Sustainable Tourism Law

Sustainable tourism development in the Danube region: law and policy Andrej Mićović 1 Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism I. OVERVIEW OF THE LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE (TOURISM) DEVELOPMENT The emergence of the new forms of tourism in the second half of the XX century and their further development in the XXI century was a response to the negative impacts of the mass tourism, which has been becoming environmentally, socially, ethically and politically intolerable 2 . Among different terms that have been used for designation of these new tourism forms and concepts 3 , the term sustainable tourism became widely accepted in theory and practice 4 . While the concept of mass tourism is based on the economic growth, encouraging the consumer to travel and consume as much as possible all the time 5 , sustainable tourism concept aims to achieve sustainable consumption and involves social responsibility, a strong commitment to nature and the integration of local people in any tourist operation or development 6 . The sustainable tourism approach is therefore based on the series of objectives grouped in three categories: economic, social and 1 Dr. Andrej Mićović, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja, University of Kragujevac, Vojvođanska 5A, 36210 Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, tel: (+381 36) 515 00 24 , andrej. micovic@kg.ac.rs. 2 Mihalič, T., Sustainable-responsible tourism discourse – Towards “responsustable” tourism , Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 111, Part B, 2016, p. 461. 3 Triarchi, E., Karamanis, K., The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism: a theoretical background , Business & Entrepreneurship Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, 39-59. 4 Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability. See: UNEP & UNWTO, Making Tourism More Sustainable – A guide for policy makers , 2005, p. 11. 5 Traditional consumer policy helps the consumer to consume as much as he wishes, whereas sustainability sometimes requires reduction of consumption. See: Tonner, K., Consumer Protection and Environmental Protection: Contradictions and Suggested Steps Towards Integration , Journal of Consumer Policy, Vol. 23, Issue 1, 2000, p. 63. 6 Available at: http://www.biodiversity.ru/coastlearn/tourism-eng/con_tourism.html.