For Authorities

Although in the discussion on sustainable development there are many diverging opinions on the role of the government, it is clear to many that if the development of tourism is to be more sustainable, the relevant authorities should take there responsibilities and create the conditions for other stakeholders to act in a responsible way.

The role of different levels of government (international, national, regional and local) has been discussed in many conferences. But there is not only a difference in levels of government, but since sustainable tourism is supposed to contribute to sustainable development, all sectors of government, involved with the economic, ecological adn socio-cultural aspects of sustainable development should/could be involved: ministries of economy, nature, international cooperation, social affairs etc.

A number of documents have been produced to assist governments in taking responsibilities. As tourism is only a part of the sustainable development in general, and as the development of tourism includes action on many different fields (social, economic, ecological), governments should not only look at guidelines that are specific to tourism. International agreements on the environment, on human rights, on working conditions, on socio-cultural rights of people (especially of indigenous peoples), on the role of local governments etc. should be adapted and applied to tourism development. In this respect e.g. the effects of international agreements like GATS need more attention in the discussion on sustainable tourism.

But there are also tourism specific policy recommendations and suggestions for codes of conduct for governments. Through our links to international governmental bodies like ILO, WTO, UN-CSD and UNEP you can find the results of their efforts in this respect. 

And some national governments have been involve developing tourism policies (sometimes in Public-Private Participation) which are seen as examples of good policies in the field of sustainable tourism. Examples are:

Where these policies are still more or less abstract, it is also recognized that local governments play a crucial role in realizing sustainable tourism. For many of them it is often hard to create and enforce regulation that interferes with the big players in tourism development. For those local authorities special guidelines have been developed. Examples are: