There are many different definitions of sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism in its purest sense, is an industry which attempts to make a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate income and employment for locals, as well as to promote the conservation of local ecosystems. It is responsible tourism which is both ecologically and culturally sensitive. [1]

Global economists forecast continuing international tourism growth, ranging between three and six percent annually, depending on the location. As one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries, this continuous growth will place great stress on remaining biologically diverse habitats, which are often used to support mass tourism. Tourist who promote sustainable tourism are aware of these dangers and seek to protect tourist destinations, and to protect tourism as an industry. Such tourists face many responsibilities to reduce the impact of tourism on communities, including:

• informing themselves of the culture, politics, and economy of the communities being visited.
• anticipating and respecting local cultures' expectations and assumptions.
• contributing to intercultural understanding and tolerance.
• supporting the integrity of local cultures by favoring businesses which conserve cultural heritage
• supporting local economies by purchasing local goods and participating with small, local businesses.
• conserving resources by seeking out businesses that are environmentally conscious, and by using the least possible amount of non-renewable resources.

The locals have major roles to play in sustainable tourism too. Sustainable tourism involves locals participating actively and taking responsibility in this industry. For example, they could sell local handicrafts or simply talk with tourists to give them an authentic image of the local culture. The Multilateral Investment Fund MIF tries to help in this aspect. It aims to boost the competitiveness of locally owned small and medium enterprises, helping them to organize themselves and work toward the shared goals of increasing income, employment and economic development. See the Sustainable Tourism Action Plan and project proposal Guidelines

Ecotourism, according to Heather Robinson (2006), is a subset of sustainable tourism, differing by its focus on ecology. Ecotourism is sustainable tourism that "contributes actively to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage; includes local and indigenous communities in its planning, development and operation, contributing to their well-being; interprets the natural and cultural heritage of the destination to visitors; and lends itself better to independent travellers, as well as to organized tours for small size groups". In simple words ecotourism means while practicing any kind of tourism, one should not harm nature. For today's fast changing world, ecotourism is an effective means through which humans can save nature from the ever growing tourism industry, an extremely polluting one. Through respecting Nature and her rules, it is hoped that the ecology can be maintained, allowing for future tourism without natural resources being exhausted as quickly.

Popular destinations for ecotourism are Hawaii, Sri Lanka and certain parts of East Malaysia.

Many coastal areas are experiencing particular pressure from seachange growth in lifestyles and growing numbers of tourists. Coastal environments are limited in extent consisting of only a narrow strip along the edge of the ocean. Coastal areas are often the first environments to experience the detrimental impacts of tourism. Planning and management controls can reduce the impact on coastal environments ^[1] and ensure that investment into tourism products supports sustainable coastal tourism. ^[2].

Investment into appropriate coastal tourism infrastructure can also assist coastal environments support larger numbers of residents and tourists. Examples include paved esplanades that support large numbers of coastal visitors. The same number of visitors visiting an undeveloped coastline would feel much more crowded and damage sensitive coastal environments. Beach nourishment is an example of infratructure that supports the natural capacity of the environment [IENCE] to support tourist and resident lifestyles.

There has been the promotion of sustainable tourism practices surrounding the management of tourist locations by locals or more concisely, the community. This form of tourism is based on the premise that the people living next to a resource are the ones best suited to protecting it. This means that the tourism activities and businesses are developed and operated by local community members, and certainly with their consent and support.

Sustainable tourism typically involves the conservation of resources that are capitalised upon for tourism purposes, such as coral reefs and pristine forests. Locals run the businesses and are responsible for promoting the conservation messages to protect their environment.

Community-based Sustainable Tourism (or CBST for short) basically strongly associates the success of the sustainability of the ecotourism location to the management practices of the communities who are directly or indirectly dependent on the location for their livelihoods. A good example of CBST is Birds and Seascape Tourin Cebu, Philippines. This CBST venture is a joint partnership between locals, local academia and external funding from USAID.

A salient feature of CBST is that local knowledge is usually utilised alongside wide general frameworks of ecotourism business models. This allows the participation of locals at the management level and typically allows a more intimate understanding of the environment. The use of local knowledge also means an easier entry level into a tourism industry for locals whose jobs or livelihoods are affected by the use of their environment as tourism locations. The involvement of locals restores the ownership of the environment to the local community and allows an alternative sustainable form of development for communities and their environments that are typically unable to support other forms of development.

Stakeholders of sustainable tourism play a role in continuing this form of tourism. This can include organisations as well as individuals.

1. Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) NGOs are one of the stakeholders in advocating sustainable tourism. Their roles can range from spearheading sustainable tourism practices to simple doing research. University research teams and scientists can be roped in to to aid in the process of planning. Such solicitating of research can be observed in the planningg of Cat Ba National Park in Vietnam.

Dive resort operators in Bunaken National Park, Indonesia, play a crucial role but developing exclusive zones fo diving and fishing respectively, such that both tourists and locals can benefit from the venture

Large conventions, meetings and other major organized events drive the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Cities and convention centers compete to attract such commerce, commerce which has heavy impacts on resource use and the environment. Major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, present special problems regarding environmental burdens and degradation. But burdens imposed by the regular convention industry can be vastly more significant.

Green conventions and events are a new but growing sector and marketing point within the convention and hospitality industry. More environmentally aware organizations, corporations and government agencies are now seeking more sustainable event practices, greener hotels, restaurants and convention venues, and more energy efficient or climate neutral travel and ground transportation.

Additionally, some convention centers have begun to take direct action in reducing the impact of the conventions they host. One example is the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, which has a very aggressive recycling program, a large solar power system, and other programs aimed at reducing impact and increasing efficiency.

2. Tourists With the advent of the internet, some traditional conventions are being replaced with virtual conventions, where the attendees remain in their home physical location and "attend" the convention by use of a web-based interface programmed for the task. This sort of "virtual" meeting eliminates all of the impacts associated with travel, accommodation, food wastage, and other necessary impacts of traditional, physical conventions.

Travel over long distances requires a large amount of time and/or energy. Generally this involves burning fossil fuels, a largely unsustainable practice and one that contributes to climate change, via CO₂ emissions.

Air travel is perhaps the worst offender in this regard, contributing to between 2 and 3% of global carbon emissions ^[3]. Given a business-as-usual approach, this could be expected to rise to 5% by 2015 and 10% by 2050. Car travel is the next worst offender.

Mass transport is the most climate friendly method of travel, and generally the rule is "the bigger the better" - compared to cars, buses are relatively more sustainable, and trains and ships are even more so. Human energy and renewable energy are the most efficient, and hence, sustainable. Travel by bicycle, solar powered car, or sailing boat produces no carbon emissions (although the embodied energy in these vehicles generally comes at the expense of carbon emission).

Sustainable tourism is encouraged especially in areas dependent on tourism, more specifically, eco tourism. There is a desire to prolong the tourist attraction's lifespan, in order to ensure a positive effect on the economy.

Sustainable tourism only allows for a few tourists at a time to minimise the impacts done to the ecology.

An example will include the Komodo National Park in Indonesia where the attraction is the lush nature and the exotic wildlife, including the endomic Komodo Park. The goals for Komodo National Park are to protect its biodiversity (particularly the Komodo dragon) and the breeding stocks of commercial fishes for replenishment of surrounding fishing grounds. The main challenge is to reduce both threats to the terrestrial and coastal marine resources and while avoiding conflicts between stakeholders. A comprehensive 25 year management plan completed in 2000 provides the basis for adaptive management to regulate all uses in the park and address threats while maximizing benefits for local communities in a sustainable way.

Another example is Ujung Kulon, also found in Indonesia. It is home to lush rainforest and the rare Javan rhinoceros and is also Indonesia's first national park. It is also home to Krakatoa, one of the more famous range of volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The Great Barrier Reef, in Australia, is inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural sights. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, together with the Queensland Government as well as other non-governmental agencies, work together to manage the area, preventing further environmental degradation due to tourism.

Ecotourism has been criticised by academics, especially in third-world countries.

In order to establish the necessary infrastructure to serve tourist demands, third-world countries take loans from economically stronger countries, adding to the already overwhelming financial burden. The financial profit earned from this venture goes towards replaying loans, rather than improving public services, or promote natural conservation.

• The Global Development Research Center
• United Nations Environment Programme
• UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development
• [2]

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• UNEP Tourism - United Nations Environment Programme, Tourism
• Green Globe - Sustainable Travel and Tourism Standard
• Sustainable Travel International, a non-profit whose mission is to help travelers and travel-related companies protect the places they visit, and the planet at large
• Ecological System Designs for the Indigenous Community of Maruata, Michoacan, Mexico
• Tourism Concern
• World Tourism Organisation - Sustainable Development of Tourism
• World Tourism Forum
• International Centre for Responsible Tourism - a centre at Leeds Metropolitan University
• >Olango Birds and Seascape Tour
• Wiki guide to travel without flying
• [3] Linking Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Tourism at World Heritage Sites

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