Introduction of Sustainable Tourism and Carrying Capacity Indicators

In the present age, tourism in general and tourism sustainability in particular have become important issues in the relevant scientific arenas. The economic, social, cultural, environmental and institutional subjects have come to the scene for evaluating the current situation and for realizing sustainable tourism development. It is obvious that achieving tourism sustainability in its various dimensions requires the existence of appropriate global measures, indicators and standards for evaluating tourism condition. In this paper we have endeavored to present an integrated framework of sustainable tourism indicators for measuring sustainability in environmental, economic and social aspects such that it is easy to understand, and technically and economically measurable. The framework provides an understanding of the relationship between tourism and the natural environment and is able to monitor management actions. To this end, the potential impacts of tourism were expressed in five different recreational resources (historical sites, mountainous regions, unique areas, protected areas, islands and coastal areas) and then a framework of 153 indicators (physical-ecological, socio-morphological, economic-political), was divided into 46 indicators of sustainability, 77 sustainable tourism and 30 tourism capacity indicators in accordance with sustainability measurement. The optimal use of these indicators can be important in achieving sustainable tourism development.