Developing Sustainable Cultural Tourism: The Case of Angono, Philippines Marie Julienne Camille Sapuay, Rene Francis Dimalanta, Jofer Asilum Graduate Students, School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Philippines Diliman Abstract Sustainable tourism challenges cities not only to promote environmental awareness to tourists, but also to instill social and cultural consciousness. In the Philippines, results of a recent economic study conducted for the Municipality of Angono showed that due to the prominence of arts and culture groups, establishments, attractions and activities in the local community, the arts and culture tourism industry has the highest potential in becoming the leading revenue generator for their local economy, especially in terms of job creation. For the industry to be realized as a major economic thrust, the idea of an artists’ village was introduced as part of a strategy for developing a tourism-enabling environment. This paper elaborates on a viable conceptualization for the Angono Artists’ Village, utilizing as its central theme the rich folklore of the local vicinity, which the artists of Angono have drawn their creative inspiration from for generations. The most prominent features in the site concept include those for conducting economic activities related to arts and culture, such as a museum complex, as well as those for fostering art education activities and formal courses, such as schools and workshop areas. Noting that the Municipality of Angono is steadily building up its reputation as an environmentally-conscious community, the various elements in the site were designed to ensure positive impacts to the environment upon project implementation. Arts and culture centers such as the Angono Artists’ Village can significantly impart to the general audience the importance of the balance between the cultural and the environmental. Keywords: sustainable tourism; cultural tourism; art tourism; folklore tourism; tourist site development Introduction Sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Report (1987), is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The concept of sustainable development emerged to resolve the issue of countries choosing either development or environmental protection and conservation as a higher priority by highlighting balance among the three pillars of sustainability: Economy, Environment and Social Community (Shah, 2008). Producers and service providers are challenged to rethink their business practices to lessen the long-term damage to the environment and society that were brought upon by the focus on short-term profiting. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were crafted in order for countries to better address today’s global challenges by fulfilling targets specified under each goal. Goal 11, entitled “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, aims to address the challenges of rapid urbanization (United Nations, 2016), which are challenges that developing countries, such as the Philippines, need to deal with (Baker and Watanabe, 2017). Under Goal 11 is Target 11.4, which aims to “strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2016). In the Philippines, aside from the locations already established as World Heritage Sites, the Municipality of Angono has already started working towards the preservation, protection and conservation of its own local cultural heritage, which the local government plans to merge with efforts of developing their local tourism industry. According to Sinha (2012), tourism is motivated by the desire for pleasurable experiences outside one's home, which can come in many forms of tourist activities, such as leisure and recreation, visits to friends and relatives, educational field trips, retail therapy and others. Knowing that, the tourism industry strives to complete the tourist experience by providing goods and services for the convenience and pleasure of travelers through marketing strategies, hospitality (food, drink and accommodation) and transport. If tourism activity will be carried out without regard to the environment and cultural by everyone, then it can be destructive and result in grave imbalance. A balance must be achieved and maintained among economic development, environmental sustainability and socio-cultural well-being, in such a way that