MEASURING TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY: ARE WE ON THE RIGHT TRACK?

Abstract

Numerous challenges occur when implementing the concept of sustainable tourism development into destinations’ policies and development plans. This is partly the result of insufficient understanding of its potentials and limits, which makes it even more difficult to measure the reached stage of sustainability in destinations. The aim of this paper is to provide a thorough analysis of the potential models for measuring sustainable tourism development. The research results indicate a strong need to define the levels of sustainability in destinations. In addition, it is crucial to involve all relevant stakeholders in the measuring process to gain complete measurement results. This study emphasizes the strong model of integrating sustainability indicators as highly appropriate and reliable in the process of measuring sustainability in destinations. This process highly depends on the levels of stakeholder involvement and of awareness about the importance of the measurement process.