Tourist destinations and sustainable tourism development facing the challenge

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to promote knowledge about tourism phenomena while studying its evolution and convergence towards sustainability taking into account its role and capacities in achieving global and sustainable development. Sustainable tourism development concept pursues to reconcile resources conservation and tourism profits ensuring both environmental integrity and economic growth in the long term run. Notwithstanding evidence has demonstrated hitherto the close relation between tourism development and resources gradual degradation. Thus, sustainable tourism development comes forth nowadays as the renewed paradigm of an old outlook, that is, the wise use of resources in order to guarantee the development process success in tourist destinations. Sustainable tourism development should be able therefore to not harm the environment avoiding tourist economic activity decline related to resources gradual degradation. As experience has showed in most destinations areas, where tourism has developed mainly by the mass model, spatial congestion and depletion has bring both frequentation and economic recession. Thus, many established tourism destinations have been forced to assume restructuring plans to keep competing in an increasingly broad and demanding market, (e.g. Calvià, in the Balearic Islands, where the establishment of Local Agenda 21 in the municipality implied a successful example of sustainable tourism development implementation), leading further tourism development through innovation towards more balanced and planned requirements. As one of the many economic activities developing in a territory tourism needs to be managed within an integrated framework addressed at the level of the whole area. Despite the attractiveness and necessity of the holistic approach for the achievement of STD implementation proves to be extremely difficult due the complex nature of tourism phenomenon and its multiple stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the limits and extent of STD outcomes in regard to the environment and a series of proposals for ensuring its goals for the benefit of tourist destinations