【文章內(nèi)容簡介】
ain from tourism that is sufficient to provide an appropriate ine for the local munity (pared to the inconvenience caused by the activities of the tourism sector) and to cover all the costs of any special measure taken to satisfy the tourists (thus a precondition of economic sustainability is the attractiveness of an area and the perceived high quality of its tourist supply: without being in a petitive position in the world market, no destination can be economically sustainable). The different aspects of sustainability do not pete, but must be seen as equally important. High level of economic profitability must not be considered as a tool to cover over the damage done to social or natural resources, but the relative fragile nature of these latter must not create a planning environment where economic considerations are not being taken (properly). Sustainable tourism development has to be economically viable and naturally and culturally sensitive at the same time. As we could see, inappropriate tourism development results in increasing stress on destinations and consequently in negative changes in the destinations39。 physical, economic and sociocultural characteristics. In order to avoid or minimise unfavourable impacts, decisionmakers must be aware of all the factors that play a role in the development process. In the measurement of the progress that an individual destination is making towards sustainable tourism development, sustainability indicators are monly accepted as one set of useful tools. INDICATORS OF SUSTAINABILITY Indicators measure information with which decisionmakers may reduce the chances of unknowingly taking poor decisions (WTO, 1996). In other words, indicators are a set of useful measures of those factors that are important to the decisionmakers (the relative significance of these factors depend on their relevance to the development objectives of a given destination, and on their importance to tourists).Indicators are both a tool for management today and an investment in the future, since they reduce the risk of inadvertent damage to the resource base on which the [tourist] industry depends (WTO, 1996). Based on different guidelines and remendations (Tourism Concern amp。 WWF, 1992。 McCool amp。 Watson, 1994。 Murphy, 1994。 Howie, 1996。 Swarbrooke, 1996。 WTO, 1996。 Mowforth amp。 Munt, 1998), the indicators suggested for the purpose of this study are the following (Table 1): Table 1 Indicators of Sustainability in Rural Tourism Indicator Measure 1. Stress Number of visitors/tourists (per annum/season) 2. Social stress Ratio of visitor/tourist numbers to local population (per annum/season)