Table 1. International events centered on sustainability development in the tourism sector
Year Event
1980 World Conservation Strategy
1980 Manila Declaration on World Tourism
1985 Tourism Bill of Rights and Tourist Code
1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our common
future
1989 The Hague Declaration on Tourism
1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
1995 The Charter for Sustainable Tourism
1996 Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry
1997 Declaration on Biological Diversity and Sustainable Tourism
1997 Calviá Declaration on Tourism and Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean
1997 Manila Declaration on the Social Impact of Tourism
1999 Decisions of the General Assembly and the Commission on Sustainable Development
1999 Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
2000 Principles for the implementation of sustainable tourism
2001 Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism
2001 Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development
2002 Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development
2003 Convention on Biological Diversity, Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism
Development
2003 Djerba Declaration on Tourism and Climate Change
2008 Climate Change and Tourism
2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
2012 Conference on Sustainable Development of Tourism in Islands
2012 International Conference on Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainability
2013 International Conference: Sustainability issues and challenges in tourism
2014 Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference
Source: Compiled by authors.
2. The concept of sustainable development
Sustainable development (or sustainability) is a polysemic concept, which encompasses not only ecological and environmental issues, as one may initially think, but a sheer plurality of different dimensions. According to Muñoz (2006), the term sustainability acts as an:
Ethical principle, by taking the conservation of the environment and natural resources into account for future generations.
Economic principle, as resources are employed according to their ability to be generated.
Legal principle, as human beings have the fundamental right to an adequate environment, which corresponds to countries‘ international commitment to upkeep the ecosystems and ecological processes that are essential for the biosphere.
Socio-political analysis model, given that it integrates environmental factors into each and every sector policy.
The popularisation of the concept of sustainable development (hereinafter SD) is due to the report entitled Our Common Future or the Brundtland Report, written in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, which is chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland. In this report, she proposes this definition: ―Sustainable development is development that satisfies present needs without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own needs‖. Since that time, the idea of SD has spread greatly and is widely supported in the international community, as it offers a vision of the future that confronts the progressive problems of environmental degradation and the unequal distribution of resources. Proof of this interest can be seen in the different international declarations signed in recent years centring on SD in the tourist arena (Table 1).