Indicators of sustainable tourism

Abstract

The indicators, precisely describing the linkages between tourism and the environment, social and cultural base, are not easily available. How ever, some relevant organizations (WTO, EU, OECD, etc.), institutions and experts, have been hardly working to create the indicators of sustainable tourism. Whereas the economic objectives are easily defined by the use of the traditional indicators used in national and business economics, it is very difficult to identify widely applicable environmental, social and cultural indicators. In order to stimulate and alleviate the process of sustainable tourism development, EU created the list of comparative indicators of sustainable tourism. In preparing this list, special attention is paid to identification of valid indicators of real tourism impacts on the social and cultural environment (the entire set of traditions, customs, history, hospitality and culture that characterize a given area), that is a very complex task. Assuming the fact that the related indicators have been analyzed in many European countries, this paper is focused on applying the related indicators in research of tourism development in villages of the Kosjeric community. .Indikatore koji precizno odslikavaju odnos turizma i prirodne i socio-kulturne sredine nije lako utvrditi. Ipak, relevantne medjunarodne organizacije (Svetska turisticka organizacija, Evropska unija, Organizacija za ekonomsku saradnju i razvoj i dr.) i ekspertski timovi vec duze vremena predano rade na definisanju indikatora odrzivog turizma. Dosadasnja iskustva njihovog rada pokazuju da se stepen realizacije ekonomskih ciljeva turistickog razvoja moze uspesno pratiti i vrednovati tradicionalnim indikatorima koji se koriste u nacionalnoj i poslovnoj ekonomiji. Medjutim, veliki problemi proisticu iz pokusaja identifikovanja funkcionalnih i pouzdanih ekoloskih, socijalnih i kulturnih indikatora odrzivog turizma. U zelji da stimulise i olaksa proces implementacije koncepta odrzivog razvoja, eksperti EU su sacinili listu komparativnih indikatora odrzivog turizma. U definisanju i odabiru ovih indikatora, specijalna paznja je posvecena validnim indikatorima uticaja turizma na socio-kulturnu sredinu (tradicija, navike, obicaji, gostoljubivost, kultura), kao najkompleksnijem delu ovog obimnog posla. Imajuci u vidu da su pomenuti indikatori u proteklim godinama bili predmet razlicitih analiza u nizu evropskih zemalja, ovaj rad je fokusiran na primeni komparativnih indikatora EU u istrazivanju odlika turistickog razvoja u selima opstine Kosjeric.