Sustainable tourism development performance in the wetland areas : a proposed composite index

Purpose: Destinations wishing to exploit their natural resources, such as wetlands, for tourism development are wise to reach consensus among their community’s stakeholders on the policies and practices needed to sustainably manage tourism development and activities in their fragile natural environments. Drawing from an old adage that you cannot manage what you do not measure, one of the most important challenges facing policymakers and destination managers is the measurement of tourism to determine if it is meeting its desired objectives. This paper aims to focus on producing a system for monitoring the performance of tourism development on sustainable tourism practices. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed system is based upon a qualitative study using the Delphi method involving stakeholders from different areas of expertise in rural economic development and natural resource management. Findings: After three rounds in the Delphi stage, the participants reached consensus on the following set of 69 indicators: Environmental (8 sub-components and 19 indicators), Socio-cultural (7 sub-components and 24 indicators) and Economic (8 sub-components and 26 indicators) for sustainable tourism development performance in the wetland areas. Originality/value: The provided scale in this manuscript will allow the planners/managers to assess the sustainable tourism development in their area in an easy and reliable way.