Beyond Behavior: Integrating Eastern Philosophy for an Ontological Reframing of Sustainability in Tourism

This article proposes an enlightened sustainability model for tourism, a philosophical-practical framework grounded in the Three Teachings of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. The model reframes sustainability from behavioral management to a mode of being, positioning tourism not merely as consumption but as a pathway for cultivating consciousness, ethical awareness, and interconnectedness. It consists of three layers: external harmony, inner transformation, and cosmic participation, while also outlining a process of tourist ontological transformation from experience consumer to practitioner and ultimately to one with the cosmos. Current approaches to sustainable tourism, largely shaped by behavioral and managerial models, often remain limited in explaining long-term transformation and tend to neglect spiritual and ontological dimensions. Against these limitations, the Three Teachings offer a complementary lens by reestablishing human-nature relations as coexistence, enabling inner transformation through impermanence, non-self, and compassion, and restoring cosmic awareness as a supra-personal foundation for sustainability. This framework contributes an Eastern philosophical perspective to sustainable tourism debates and offers a conceptual pathway for rethinking sustainability in times of ecological crisis.