Resident well-being and sustainable tourism development: the ‘capitals approach’

Despite substantial attention to sustainability issues, much of current research regarding tourism development does not fully appreciate the essential dynamics of the concept of sustainability, failing to appreciate the role played by changing capital stocks as sources of resident well-being. Since tourism development impacts on resident well-being through build up or depletion of different types of capital stocks, the sustainability challenge involves managing these stocks rationally for sustained or increasing intertemporal well-being. The paper proposes a conceptual framework for assessing sustainable tourism development with the concept of capital at its centre. Tourism stakeholders must meet several different types of challenges, both conceptual and practical, if the capitals approach is to be most effective in supporting good policy to promote sustainable tourism development.