Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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1996, Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry, launched by the UNWTO, was one of the
earliest efforts in the area of sustainable tourism. This was followed by a number of
international, regional, and national efforts to develop guidelines and action plans to foster
sustainable tourism including the UNWTO’s “Global Code of Ethics for Tourism” in 1999.53
Initially, the focus was biodiversity conservation with Agenda 21.54
In 2015, Agenda 2030 was adopted during the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly by 154
heads of state or government, featuring tourism in 3 of its 17 Sustainable development goals
(SDGs), namely goals 8, 12, and 14 on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, sustainable
consumption and production, and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources. Goal 8
stresses the importance of ensuring “inclusive and sustainable economic growth” with decent
work opportunities especially for youth and women in the tourism sector, which provides 1 in
11 jobs worldwide. Goal 12 encourages the adoption of “sustainable consumption and
production patterns” and monitoring the impact of sustainable tourism in terms of job creation
and promotion of local culture and products.55 Goal 12 also stresses the importance of “robust
measurement and monitoring of the sustainable development impacts of tourism” in achieving
sustainable development.56 Goal 14 highlights the importance of conservation of healthy marine
ecosystems and stresses on the need for tourism development to be aligned with the
conservation efforts.57 In 2017, the UN General Assembly highlighted the importance of
sustainable tourism by designating this year as the “International Year of Sustainable Tourism
for Development” in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable tourismamong
all tourism stakeholders and mobilize them to cooperate in achieving sustainability.58
Theories on Sustainable Tourism and Limits to Tourism Growth
Theories on sustainable tourism and the limits to tourism growth can be classified into three
models; the resource-based, activity-based and community-based models of sustainability.
While the focus of the resource-based model is on carrying capacity, the activity-based model
focuses on the product cycle while the community-based model focus is participatory planning.
The resource-based model, the first model to be developed with its focus on carrying capacity,
is interested in measuring and setting an optimal number for tourists visiting destinations
without incurring negative impacts. However, this idea of setting a “static limit,” as expected,
was not highly supported by the tourism industry.
The activity-based model, which can be described as industry-oriented, with its focus on the
destination life cycle, is more concerned with the ability of the tourism industry to generate
growth through the introduction of new products and the development of the infrastructure. In
this model, limits to growth are not set by the ability of the destination and its resources to
5353 Neto, F. (2003). A new approach to sustainable tourism development: Moving beyond environmental protection. DESA
Discussion Paper No. 29. Retrieved from
54 UNESCO. (2009). Sustainable tourism development in UNESCO designated sites in South-Eastern Europe. Retrieved from
view/news/sustainable_tourism_development_in_unesco_designated_sites_i/.
55 UNWTO (n.d.). Tourism and SDGs .
56 UNWTO (2018). Baseline report on the integration of sustainable consumption and production patterns into tourism policies.
Retrieved from
57 UNWTO (n.d.). Tourism and SDGs .
58 UNWTO. (2018). Tourism and the sustainable development goals – journey to 2030. Retrieved from