1 Sustainable Tourism – A Model Approach Leszek Butowski Vistula University in Warsaw Poland 1. Introduction Sustainable tourism, sustainable development through tourism, principles of sustainable development in tourism and tourism development in terms of sustainable tourism, in the literature often treated as names for the same phenomenon, are becoming increasingly interesting for scholars and practicians of tourism from various countries. It results from the fact that sustainable tourism (at least declaratively – on the institutional level) is considered as the most desirable form of tourism development on particular reception areas, especially those which preserved the most natural and cultural authenticity values. Simultaneously, it should be noted that the rich scientific literature concerning sustainable tourism focuses attention primarly on descriptive presentation of its various aspects, with particular emphasis on the idea, the origins and the evolution of the phenomenon as well as terminological issues related to it. The authors pay much attention to reveal the relationships between sustainable tourism (as a form of tourism development) and particular types of tourism (as forms of tourist movement). At the same time, it should be marked that there are skeptical voices, which refer especially to the role that sustainable tourism is ascribed – as a remedy for all the problems of contemporary tourism. It also seems that, taking into consideration the hitherto scientific output related to sustainable tourism, the works devoted the theoretical aspects of sustainable tourism are in minority. Relatively weak theoretical grounds together with the ambiguity and diversity of views on sustainable tourism as well as the descriptive approach, which dominates in the literature, have prompted the author of this article to make an attempt to render the essence of sustainable tourism in a model approach. When creating the theoretical model of sustainable tourism, the author tried to take into consideration all its main features (and interrelations ocurring among them) and to simultaneously follow certain main principles, i.e.: of completeness, versatility, explicitness and simplicity of the model itself. The author is aware of the fact that attempts to render sustainable tourism in a model approach had already been made, but it seems that they concerned, in majority, its particular aspects, such as the origins of the phenomenon, its relationships with certain forms of tourist movement or relationships between sustainable development and tourism. However the literature lacked a holistic approach which would take into consideration all most important features of sustainable tourism. www.intechopen.com