Tourism enterprises in Korca region and their sustainability

Abstract

Tourism is considered as one of the economic sectors with the greatest potential to make a positive contribution in achieving sustainable development (UNCED, 1992) .Sustainable tourism has become an increasingly popular field of research. There are a wide range of albanian tourism enterprises involved in the tourism industry.The informal nature of tourism enterprises can make it very difficult to spread awareness on sustainable policies, practices and to measure moves towards more sustainable performance. This paper addresses the concept of sustainable development in tourism and examines the degree to which tourism enterprises in Korca region are aware of the broad concept of sustainable tourism.The aim is to determine attitudes of tourism enterprises toward sustainability and understanding the influences on the adoption of sustainability practices, including motivators and barriers .The main findings stresses “a lack of a general awareness about sustainability issues within albanian tourism enterprises. Also as dominant barriers identified were lack of available money to invest, other business priorities,lack of incentive programs. A better understanding of tourism enterprise attributes, barriers, and responses is critical if we are to extend the theoretical concepts that underpin sustainable tourism development and to enhance sustainability in practice. Keywords: sustainability ,albanian tourism enterprises,sustainable tourism practices,motivators,barriers.