Sustainable development and sustainability in tourism: concepts, considerations and prospects

Abstract

Current thinking about concepts and prospects in sustainable development, sustainability and sustainable tourism are dealt with in this study, which aims to hint at interpretations of the different concepts found in the currently available scientific literature in the area. The different meanings and interpretations related to sustainable development and sustainability represent a number of implications and ethical principles that have been introduced and used in the academia, within social organizations and for the planning of local development, including tourism. The references for complex thinking, environmental reasoning, participative democracy, and for holist and interdisciplinary approaches are clear enough to create strategies and implement the propositions of sustainable development. Sustainable development in tourism causes and encourages more responsible actions, which involve forward thinking, and operational and systemic efforts that consolidate the principles of and expectations about sustainability.