The Impact of Theoretical Issues on the Practice of
Sustainable Tourism Development
Throughout the world, sustainable tourism is being undertaken, via the creation of
sustainable tourism products or via broader development approaches. Sustainable tourism,
however, is still hotly debated in the literature, with little consensus being reached on
matters of terminology, as well as practical application. Despite this, there are key themes
identified in the broader definitions of sustainable tourism that can be used to frame
practical implementation. The openness to interpretation, however, represents challenges
for its practical implementation, and also, its evaluation.
However, this does not mean a standardised definition for sustainable tourism development
is appropriate or practical. Countries and the communities within them are diverse in all
respects, environment, culture, values, traditions, government, economy, etc. The
interaction of all stakeholders and their role in tourism is equally diverse. It is therefore
impossible to develop an approach to sustainable tourism development that is applicable in
all settings. Approaches need to be developed with special consideration of the needs and
resources available in each instance (Chens, Sok, & Sok, 2008).
Thus, if individual approaches are applied to individual settings, evaluation ends up being on
an individual scale also. The literature reveals that there is no standard for the assessment
of sustainable tourism approaches (Bramwell & Lane, 2008), and in the light of available
definitions and guidelines, this is not surprising (Lansing & De Vries, 2007). The most
common means of evaluating the success of the implementation of sustainable tourism
development strategies is the use of indicators to ascertain as to whether objectives of the
approach are being met (Weaver & Lawton, 1999).
In the majority of cases, sustainable tourism development is evaluated via the use of
indicators. Indicators in themselves have limitations as they are based on objectives which
may not reflect sustainable tourism guidelines, and are vulnerable to bias by developers and
those who may interpret results for their own ends. As a result, there is a distinct lack of
evidence to demonstrate whether sustainable tourism is practicable and which approach is
most successful (Bramwell & Lane, 2008)
Other limitations for the successful evaluation of sustainable tourism approaches include
variances in interpretation of definitions, which forms the basis for developing evaluative
objectives, in which these errors are inevitably replicated (Johnston & Tyrrell, 2007). The
influence of the stakeholder responsible for the implementation or evaluation of sustainable
tourism approaches also potentially introduces bias into the evaluation process. This in turn
reduces the accuracy of these evaluative processes and diminishes the value of its
contribution towards developing objective models for best practice (Fuchs & Lorek, 2005).
This leads to the conclusion that what is required to enhance the successful practice of
sustainable tourism in LDCs is a complex, holistic solution. The challenges represented by the lack of clear theoretical definitions, and the complex stakeholder environments in LDCs,
exacerbated by the added vulnerabilities of LDCs, demand that more attention must be
given to considering effective practical approaches to sustainable tourism development.
However, to improve practical implementation, the priority must be to identify objectives of
sustainable tourism for development which consider the unique challenges presented by
different communities. As such, objectives should identify key areas which are common
between communities, but also have the flexibility to be able to address specific community
issues.
It is these objectives which should be evaluated to assess the success of sustainable tourism
development. If the key objectives are used for evaluation, the bias of particular stakeholder
groups can be minimised based on the clearer understanding of individual goals in a
particular context. Also, objectives based evaluation techniques can be utilised in multiple
settings enabling a clearer and more consistent viewpoint of the practice of sustainable
tourism development in LDCs worldwide.
It is suggested in this overview that the available literature does not support the creation of
this understanding of how sustainable tourism works, and what can be done to improve the
success of implementations in any LDC context. This research will focus on the gap in
information regarding community issues. A better understanding of these issues will
facilitate successful sustainable tourism development in LDCs.
In summary, it is evident from the literature that debate surrounding the definition of
sustainable tourism has led to difficulties in implementing sustainable tourism approaches.
This is a result of difficulties in further defining sustainable tourism approaches and
identifying objectives of these approaches. What must become a priority the use of a clearer
and practically-founded understanding of sustainable tourism development to inform
practice by highlighting common community objectives, but also encouraging flexibility in
practice to adapt to specific community conditions.