Rural Tourism

on Environment and Development (1987), this concept was widely accepted by the vast majority of Western countries including the European Union as a star¬ting point for their policies. The acceptance of this approach can be seen as an expression of the increasing environmental awareness at the end of the eighties. On the other hand, it can be argued that the introduction of such a concept was strongly related to the failure of traditional environmental policies in the previous decades. This failure necessitated the introduction of a general new approach aimed at realising a more sound environ¬ment.When pollution of the environment comes up for discussion certain sectors are often seen as the main cause of environmental disruption. In most countries special attention has been given to the pollution of steel mills, oil refineries, traffic and intensive agriculture. Generally speaking, tourism was not seen as a real threat to nature and the environ¬ment. Recently, this picture has changed. There is an increasing awareness of the strong relationship between tourism and the quality of nature and the environment. One of the results of this development is that the concept of sustainable development has been accepted in tourism studies (Farell and McLellan, 1987; Farell and Runyan, 1991, Briassoulis and Van der Straaten, 1992). In addition, authorities took this approach as a star¬ting point for their environ¬mental and economic policies (Van der Straaten, 1992). Recently, the European Union accepted the Fifth Action Programme 'Towards Sustainability' in which tourism is given special attention (1992).However, the acceptance of the concept of sustainable development does not mean that this concept is implemented in all concrete policies of countries and of the European Union. It has to be said that nobody is against sustainable develop¬ment.