Sustainability remains at the centre of debates around the impacts of travel and tourism. This study uses Reddit travel forums to understand the complexities of negotiating the meaning and practice of sustainability in travel contexts. Specifically, we focus on the emergence of “sustainability paralysis”, a form of “analysis paralysis” where travel consumers struggle to (i) articulate what sustainability means, or (ii) to find a (perfect) solution to the various sustainability crises associated with travel (e.g. overtourism and climate change), or (iii) to fashion a compromise they can rationalise and live with. The analysis reveals that sustainability paralysis can lead to tourists feeling overwhelmed, accepting defeat, “tuning out”, and in some cases, resorting to conspiracy theories about who is responsible. Our findings have important implications for how we frame and communicate the sustainability agenda, and suggest that misinformation and over-information may be crippling our effectiveness to face the wicked problem of climate change and other environmental challenges where travel consumption is implicated.

可持续性仍然是围绕旅行和旅游业影响的辩论的中心。本研究使用 Reddit 旅游论坛来了解在旅游环境中协商可持续性的意义和实践的复杂性。具体来说，我们关注“可持续性瘫痪”的出现”，一种“分析瘫痪”形式，旅游消费者难以 (i) 阐明可持续性意味着什么，或 (ii) 为与旅游相关的各种可持续性危机（例如过度旅游和气候变化）找到（完美）解决方案，或(iii) 形成一个他们可以合理化和接受的折衷方案。分析表明，可持续性瘫痪会导致游客感到不知所措，接受失败，“调侃”，在某些情况下，会诉诸关于谁负责的阴谋论。我们的研究结果对我们如何制定和传达可持续发展议程具有重要意义，并表明错误信息和过度信息可能会削弱我们应对气候变化和其他与旅行消费有关的环境挑战的邪恶问题的效率。