A Review of Definitions of Sustainable Food and their Implications for All-Inclusive Holidays

The question of food sustainability is an emerging field of interest and subject of increasing political debate. At the same time, food is one of the major pleasure components of the tourism product. This duality poses a challenge to tourism businesses to fulfill food sustainability requirements while remaining attractive to guests. Especially all-inclusive holidays are under increasing pressure as they
are sometimes regarded as a particularly unsustainable travel product. Against this background, this study systematically analyzes existing definitions of the sustainable food concept. A five pillar framework differentiating the dimensions “Environment,” “Society,” “Individual/Health,” “Culture,” and “Economy” is applied, and the requirements along each dimension are compared to typical characteristics of all-inclusive holidays. The study finds that all-inclusive holidays, in their current form, cannot be considered sustainable with respect to food, mainly because their basic promises run contrary to the requirement of the sustainable food concept to minimize negative environmental and cultural impact. Furthermore, the cost-intensive overconsumption logic inherent in all-inclusive holidays puts the social and health balance under pressure. Nonetheless, the increasing guest segment that values sustainable food seems less price sensitive than “traditional” all-inclusive tourists, offering hotels some financial space to implement a change towards sustainability. A reduction in environmental impact, however, appears only possible by allowing less, but higher quality, all-inclusive tourism.