Abstract
Environmental quality is a driving force for the sustainable development of tourism in the 21st century. Nevertheless, the increasing pressures placed upon the stocks of natural capital call for integrated approaches to balance the impacts of tourism activities. Recent growth trends of the golf industry are strengthening its potential to become a vehicle for competitive and sustainable tourism. On the other hand, golf courses cause undisputed environmental impacts, which require effective management and control. This paper presents a sustainability assessment framework and the results from its application to the Algarve's golf courses. A key element of the sustainability analysis was the development of performance indicators. It was concluded that the position of the existing courses in the environmental dimension could be improved if management tools were implemented by many of the golf clubs. This measure would bring the environmental indicators closer to the benchmarking values of the courses with the best environmental performance. In terms of economic and social performance, the indicators show that golf is a profitable business, whether as an anchor for other tourist development, or as a sporting activity on its own.
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