ENGLISH-SPEAKING TOURISTS' EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABILITY ATTRIBUTES IN CULTURAL TOURISM DESTINATIONS: THE CASE OF CUSCO

Although guidelines for sustainable tourism exist, there is a lack of research discussing the sustainability of destinations as perceived by tourists. This study aims to explore sustainability from a demand-based perspective and determine which attributes of a destination are most mentioned by tourists in their reviews. Based on sustainability attributes defined from the literature and in-depth interviews conducted with travel experts, the study analyses comments posted on the TripAdvisor website for Cusco, a mainstream cultural destination. The findings determine that tourists primarily evaluate the destination's sustainability in connection to those aspects that are more likely to affect their own experiences.