Tourism and Development: The Impact of Sustainability—Comparative Case Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, tourism has established itself as one of the most important economic sectors worldwide. Given the economic importance of this activity, different international organizations have decided to bet on tourism as a development tool. However, the expansion of tourism, on many occasions, can cause significant environmental deterioration, so it is necessary to analyze the costs and benefits generated by tourism in those territories that host this activity. To deepen our knowledge about the relationship between tourism, environmental sustainability and economic development, the objective of this work is to analyze the relationships that may exist between these three variables, which will allow us to determine if tourism influences economic development, and if there are factors pertaining to environmental sustainability that influence this relationship. In this paper, a comparative analysis of cases is used to analyze how environmental sustainability influences the relationship between tourism and economic development. The analysis carried out shows that tourism, although with some limitations, can be configured as an instrument of economic development.