The purpose of this study exploring the key aspects of sustainable tourism development social dimension which is linked to theoretical and on how we should define and understand the fluid concept of the social dimension in tourism sustainability that can also be applied in heritage tourism. Social sustainability is not absolute or constant which has to be considered as a dynamic concept, which will change over time in a place. To achieve sustainable tourism development, we cannot neglect the social dimension and only focuses on the economic and environmental dimensions. However, there are still few studies of the social dimension in tourism development. There have been efforts to address and incorporate the social dimension of sustainability into standard setters, planners, and practitioners in many diverse areas such as forest certification, organic agriculture, conventional agriculture, urban and regional planning, corporate social and environmental management, reporting, and responsibility and fair-trade certification. However, among the three dimensions of sustainable development, social sustainability is the least developed and often is proposed in relation to ecological or economic sustainability. Generally, the relationships between the three aspects of sustainable development are assumed to be compatible and mutually supportive. As sustainable tourism was derived from sustainable development, thus the three dimensions of sustainable development are also applied in sustainable tourism development, especially in sustainable heritage tourism.

There are three dimensions incorporate in Sustainable Development, which are environment, economic, and social. Therefore, sustainability issues should be considered in developing heritage tourism. However, despite the potential, it also brings out conflicts that result in negative socio-cultural impacts. There is a synergistic potential between heritage and tourism which can offer a type of special interest tourism.

Dimensions of tourism pdf