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# Sustainable Tourism **Definition:** Sustainable tourism means achieving quality growth in a way that doesn't deplete natural and built environments, and preserves the local community's culture, history, and heritage; balancing the number of visitors with the environment's capacity to avoid excess...

# Sustainable Tourism **Definition:** Sustainable tourism means achieving quality growth in a way that doesn't deplete natural and built environments, and preserves the local community's culture, history, and heritage; balancing the number of visitors with the environment's capacity to avoid excessive destruction. (Cruz, 2015). **UNWTO Principles:** According to the UNWTO, sustainable tourism development guidelines apply to all forms of tourism, considering environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects. A balance between these three dimensions is crucial for long-term sustainability. **Key Aspects of Sustainable Tourism:** * **Environmental Stewardship:** Optimal use of environmental resources, maintaining ecological processes, and conserving natural heritage and biodiversity. * **Socio-Cultural Respect:** Respecting the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, preserving their heritage, promoting intercultural understanding and tolerance. * **Economic Viability:** Ensuring viable, long-term economic operations, providing fairly distributed socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders, and contributing to poverty alleviation. **Important Considerations:** * **Stakeholder Participation & Monitoring:** Sustainable tourism requires the informed participation of all stakeholders, strong political leadership, constant monitoring of impacts, and the implementation of preventive/corrective measures. * **Tourist Satisfaction & Awareness:** Maintaining a high level of tourist satisfaction, raising awareness about sustainability issues, and promoting sustainable tourism practices among tourists. * **Carrying Capacity:** Carrying capacity is critical when discussing sustainable tourism. It refers to the maximum number of visitors a destination can accommodate without negative impacts on the environment, local residents, and the economy. Proper planning is crucial to avoid exceeding carrying capacity. **UNWTO Sustainable Development Goals:** The UNWTO promotes responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism to achieve the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals include ending poverty and hunger, realizing the human rights of all, achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, ensuring the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources through tourism development. **Global Code of Ethics in Tourism (GCET):** The UNWTO encourages the implementation of the GCET, a comprehensive set of principles aimed at maximizing tourism's socio-economic contribution while minimizing negative impacts. **Additional Information:** * The document is a handout (07 Handout 1) likely for a course related to Sustainable Tourism. * The document was created by the STI (Sustainable Tourism Institute). * Page 1 of 5. * The footer contains the website address elms.sti.edu and an email address [email protected].