Die Analyse des Konzeptes der nachhaltigen Entwicklung führt in vielen sogenannten unterentwickelten Regionen unweigerlich zu einer Auseinandersetzung mit den Strukturen des Tourismus. Der Tourismus greift in vielen Ländern in die ökonomischen, ökologischen und gesellschaftlichen Strukturen ein und stellt angesichts stagnierender Industrialisierungsprozesse eine, wenn auch dünne Nabelschnur zu den Industriestaaten dar. "Nevertheless, by contributing to the social development of very peripheral regions in an environmentally conscious way, tourism could at least deliver a modest contribution to counteracting post-fordist tendencies towards an increasing polarization of income distribution by supporting the use of metropolitan incomes for consumption in peripheral regions." (18) Inhalt: Richard Ledbury: Sustainable Tourism: A Review and the Research Agenda (21-52); Karl Vorlaufer: Conservation, Local Communities and Tourism in Africa. Conflicts, Symbiosis, Sustainable Development (53-123); Wolfgang Strasdas / Mathias Behrens-Egge: Ecotourism in African Rain Forests: The Examples of Ivory Coast and the Central African Republic (125-152); Michael Jurgschat: Tourism and Sustainable Development in Costa Rica (153-183); Janet Cochrane: Beyond Sustainability: Questioning the Relevance of Sustainable Tourism for Indonesia (185-210); Richard Ledbury: Sustainability in an Area of Rapid Mass Tourism Growth: The Case of Thailand (211-223); Krishna B. Ghimire: National and Regional Mass Tourism Development in the South: A New Panacea? (225-250); Timothy Forsyth: Sustainable Tourism and Market Interest (251-270); Brian Goodall: The Role of Environmental Self-Regulation within the Tourism Industry in Promoting Sustainable Development (271-293); Klaus Knecht / Michael Vogelsang: Environmentally Sound Energy Supply as a Contribution to Sustainable Tourism (295-338); Karl Otto Schallaböck: Tourism, Transport and Ecology (339-357); Wolfgang Hein: Tourism and Sustainable Development: Empirical Analysis and Concepts of Sustainability. A Systems Approach (359-400).