Annotation. There is currently immense interest in measuring the sustainability of tourism in general, and of ecotourism in particular. Until this time, it has been difficult for consumers to know whether claims of tourism destinations and products being "ecological and sustainable" are based on hard evidence. The tourism industry has therefore been developing methods to measure these objectively in the form of ecolabels. This book is the first substantial one to review this subject. Emphasis is placed on the criteria used in ecolabels to determine sustainability, the marketing of ecologically labelled tourism products, and the management of current ecolabels and awards.

Tourism, perhaps more than any other industry, depends largely on the environment for its continued well-being. This publication examines the role of ecolabels within the context of voluntary self-regulation in this industry. Intended to improve understanding of the principles on which tourism ecolabels depend, it analyses the important issues involved and, with many examples from existing schemes, offers practical help in the design & operation of new schemes intended to steer tourism closer to sustainability.

This is an issue-based book that discusses the responsibility or otherwise of tourism activities in the geographic context of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Annotation. The global tourism industry continues a trend of sustained growth, moving more people and generating domestic and foreign revenues, often at the expense of the social and ecological integrity of destination regions. As a result, tourism policy makers have been forced to consider a variety of new approaches to ensure that the environment, local people, tourists, and business remain unaffected by the negative impacts of the industry.

This handbook explores and critically evaluates the debates and controversies inherent to tourism's relationship with nature, especially pertinent at a time of major re-evaluation of our relationship with the environment as a consequence of the environmental problems we now face.

This edited collection focuses on tourism development, sustainability and local change in southern Africa. The book offers a range of both conceptual and applied perspectives that address various changes in southern African tourism and community development relations. The key drivers of change that include climate change and globalization form the context for the diverse and interesting set of case studies from the region. The main conceptual grounds of the book cover sustainability, sustainable development goals (SDGs), responsibility, vulnerability, adaptation, resilience, governance, local development and inclusive growth. In this book sustainability is seen as one of the most important issues currently facing the tourism sector, affecting all types and scales of tourism operations and environments in the region. Tourism is an increasingly important economy in the southern African region and the industry is creating changes for communities and environment while also facing major challenges caused by global trends and changes. The book offers a case study driven approach to sustainability needs of tourism development in local community contexts. The case study chapters are linked through the book’s focus on sustainable tourism and local community development. Through emphasizing the need to understand both global change and local contexts in sustainable tourism development, this book is a valuable resource for all those working in the field.

The book represents a state of the art review of key research on small firms in tourism in relation to European integration. It is, therefore, an essential resource for those engaged in research relating to tourism SMEs in transitional economies throughout the world. In addition, it is an essential purchase for the increasing number of students studying modules on small businesses as part of their final year undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. One of the key features of this book is its clear focus on breaking new ground by reporting recent research and theorising on small firms in tourism. In many cases, the analysis provided by contributors will carefully relate small business behaviour to issues of wider concern to tourism academics and policy-makers. It is also distinctive for its overt emphasis on contrasting European experiences. These characteristics contrast with the existing literature on small firms in tourism and hospitality, particularly in Europe. Previous literature achieved their aims by providing valuable syntheses of existing literature. Now that such 'taking of stock' has been undertaken, there is a demand for more overtly research-based texts that are nevertheless accessible to a wide audience. This book does exactly that.

Sustainable tourism is a widely used term that has accumulated considerable attention from researchers and policy makers over the past two decades. However, there is still an apparently wide gap between theory and practice in the area. Recent scholarly research has tended to focus on niche areas of alternative tourism rather than address the broader issues and vagaries and paradoxes that appear to plague the broader notion of sustainable tourism. As such, there is a need for a new and pragmatic analysis of sustainable tourism as an overarching idea and how this manifests in practice. The Practice of Sustainable Tourism fulfils this need by offering a fresh perspective on sustainable tourism as an umbrella concept with inherent tensions. It presents a way of thinking about tourism based on the notion of finding common ground using the dialectic tradition of philosophy. Dialectics focusses on resolving opposing viewpoints by recognising they have common elements that can be combined into a rational and practical solution over time. As part of this approach, the book examines the strongly apparent tensions within alternative tourism as well as the paradox of continuing growth and other mass tourism related issues. It is divided into three parts, Part I includes chapters discussing the general concept of sustainable tourism, its history, current status and possible futures; Part II includes a range of destination case studies exploring how sustainable tourism has been applied and Part III includes perspectives from the tourism operator view. Given the international content and challenging themes, the book will be appealing internationally to students, researchers and academics in the fields of tourism, geography, sustainability and social science.

This report is the proceedings of a colloquy held in Riga, 9-11 September 1999. The colloquy examined the conditions and results of the integration of biological and landscape diversity conservation, as well as the socio-economic aspects of tourism development programmes in western, central and eastern Europe. The colloquy focused on three pilot studies conducted by the Council of Europe on sustainable and balanced tourism development in Latvia, Ukraine and Romania.

Neither the tourism industry nor the tourist has responded convincingly to calls for more responsibility in tourism. Ethical consumption places pressure on travellers to manage a large number of decisions at a time when hedonic motivations threaten to override other priorities. Unsurprisingly, tensions occur and compromises are made. This book offers new insight into the motivations that influence tourists and their decision-making. It explores how consumers navigate the responsible tourism market place and provide a rich understanding of the challenges facing those seeking to encourage travellers to become responsible. Not only will the book provide an improved interpretation of the complexity of ethical consumption in tourism, but it will also offer a variety of stakeholders a deeper understanding of: the key challenges facing stakeholders in the production and consumption of responsible tourism how ethical consumers can be influenced to consume ethically the gaps in consumer knowledge and how to broaden the appeal for individuals to make more informed ethical decisions how tour operators can respond to this emerging market by innovative product development how to design informative marketing communications to encourage a greater uptake for responsible holidays how destinations can tailor their products to the ethical consumer market how destination communities and management organisations can target responsible tourists through the provision of sustainable alternatives to mass-market holiday products. Written by leading academics from all over the world, this timely and important volume will be valuable reading for ubdergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics interested in Tourism Ethics, Ethical Consumption and the global issue of Sustainability.