08 Jun Sustainable Tourism Is …

Sustainable Tourism is the way we improve tourism for travelers and destination communities. It is about enhancing tourism’s benefits and reducing—even eliminating—its negatives.

Definitions of sustainable tourism have foundations in broader discussions of sustainability and sustainable development. There are many definitions of sustainable tourism, but the best incorporate these three components:

Today and Long into The Future. Sustainable tourism is both strategic and tactical. It includes planning for the future – generations into the future – but recognizes that we must also make smart decisions for today and tomorrow. These ideas come from the Brundtland UN report – “Our Common Future”[1] .

Optimizing the Triple Bottom Line – People, Planet, and Prosperity. This component of the best definitions reminds us that we need to remember that quality of life is based on more than economics alone. The triple-bottom-line approach recognizes that we must be working on improving the economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Elkington popularized this way of considering differing and often interrelated priorities. [2]

Collaboration. A sometimes overlooked aspect of sustainable tourism development is that it requires collaboration with key stakeholders. If the purpose of tourism development is to improve the quality of life for destination communities, then knowing what the community wants is important. Too often developers, politicians or folks in the tourism industry decide what will be best for the destination.  Rather than assuming that more is better, those responsible for sustainable development through tourism must appreciate the saying, “Nothing for us without us.”

Of course, it is a long way from defining sustainable tourism to implementing it. Making tourism sustainable is a complex challenge. We can do it.

1.            World Commission on Environment and, D., Our common future. 1987, Oxford ; New York: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press.

2.            Elkington, J., Cannibals with Forks : The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. 1997, Oxford,U.K.: Capstone Publishing Ltd.