The ‘Voiceless’ population: understanding the social impacts of tourism and their influence on the development of young people in tourist destinations

Social impact studies confirm that little attention has been given specifically to the views and values of younger generations of host communities. This paper proposes that the involvement of young residents in sustainable tourism development is important given that young people live and grow up with the problems, challenges and opportunities that life in a tourist destination poses. This paper forms the conceptual background to a PhD study based on an ethnographic investigation of the youth population in the mature coastal tourist destination of Byron Bay, located on the far north coast of New South Wales, Australia.