Towards a framework for establishing policy goals for sustainable tourism in Mediterranean popular destinations

Tourism is one of the economic sectors in which interest has been raised to frame it within the context of sustainable development. Nonetheless, there is a lack of a solid framework for sustainable tourism practices and how these practices can be implemented. This is even more apparent in the case of Mediterranean destinations where mass tourism is an already developed activity with major economic impact. In the present research, an extensive literature search was performed for gathering the goals of policies for managing tourism development in Mediterranean existing destinations in a more sustainable manner. Findings were given a hierarchical structure and were integrated in a common scheme in order to be operational for evaluation and structure building. Conceptualization of policy goals aims to contribute to the establishment of a framework for sustainable tourism policy goals for Mediterranean popular destinations.