First, and most importantly, while existing general technical (social and scientific) data can be useful in measuring the general sustainability of a community, it cannot be used in examining tourism sustainability. This is because it is very difficult to identify the contribution of tourism activities to the technical data. For instance, regardless of the level of ecosystem quality in the community (e.g. 4.0 out of 10.0, where 10=excellent and 1=bad), it is not possible to determine the extent to which the tourism industry has contributed to this level of ecosystem quality. Ecosystem quality may be impacted by other industrial, daily living and commer - cial activities, as well as tourism activities. Regardless of the crime rate (e.g. 6.5 out of 10.0, where 10=excellent and 1=bad), it is very difficult to identify tourism’s contribution to the scale. The crime rate may be influenced by television commercials, industrialisation, drugs and alcohol , prostitution and the income gap between the haves and have-nots, as well as the introduction of tourists. Thus, even when these objective measures are available they generally must be mediated additional information to link them to tourism.