Slowly, sustainable development has expanded out from these areas and found tourism.
Yet, the original grounding in environmental sustainability has followed, and much literature
investigating sustainable development in tourism has continued to focus on environmental
conservation. This reflects the increased awareness of environmental issues in society, and
indeed the focus of recent research in tourism on environmental impacts of tourism
operations in destinations.
However, there is evidence of a shift from the specificity of this environmental focus
towards more holistic approaches. This has led to a clarification of the definitions of
sustainability in terms of tourism, towards a definition which includes environmental and
economic sustainability, with an increasing level of awareness of social and cultural issues.
And thus, with this viewpoint, sustainable tourism is defined in its own right.