Challenges of sustainable tourism development in the developing world: the case of Turkey

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the challenges to sustainable tourism development in developing countries with special references to Turkey as a part of the developing world. It was found that the factors that have emerged as challenges to sustainable tourism development related to priorities of national economic policy, the structure of public administration, an emergence of environmental issues, over commercialisation, and the structure of international tourism system. It concludes that although the principles of sustainable tourism development are beneficial, their implementation is an enormously difficult task to achieve and owing to the prevailing socio-economic and political conditions in the developing world. Hence, any operation of principles of sustainable tourism development necessitates hard political and economic choices, and decisions based upon complex socio-economic and environmental trade-offs. Moreover, it states that implementation of these hard decisions may not be possible unless international organisations encourage and collaborate with governments of developing countries to implement the principles of sustainable tourism development.