Authenticity, equity and sustainability in tourism

Sustainability became a leading concept in tourism development practice and research, but should be submitted to a critical examination in the context of wider theoretical and practical concerns. Three issues are considered in this paper: the possible misuse of the concept of sustainability in advertisement and as a means of legitimising takeover of control over natural sites or cultural practices of local people by state agencies or private enterprises; the interface between the discourses of authenticity and sustainability; and the problems of equity provoked by restrictions of access to valuable sites, in the name of sustainability.