BETWEEN REAL AND IDEAL: DO THE APROACHES PROPOSED BY THE ONU ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM CONTRIBUTE TO RURAL TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT?

Sustainable Tourism (ST) has been seen at the national and international arena as a promising activity for rural areas from the environmental, economic and social perspectives. However, TS approaches, its categories of analysis and particularly the role that should perform for delivering Territorial Rural (TRD) development may incorporate different considerations according to the views of the institution promoting it. Most of the times the orthodox ST approach refer to the activity's environmental sustainability; other refers to the economic perspective while the latest approaches include social, cultural and even political considerations. This paper explores from a systemic territorial approach the transformations and meanings of the "sustainable" adjective in the main ONU conferences on the subject in the last ten years, also examines the Colombia ecotourism promotion policy, but furthermore search for insights and the implications of ST for Territorial Rural Development (TRD).