Assessing the environmental impact of tourism development: the use of the Delphi technique

Abstract

This paper reports the development and application of a methodology for the environmental impact assessment of tourism projects. It reviews the background literature on tourism related impacts and the wider problems of environmental impact assessment, including issues associated with measurement. The Delphi technique is then identified as a potentially valuable tool for the identification and assessment of environmental impacts. The findings of the application of the developed methodology to a specific tourism project, namely Salts Mill, Bradford (UK) are presented. An assessment is then made of the methodology along with an outline for further refinement and testing of the approach.