The viable, equitable and bearable in Tanzania

•Provides a new theoretical approach to understanding sustainability theory•Highlights the unintended consequences of sustainable development•Explains how these consequences alter the tourism system, leaving sustainability outside the reach of a destination•Describes the viable, equitable, and bearable dimensions of sustainability•Shows that sustainability is something towards which communities strive, but which may not ever be truly achievable

Using three independent case studies within Tanzania, this paper focuses on sustainability as a philosophical and theoretical construct. This paper presents a snapshot in time of three destinations undergoing economic, environmental and social changes as a result of increases in tourism. By presenting the dimensions of viable, equitable, and bearable as forms of unsustainability, the impacts of unintended consequences to tourism development are examined. By understanding the limitations within these destinations, sustainability appears to be something for which communities strive, but which may not ever be truly achievable.