Origins of Lifestyle and the Connection to Tourism and Sustainability

"A tree's style of life is the individuality of the tree expressing itself and moulding itself to an environment. We recognise a style when we see it... for we then realise that every tree has a life pattern and is not merely a mechanical reaction to the environment. It is much the same way with human beings."

       - Alfred Adler

The word "lifestyle" is from 1929, originally a specific term used by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler (1870-1937). He defined lifestyle by analogy to how a tree expresses itself.

It would be an interesting group exercise to have each Union business choose the tree that best identified their lifestyle based on that tree's function in our ecosystem.

The term lifestyle took on new meaning during the sixties. "In Adler's theory the 'style of life' refers to how we live, sort out difficulties, and manage our own personal relationships. He strongly believed that each one of us is a distinctive, unique individual with our own characteristic way of life."

These days it is more often used to express "a way of life or style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group." As a result "for tourism, this influences the tourists' perception of his/her behaviour."

"Environmentalism in tourism: 

the connection of lifestyle, tourism 

and sustainable development"

- (2008) Scientific Journal on 

Agricultural Economics

http://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/gazdal/48092.html

"In this short essay attention will be focused on the mutual effects of lifestyle and tourism. After taking a brief look at different life-stages, which, according to Knowles (2001), have a fundamental influence on holiday choice, we will examine other factors that determine tourists' decisions. The most important of these factors (perhaps not surprisingly) are time and money."

This research paper has some interesting data presented in a summary fashion for quick perusal. It contains information such as the socio-cultural impacts on host societies of tourism. Such impacts include: "... demand for female labour, increase in seasonality of employment, revitalization of cultural traditions, breakdown of moral values (for example prostitution, crime, gambling)..." A number of other interesting facts are presented, like "as for traveling, 70% of all tourism journeys are connected to the car."

A tourism campaign suggested in the paper is: "Say No to Bad Souvenirs - some souvenirs could end up costing a lot more than you paid for them." Since Union as of yet has very few "souvenirs" for sale (besides memories) we could encourage high quality locally produced souvenirs and actively discourage such "bad souvenirs".

In the retail world there is a phenomena whereby when a "non-toxic" product is placed among existing products people see the existing brands as toxic by default. In the same way Union could encourage and market sustainability in souvenir making and selling, thereby driving up demand for its souvenirs while obsolescing competition. Local or regionally made art, organic and locally grown items, etc. generally fits into this category. A number of Big Box stores will not stock such items as non-toxic furniture because it so negatively impacts the neighboring brands.