Increasing evidence shows that an integrated approach to tourism planning and management is now required to achieve sustainable tourism. It is only recently that there has been a growing recognition of the importance of combining the needs of traditional urban management (transportation, land use planning, marketing, economic development, fire and safety etc.) with the need to plan for tourism.

Some of the most important principles of sustainable tourism development include:

• Tourism should be initiated with the help of broad-based community-inputs and the community should maintain control of tourism development.

• Tourism should provide quality employment to its community residents and a linkage between the local businesses and tourism should be established.

• A code of practice should be established for tourism at all levels - national, regional, and local - based on internationally accepted standards. Guidelines for tourism operations, impact assessment, monitoring of cumulative impacts, and limits to acceptable change should be established.

• Education and training programmes to improve and manage heritage and natural resources should be established.

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Source: Jamieson, Walter and Alix Noble, "A Manual for Sustainable Tourism Destination MAnagement" CUC-UEM Project, AIT, 2000