Article
https://doi.org/10.52710/mjble.915
Sustainable Tourism Development as Destination Governance: An Integrative Framework and Systematic Review
Sustainable tourism development has moved from a narrow emphasis on environmental protection to a multidimensional approach that seeks to balance economic viability, socio-cultural well-being, environmental stewardship, effective governance, technological capability, and destination resilience. This paper reviews the concept of sustainable tourism development and identifies the principal factors that shape its successful implementation across national and international tourism contexts. An integrative systematic review approach was adopted, drawing on seminal contributions and recent peer-reviewed research, with particular emphasis on studies published during 2025–2026. The synthesis indicates that sustainable tourism is best understood as a destination-level management process rather than a discrete tourism product. Six closely connected factor groups repeatedly emerge from the literature: environmental and climate management; community participation and social equity; economic value creation and local benefit retention; governance and stakeholder coordination; technology, innovation and data capability; and monitoring, resilience and adaptive management. A conceptual framework is proposed to show how these factors interact with the three core sustainability pillars and produce outcomes such as resident well-being, resource efficiency, competitiveness, resilience and intergenerational equity. The review also maps recurring research and implementation gaps to practical mitigation strategies. Recent evidence highlights the growing importance of ESG-based destination governance, community empowerment, destination decarbonisation, smart and green practices, artificial intelligence, circular-economy thinking and shared-value approaches. The paper concludes that sustainable tourism development depends not on a single intervention but on coordinated governance, measurable indicators, meaningful community participation, context-sensitive technology use and continuous adaptation to ecological and social thresholds.