Sustainable Tourism and Policy Implementation: Lessons from the Case of Calvia ´, Spain Rachel Dodds School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada To date there is much literature identifying the need for sustainable tourism and for policy to address this need, however, there are few studies addressing sustainable tourism at a practical level or the effectiveness of policy implementation. This research focuses on the operational level of policy in order to gain a greater under- standing of the barriers and possible solutions to implementation of sustainable tourism policy. This research focused on one of the Mediterranean’s most popular sun, sea and sand tourist resorts – Calvia ´, located in Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, Spain. Calvia ´ is an example of a mass tourism destination which, from a result of tourism pressure in the late 1980s, faced significant economic, social and environmental decline. By taking an integrated and collaborative approach to implement a sustainable tourism policy [using the participatory process of Local Agenda 21 (LA21)] Calvia ´ received much international acclaim. This descriptive case study outlines the motivations behind establishing a sustainable tourism policy, the process, successes and barriers of implementation and lessons learned. By outlining sustainable tourism policy from development to evaluation, this case study hopes to provide recommendations for other destinations who aim to work towards sustainable tourism goals. doi: 10.2167/cit278.0 Keywords: Calvia ´ , policy implementation, Local Agenda 21, Spain, sustainable tourism Introduction For the Mediterranean, tourism is important from an economic point of view, for example, job creation, infrastructure development and foreign exchange. Since the boom of tourism in the 1960–80s, many countries have developed coastal tourism as their key attraction and many destinations which have coastal resorts depend on tourism as their main industry. This form of tourism is enjoyed by countries who obtain a significant share of the wealth created by tourism, however, the environment and sustainability of the indus- try is becoming a growing concern for these regions. The issues that call for more sustainable forms of tourism and tourism development arise from the same concerns over sustainable development in general. These include increased population density, over-development of the built environment, increasing dependency of a host community’s economy on tourism, increased use and therefore pollution of resources, and degradation or even elimination of the natural environment, competition, increased congestion and strains on 296 1368-3500/07/04 296-27 $20.00/0 # 2007 R. Dodds CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM Vol. 10, No. 4, 2007