Due tothe dimension of the tourism industry – 900 million arrivals per year aroundthe world – and because tourism is related so essentially to natural areas, itis one of the major threats to biodiversity and natural resources worldwide.Therefore, it is absolutely indispensable to undertake efforts to make tourismmore sustainable – regarding all kinds of tourism, at all levels and for allparts of the tourism business from international tour operator to small pensionowners. The challenge of sustainable tourism development is to make use oftourism’s positive impacts, enhancing and channeling the benefits into theright directions, and to avoid or mitigate the negative impacts as far aspossible. Referring to the different natural, cultural and economic resourcestourism is affecting, various international organizations have developeddefinitions, principles, charters, codes and criteria for sustainability intourism – see a compilation in the box below. Note: These are just examplesfrom the international level, there are many more specific principles, criteriaetc. for sustainable tourism at regional and local level