Buenas prácticas ambientales en el sector hotelero del Algarve

espanolEn las ultimas decadas la preocupacion por el medio ambiente ha ido adquiriendo una gran importancia. Las empresas no solo se preocupan de la normativa existente sino tambien de la sociedad sobre sus actuaciones. La busqueda de un modelo mas sostenible de sociedad se ha transformado en una especie de mar de fondo que se ha ido propagando a escala internacional. La importancia de los graves problemas socioambientales a escala global, que se pusieron de manifiesto en la segunda mitad del siglo pasado, propicio una intensa movilizacion, en el sentido de encontrar un nuevo modelo de desarrollo que permitiese compatibilizar los aspectos economicos, sociales y ambientales. Esta nueva perspectiva se extiende rapido en la actividad turistica, la cual posee un enorme potencial para promover mejoras sociales y ambientales, y a traves de ellas contribuir al desarrollo sostenible de las comunidades y los paises receptores de turistas. El sector hotelero, como el principal componente del producto turistico, interactua directamente con el medio ambiente y de su actividad resultan tambien efectos negativos relevantes. Por ello, a partir de los anos noventa del pasado siglo, esta industria comienza a adoptar voluntariamente diversas iniciativas para mejorar su desempeno ambiental. De entre esas iniciativas, las mas comunes son los codigos de conducta, las buenas practicas ambientales, las ecoetiquetas y los sistemas de gestion ambiental (SGA). Con este trabajo de pretende analizar la aplicacion de buenas practicas ambientales en los hoteles del Algarve (Portugal) y asi valorar su contribucion al desarrollo turistico sostenible de esa region. EnglishThe search for a more sustainable model of society has been in transformation these past few decades, as a true transnational trend. The emergence of serious socio-environmental problems, during the latter half of the 20th century, started an intense mobilization which aimed to find a new model of development which would allow the equilibrium of economic, social and environmental issues. This new perspective quickly spread out through the tourism industry, since tourism is a crucial factor for economic development, and gathers enormous potential to promote better social and environmental conditions which, in turn, contribute to the sustainable development of communities and in-coming countries. As such, the idea of sustainable tourism became reality while the concept of sustainability became more popular, first as a counter-force to mass tourism and later on as a desirable aim for all types of tourism, now understood as an economic activity to satisfy the environmental and social needs indispensable to human life. The hotel sector, as the main component of the tourism product, interacts directly with the environment and its activity causes important negative impacts. Thus, since the 1990s, this sector began to adopt several spontaneous initiatives in order to improve its environmental behavior. Amongst these initiatives, the most common are the codes of conduct, good environmental practices, eco-tags and the Environment Management Systems (EMS). This study analyses how good environmental practices have been experienced and implemented by hotels in the Algarve region (Portugal) and aims to assess the hotels� contribution for sustainable tourism in the region