Development of a Tourism Sustainability Assessment Methodology Based on Stakeholder Inputs: A Conceptual Approach

AbstractThis paper addresses the issue of how progress towards sustainable tourism development (STD) can be measured. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to develop a practical method of monitoring the progress towards STD in terms of system quality. ‘Barometer of Tourism Sustainability’ (BTS) and ‘AMOEBA of Tourism Sustainability Indicators’ (ATSI) are introduced as devices for the tourism sustainability assessment. A conceptual framework is formulated to generate quantitative data for the models, with two systems, eight dimensions and a number of indicators as the assessment components. Four types of sustainability gradations are suggested in the BTS and ATSI analyses: (1) BTS1 and ATSI1 – sustainable, potentially sustainable, intermediate, potentially unsustainable and unsustainable; (2) BTS2 and ATSI2 – sustainable, potentially sustainable, potentially unsustainable and unsustainable; (3) BTS3 and ATSI3 – sustainable, intermediate, and unsustainable; and (4) BTS4 and ATSI4-sustainable, and unsusta...