ABSTRACT
Tourism is an amalgam of different interests weaving together both private sector and public sector organizations and initiatives. It is a criss-cross of sector businesses and organizations (attractions, accommodation, hospitality, activities, events, aviation, other modes of transport such as trains, ferries, hire car services etc.), of scales of businesses from the micro-enterprises of families to the big multinationals, and of levels of destination from local areas of distinctive character to national countries and cross-border regions. Tourism relies on an integration of resources, built, natural, cultural and human (as hosts or residents) in a way not paralleled in nontourism products, and the costs of these resources are largely not shouldered by its tourists or users. This fundamental nature of tourism – its intrinsic interdependence and its external costs – has ensured that sustainability has long been debated and practical action sought through the lens of different disciplines and stakeholder groups. For example, tourism planners have long recognised the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the social, physical and economic systems (see, for example, de Kadt 1979; Mathieson and Wall 1982) and the stakeholder approach of community-based planning as championed by Murphy (1985).
