Toward a Sustainable Tourism

Tourism includes a wide range of economic activities that depend on, and have an important impact on, the natural environment and on the local populations in tourist destinations. Overall, tourism product quality includes environmental features, in particular, tourist destinations, accommodation, and other attractions related to the location and surrounding environment. Tourists and the tourism industry make extensive use of environmental resources (Piga, 2003). Tourists are attracted by a destination’s environmental attributes (Dixon and Hof, 1997), which are damaged by the presence of those tourists (Briassoulis, 2002; Giannoni, 2009). Since the 1990s, environmental protection and awareness have become major issues. According to the ImagePower Global Green Brands 2011 study carried out by Cohn and Wolfe, Landor Associates and Penn Schoen Berland Associates in France, 47 percent of surveyed individuals claimed to be more concerned about environmental issues than economic problems. It follows then that tourists are more aware of environmental issues and conscious of the pollution caused by mass tourism. These new concerns modify tourist’s perceptions of destinations, of accommodation brands, and of intermediaries distributing tourism products (tour operators, online and offline tourism agencies, among others). As a result, a demand for environmentally responsible products has emerged in this sector, and major tourist destinations are seeking to preserve the natural environment and their indigenous cultures, and are exploring sustainable development strategies and techniques (Hassan, 2000).