is of increasing consequence and significance. The paper concludes by drawing together the implications of these “mini-cases” and locating them within key principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Sustainable tourism emphasises responsible utilisation of economic, socio-cultural and environmental resources for tourism development. Extant literature in sustainable tourism leans towards subjective and qualitative description in explaining the dynamic nature of the trans-disciplinary indicators of sustainability. However, few mechanisms have been proposed or developed to quantify the indicators measuring sustainable tourism in an indigenous ethnic context. The current study measures 61 sustainable indigenous tourism indicators of the Mah Meri ethnic group that comprise three constructs, namely, community resources, community development and sustainable tourism. Simple random sampling was employed for data elicitation and a weighted average score using R software as the basis of analysis was used to produce a sustainable indigenous tourism barometer (SITB). The study identifies 11 sustainability dimensions from the initial three main constructs that are treated as the relationship aspects in this study. Based on the Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Barometer (SITB), community participation, empowerment, economic and socio-cultural sustainability are found to be the main influencing dimensions of sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. However, natural resources, financial resources and environmental sustainability indicated weaker relationships in explaining sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. Based on the SITB, the results demonstrate that the Mah Meri ethnic group are a “potential sustainable” tourism stakeholder.

This paper reviews the position of entrepreneurial competency practices for sustainability within the learning and development (L&D) narrative over the last three decades. In alignment with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, gaps within the context of entrepreneurial learning theories, learning delivery, and roles of interlocutors are addressed. The discourse unfolds the meaning and measurement attributes of entrepreneurial competencies, advocating for developing an inclusive framework within the entrepreneurial L&D space. Extant literature posits exclusivity in learning theories, learning delivery, and role of interlocutors as approaches to achieving Entrepreneurial Competencies (EC); however, scarcity in research adapting a dynamic and inclusive framework for amalgamating learning theories, learning delivery, and roles of interlocutors can impact entrepreneurial competency sustainability. This paper analyzes EC to achieve L&D sustainability, employing a mixed-method content analysis to develop a dynamic and inclusive framework encompassing learning theories, learning delivery, and roles of interlocutors. The paper concludes by establishing an Inclusive Framework of Entrepreneurial Competency Practices (IFECP) that bridges learning and development gaps, namely learning theories, learning delivery, and roles of interlocutors. The IFECP is aimed at assisting interlocutors and learners from nascent to mastery stages in ECs to embody the core values of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.