Towards sustainable tourism development in the age of globalisation in the developing world

Abstract

Tourism is known to be one of the major contributors in countries development. Therefore countries should encourage investment in tourism industry. Development should obey some principles and goals in order to be sustainable. According to WTO definition, Coordination of economic, social/cultural and environmental goals are the prerequisites of sustainable tourism development. In the age of globalization, tourism is influenced by two main drivers, transportation and information technology. So this industry is growing so fast and because of this surge, not only the situation has changed, but also it calls for better management of the economic, social/cultural and environmental impacts so as to augment the sustainability goals. It should be noted that globalization and tourism are mutual concepts. As tourism brings people and different cultures closer to each other, globalization reinforces shaping this "tourist village" by collapsing the geographical boundaries. One of the future and current challenges would be to answer this question: In the age of globalization is it possible to get to sustainable tourism development? This paper attempts to answer this question. But at first we need to understand the concepts of tourism, development, sustainability and globalization and their relationship with each other.