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Contribution short abstract

The contribution tracks past transformations of tourism and long-distance mobility in Poland using mobility biographical interviews and statistics. It highlights the drivers of unsustainable changes and provides lessons for the future.

Contribution long abstract

My short presentation at the roundtable will reflect on the transformation that tourism and long-distance mobility in Poland have undergone since the 1960s. It will be based on interview data on mobility biographies conducted in late 2023 with people from four generations and statistics documenting a socio-technical transformation of the sector. I will track past negative trends and their drivers and provide lessons for the future, such as practices that could be recovered or ideas on preventing further unsustainable changes. In my contribution, I will also provide a perspective on the role of tourism and long-distance travel in satisfying human needs and the processes that escalate the amounts of energy and materials required to satisfy the same needs (i.e., a need satisfier escalation).