A Sustainable (Culture Protecting) Tourism Indicator for Cultural and Environmental Heritage Tourism Initiatives

This article restores the international community’s goals for cultural sustainability and cultural protections in the context of tourism where it has been replaced by a concept of “sustainable tourism” that promotes exploitation of cultural resources but does little to protect and promote cultures and their environments. The article offers an indicator for screening government initiatives in cultural and environmental heritage tourism to assure that they meet the standards that are part of a global consensus in international laws and declarations. It offers a test of New Zealand Aid’s Tourism Project in Laos as an example of how the indicator can be used to expose failures in this field.