Sustainable tourism

Besides relevant economic, social, and cultural impacts, tourism can generate relevant environmental impacts. In the last 30 years, in line with the increased awareness of stakeholders on sustainability issues, significant theoretical and practical improvements have been made in the field of tourism planning and management. Grounding on the increased sharing and understanding of lessons learnt at global level, the evolution of guiding principles and metrics is progressing hand in hand with the development and cross-sectoral integration of tourism policies. In parallel, the proliferation of product and management standards, tools, and labels reflects the interest that companies have in sustainable tourism as a means to achieve a competitive advantage.