Sustainable tourism from theory to practice: A critical perspective

Over the past few decades, tourism has become one of the most promising industries in the world and also a key driver for socio-economic development. With tourism gaining importance, it’s economic, political, environmental and socio-cultural impacts also came under the spotlight. Despite the many potential positive impacts, if not rationally planned and managed, tourism can be a significant contributor to environmental, economic and socio-cultural problems. To reduce potential negative impacts of tourism, concept of sustainable tourism has been raised. The fact is, this concept despite being widely accepted by many governments and international bodies, have yielded few examples which show them being put into practice effectively and in the context of sustainable tourism development, there is a wide gap between theory and practice. In related scientific literature, there is a mention of many factors hindering achievement of sustainable tourism development. The article argues all thementioned barriers are resulted from two main basics, first, commitment to principles of sustainability is not institutionalized in moral values of the modern society, second, ineffectiveness of traditional system of policymaking in tourism. Society's movement toward sustainability, requires culture building through formal and informal educational channelsand reorientation of contemporary educational system. On the other hand, Good Governance is being suggested as a concept which an effective policy making system could be based upon and also a practical approach for successful planning and implementation of sustainable tourism development policies.