ABSTRACT
Academics and practitioners have in the past been preoccupied with identifying practice that could represent the concepts of sustainability. Much case study work has been reported in the literature, and industry has promoted sustainability awards to showcase best practices. The further identification of best practices has led to setting lists of common characteristics of such businesses that can be identified, with a managerial aspiration to transfer best practices. The next logical step was that of setting criteria to assess sustainability, in the case of tourism either by non-governmental organisations, the public sector or a combination of both (WTO 2002).
