through its own behavior, or indirectly, through the choice of those tour operators and
other providers’ services, that adopt methods for the tourism sustainable development.
There are several ways to evaluation of tourism development sustainability in
the world, which differ in the direction of the implementation results. Let’s analyze the
approaches of the most famous world experts - the Assembly of European Regions and
the Center of Destinations’ Sustainability, which co-located with Global Tourism
Council on United Nations tourism sustainability issues.
The GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) is based on four groups of
rates that are assessed by 75 criteria and which ideally have to be met [8]:
1) demonstration of sustainable destination management;
2) maximization of social and economic benefits for local communities;
and minimization of negative influence;
3) maximization of benefits for local communities, visitors and cultural heritage
with minimal impact;
4) maximization of benefits for the environment and minimization of negative
impact.
The development of indicators for sustainable development, including for the
tourism industry, is an integrated, prized procedure that requires a large amount of
information, which is often difficult to obtain, and sometimes impossible. These and
other problematic issues require further elaboration at the international and state levels.
2. Ecological tourism as a successful practice of sustainable tourism.
Ecological tourism is the most successful example of implementation of the principles
of tourism sustainable development. The World Tourism Organization defines
ecotourism as a control form of natural tourism. It is one of the most dynamic sectors
of the tourism industry now. Its growth, according to UNWTO, represented from 5-7%
per year. There are three basic principles of this type of tourism development:
- part of the revenues, derived from the tourists’ services, remains and aims at
the nature conservation;
- strict adherence to environmental requirements;
- a trip is organized for research purposes.
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