Tourism sustainability: conceptual issues, data and indicators

Economic benefits brought by tourist flows are often counterbalanced by environmental damages and negative social and cultural impacts, both in industrialized and in developing countries. The search for alternative development options in tourist activities led to the notion of sustainable development (sustainability) in tourism. The interest in the subject dates back to the last century, when various international organizations (WTO, OECD, UN, European Environment Agency, etc.) proposed methodological frameworks and sets of indicators to analyse the impact of tourist activity on natural, cultural and socio-economic environment. The aim of the paper is to present a critical review of conceptual issues, data sources and indicators which have been proposed in the literature to define, analyse and evaluate tourism sustainability. The paper focuses both on conceptual and on practical issues, stressing the multidimensionality of the problem and pointing out possible developments.