Demystifying Myths. The Role of Tourism as a Sustainable Development Strategy

Abstract

This study has investigated the differences between rhetoric and praxis regarding much contested conceptual debates on the economic sustainability of sustainable development and sustainable tourism. One of the main restrictions to the normalization of the sustainability principles implementation in tourism resides in its alleged economic costs in one hand and on the other hand, on the practitioners' perception of sustainability as delivering lower investment cost-benefit return ratios. In the case of tourism, tour operators appear to be reluctant to reduce tourism negative impacts through economic investments unless immediate economic profits can be anticipated. Therefore, it is the tourism private sector that must finance (directly and indirectly) such normalization and the principles of sustainability, making of them an integrated management feature.