Sostenibilidad del Balneario El Rodadero, Santa Marta, Colombia

Sustainability in the environmental, sociocultural and economic dimensions; subsidiarity, equity, effectiveness in the supply of public services and in the promotion of the local economic development; transparence, civic commitment and the citizens – particularly women and the poor–, the security and the environment; all these topics developed under an approach that associates and joins together public and private stakeholders, both vertically and horizontally, constitutes the urban governance principles provided by the United Nations (UN, 2005). In the tourism industry, they must drive the conversion of a tourism place into a sustainable one and complemented with the guidelines provided in the UN Program 21 (1992), Global Criteria for Sustainable Tourism (Global Sustainable Tourism Council [GSTC], 2008), and the World Charter for Sustainable Tourism +20 (Global Sustainable Tourism Conference, 2015) (WTO, 2016). In this theoretical context, the risk factors affecting the sustainability in the swimming area El Rodadero are determined based on the description of indicators provided in the technical standard for tourism: Beach Destinations, Sustainability Requirements (NTS-TS-001-2). Data were collected through direct observation and some surveys applied to tourists, businesspeople and locals and also from related research reports and technical bulletins.