تلاش های توسعه پایدار گردشگری توسط دولت های محلی در لهستان Sustainable tourism development efforts by local governments in Poland

1. Introduction The concept of sustainable development is increasingly becoming part of various areas of life and development decisions made by man. This trend is also affecting the area of tourism due to its environmental, economic, social, and cultural impact. The success of the introduction of sustainable development rests in part on support from and participation of the parties involved in the business of tourism. While not all stakeholders need be equally involved in the decision process associated with sustainable development, all their interests need to be identified and understood (Donaldson & Preston, 1995). If the interests of a key group of stakeholders are not identified, then the entire process may fail (Clarkson, 1995). Of the different stakeholder groups including domestic and foreign tourists, local residents, business owners, and officials of local governments, it is the latter two groups that tend to focus more on engagement in the process of sustainable development (D’Mello et al., 2016). This is because tourism yields a number of benefits for local communities experiencing the influx of visitors and affects their quality of life. Historical functions of local communities become transformed and the analysis of the interaction between tourism and community life becomes increasingly important (Liu et al., 2017). This forces local governments to pay more attention to support for the emergence of a tourism industry that respects the “quality of life needs” of local communities (Liu et al., 2017). At the local government level, there is a growing consensus that tourism development ought to be driven by local communities and not globally established tourism organizations (Goodwin, 2016). This new approach yields important implications for the sustainable development of the tourism sector given that it affects the relationship between political entities and the ability of the government to impact the economy. It also affects the choice of political instruments and indicators as well as sparks political debate in some cases (Hall, 2011). The manner in which institutional management systems are established determines the manner in which stakeholders operate in the arena of tourism policy as well as the instruments and indicators used to achieve political aims across all fields of policy including tourism development (Sofield, Guia, & Specht, 2017). At the local level, representatives of the local community or local government officials usually are assigned specific areas of authority and tasks to be completed including those related to the tourism sector. In order to make their work more effective, local governments collaborate at the national and international level with other political and non-political entities. One particularly important form of collaboration consists of joint efforts between local residents, tourists, and the public sector (Liao & Chern, 2015). However, other entities need participate in this process as well in order to facilitate the development of the tourism sector using the rules and guidelines associated with the concept of sustainable development. All interested parties need to discuss relevant issues together (Hardy & Pearson, 2017). This is due to the fact that all interested parties vary in terms of their interests and goals, and do not represent a united front (Lyon, Hunter-Jones, & Warnaby, 2017). In the conversation on tourism, the diversity of stakeholders defending their own views and in many cases opposing aims calls for the use of an innovative approach to the management of the decision-making process as well as the use of appropriate tools (Domínguez-Gómez & González-Gómez, 2017). In addition to the analysis of the differing viewpoints of the various stakeholders involved in the decision-making process, it is vital to consider the fact that uncontrolled tourism development may negatively affect local communities and also the natural environment. While it is difficult to completely eliminate negative outcomes, key players in the tourism market and local residents need to work on ways to reduce the effects of dysfunctions associated with tourism development (Al. Haija, 2011).