Although sustainable tourism is a widely adopted notion for achieving a
more balanced environmental, social and economic form of tourism, few
examples or case studies of successful implementation exist. This
purpose of this book was to examine if sustainable tourism policy is
being achieved in practice and if not, what the reasons were for
failure. Comparing two Mediterranean islands: Calviá(Mallorca, Spain)
and Malta, case study research was undertaken to determine barriers as
well as mitigation strategies for successful policy implementation.
These destinations were the focus of this study as both destinations
implemented a sustainable tourism policy, offer similar
product/distribution systems, have comparable development patterns and
have faced a loss of tourists and increased competition. This research
concluded that although tourism has been recognised as a major economic
contributor to economies and is also a strong tool in the social and
infrastructural development of a destination, it is often not considered
within the political contexts in which tourism operates, nor in the
power struggles that play a critical role in hindering effective
sustainable tourism policies.