ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, the idea of sustainable development emerged as a paradigm in tourism research and development policies. The academic and public demand for more environmentally sensitive practices in tourism grew much earlier (see Hall and Lew 1998, Mathieson and Wall 1982), though, but during the 1990s, the issue of sustainability as a policy perspective began to guide and control the economic and political structures and processes of the tourism development (Bramwell and Lane 1993, Mowforth and Munt 1998, Bianchi 2004, Saarinen 2006). The growing need for sustainability in tourism was obviously a result of sustainable development discussions in general public and political agendas (see WCED 1987). However, in tourism studies it also related to increased knowledge and concern regarding the actual and potential future impacts of the global development of the industry to the environment (see Holden 2003, Macbeth 2005).
