ABSTRACT
Sustainable tourism development is a long-term approach that cultivates economically viable tourism without harming residents’ environment or society while simultaneously ensuring fair distribution of costs and benefits (Assante et al. 2012). Strategic tourism planning – a process aimed to optimize the benefits of tourism so that the result is a balance of the appropriate quality and quantity of supply with the proper level of demand, without compromising either the locale’s socio-economic and environmental developments or its sustainability – lies at the very heart of sustainable development (Edgell et al. 2008). For a tourism-related strategy to sustain itself, residents must be willing partners in the process (Ko and Stewart 2002). Communities must be involved in the planning, and their attitudes toward tourism and perceptions of its impact on community life must be continually assessed (Allen et al. 1988).
