Abstract
Whereas we do know with certainty that continuing the civilizational program of growth is no longer possible, why is it impossible at the same time not to keep on with it? The acceleration theory helps us understand this gridlock. If only a catastrophe can manage to stop the “careering juggernaut” of unlimited growth, then the COVID-19 disaster could be the “miracle” which, by rendering possible what was unthinkable, would open a way toward a reinvention of society, toward a societal paradigm shift. By taking the measure of everything in this episode of COVID-19 that, on the contrary, would help to strengthen the program of making the world fully “available,” we examine how this particular time can serve as a warning to a foreseeable ecological disaster, and then apply it to the tourism sector. Finally, we outline the institutional changes, the “barrier gestures,” but also the “bridge gestures” which would allow a transformation of tourism in order to make it truly compatible with sustainability.