Review and evaluation of existing international systems of tourism sustainability indicators

Continuous monitoring of sustainability creates the necessary information basis for effective development management of tourism in a sustainable direction. Since sustainability became a key factor in developing quality tourism products without negatively affecting the natural and cultural environment, different systems of sustainability indicators have emerged-starting around 30 years ago. The UNWTO framework for sustainability assessment along with the European Commission's ETIS system are recognised as the most important and influential systems of indicators, and there are also many new systems and sets-largely based on the UNWTO and ETIS systems. However, in spite of the existence of these systems, confusion occurs because the number of possible new systems and indicators is constantly increasing, without a dearly defined framework or scale of measurement. The abundance of systems, initiatives, and projects ultimately brings significant confusion to destination management bodies.