Ecological Indicators 18 (2012) 659–675 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Sustainable tourism indicators as planning tools in cultural destinations Macarena Lozano-Oyola a,∗ , Francisco Javier Blancas a , Mercedes González b , Rafael Caballero b a Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain b Department of Applied Economics (Mathematics), Malaga University, Malaga, Spain article info Article history: Received 9 May 2011 Received in revised form 13 January 2012 Accepted 17 January 2012 Keywords: Sustainable tourism Composite indicators Action plans Goal programming Best practice Benchmarking abstract Sustainable tourism is being consolidated at an international level as an approach that should be used to make all types of tourism more environmentally, socially and economically beneficial. A common practice is to use an indicator system for designing and implementing tourism models that focuses on the sustainability approach. Indicators are considered as useful tools that allow tourism managers to diagnose the situation of the destination, and to identify and evaluate issues that require addressing to improve the level of sustainability of the tourist activities. However, these indicator systems usually do not provide a practical guide to establish how to interpret information and how to integrate it into the decision-making. In this paper we present an indicator system to evaluate sustainable tourism at cultural destinations. Likewise, we suggest a method based on goal programming to construct composite indica- tors. The definition of the indicator system and composite indicators is completed providing guidelines that establish how to use these tools in tourism sector planning. Specifically, we propose three basic practical uses for these tools: the formulation of general action plans at a regional level, the definition of short-term strategies for destinations and the establishment of destination benchmarking practices. Each practical use is illustrated using the case of cultural tourism destinations in the Andalusia region (Spain). © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Tourism is the third largest economy in the world (ICOM and WFFM/FMAM, 2007). This industry is economically important due to its generating activities and, hence, increased direct and indirect employment opportunities (Coccossis, 2008; Constantin and Mitrut, 2008). In addition, there are social benefits to both tourists and residents, and the movement of tourists contributes to cultural exchange (Besculides et al., 2002; Craik, 1995). Fur- thermore, tourism has an important “knock-on” effect in other socio-economic sectors, thus promoting the improvement of infrastructure and public services (Fletcher, 2008; Gibson et al., 2003). However, the effect of tourism on the environment remains problematic. In fact, the carrying capacity of several tourist des- tinations has been exceeded in recent years (Castellani et al., 2007; Jurincic, 2005; Trumbic, 2004). As a result, more empha- sis has been placed on improving the sustainability of these desti- nations. Sustainable tourism is as such not a specific form of tourism but more an approach that can be used to make all types of tourism more environmentally, socially and economically beneficial. In this manner, tourism activities should be focused on resource ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954349061; fax: +34 954349339. E-mail address: mlozoyo@upo.es (M. Lozano-Oyola). management in which all economic, social and aesthetic require- ments are fulfilled, while simultaneously respecting cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity (World Tourism Organization, 1993). This is why adequate plan- ning is required to safeguard against potential negative impacts. For this reason, recent tourism planning processes have aimed to rec- oncile the development of competitive tourism activities with the protection of the natural and cultural resources that support this activity (Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2004; Neto, 2003; Zhenjia, 2008). In this regard, the World Tourism Organiza- tion (WTO) indicates that the sustainable development of tourism should promote an optimal use of resources (WTO, 2004). For this reason, tourism action plans are increasingly focusing on the ter- ritorial dimension of sustainability. Within this framework, both public and private agents are expected to promote sustainable tourism initiatives, with local agents requiring objective tools to determine the degree to which activities are sustainable (Blancas et al., 2010a; Camagni, 2002; Landford, 2009; Yunis, 2004). Fur- thermore, strong political leadership and the broad participation of stakeholders are required for collaborations to be successful (Bryon and Russo, 2003; Castellani and Sala, 2010; Coccossis, 2008), and to achieve a high degree of tourist satisfaction. To develop a more sustainable model for tourism, efficient management is required in which existing and potential impacts are continuously moni- tored, allowing the necessary preventive or corrective measures to be introduced (WTO, 2004). 1470-160X/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.01.014