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maintaining [their] cultural and environmental integrity' (WSSD, 2002, IV,
Para 43). More recently, the Outcome Statement of the 2012 United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development ('Rio
+
20') similarly states:
130. We emphasize that well-designed and managed tourism can make a
significant contribution to the three dimensions of sustainable develop-
ment, has close linkages to other sectors, and can create decent jobs and
generate trade opportunities . . . We call for enhanced support for sustain-
able tourism activities and relevant capacity-building in developing coun-
tries in order to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.
(UN, 2013a)
Such widespread and continued acceptance of the concept of sustainable
tourism development is not surprising. The emergence of environmentalism
as a dominant global political and social movement from the late 1960s
meant that a new, environmental dimension has been added to most eco-
nomic, political and social activities (Yearley, 1992). Subsequently, successive
international conferences, from the 1972 United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment (UNCHE) to the 1992 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro
referred to above, as well as various strategies, such as the World Conservation
Strategy (IUCN, 1980), the widely cited Brundtland Report, 'Our Common
Future' (WCED, 1987), and the Rio 'Agenda 21', all served to place environ-
mental concern high on the agenda of most public and private sector organ-
isations by the end of the last century. Moreover, in some cases, such
strategies directly informed global tourism development policies, as evi-
denced by, for example, the publication of 'Agenda 21 for the Travel and
Tourism Industry' (WTO/WTTC, 1996).
More specifically, the tourism industry has long been obliged to respond to
both the mounting criticism directed at certain forms of tourism development,
in particular mass tourism development that is considered to pay little or no
respect to the local physical and socio-cultural environment, and to the alleged
demands on the part of tourists for more environmentally appropriate or
benign tourism experiences (see Chapter 12). As a result, many destinational
organisations have formulated strategies for the development of sustainable
tourism. For example, during the 1990s the development of tourism in
Australia was been guided by the National Ecotourism Strategy which, iden-
tifying eight key programmes addressing specific aspects of tourism develop-
ment, such as planning, market research and sound environmental practice,
resulted in a 'heightened awareness among Australian tourism destinations of
green issues and environmental management' (Diamantis, 1999). Many other
destinations, such as Costa Rica, have also adopted ecotourism policies, whilst
yet others follow more general sustainable development principles.
At the same time, there is increasing evidence that the tourism industry,
at the level of the principals, such as airlines and accommodation providers,
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