The forerunner project "The integrative concept of sustainable development and its application to leisure and tourism in Germany" aimed at a more in-depth application of the integrative concept developed by the Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und System of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe as a leading partner (see especially Kopfmüller, J., et al. (2001): Nachhaltige Entwicklung integrativ betrachtet - Konstitutive Elemente, Regeln, Indikatoren. Global zukunftsfähige Entwicklung - Perspektiven für Deutschland, Band 1. Berlin: edition sigma; Coenen, R.; Grunwald, A. (ed) (2003): Nachhaltigkeitsprobleme in Deutschland - Analyse und Lösungsstrategien. Global zukunftsfähige Entwicklung - Perspektiven für Deutschland, Bd. 5. Berlin: edition sigma). The analyses within this project focused primarily on Germany (Klein-Vielhauer, S.: Die Anwendung des integrativen Konzepts auf das Aktivitätsfeld "Freizeit und Tourismus in Deutschland". In: Kopfmüller, J. (ed) (2006): Ein Konzept auf dem Prüfstand - Das integrative Nachhaltigkeitskonzept in der Forschungspraxis. Global zukunftsfähige Entwicklung - Nachhaltigkeitsforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Bd. 12. Berlin: edition sigma).

One objective of the current project is to outline the existing main approaches in the subject area of sustainability and leisure and tourism. Areas and actors outside Germany are also to be taken into consideration. Experience in practice and academic research contributes to further developing and concretizing the basic model into a framework model directed basically towards a comprehensive reflection of leisure and tourism in a specific state or a broad region. A both standardized and flexible framework of that kind should provide the opportunity to consider the most important sustainability aspects of the respective area, to analyze and evaluate them in a similar way and to integrate them into comparisons referring to different times and areas. The ultimate task of the framework is to foster fruitful exchanges between the spheres of practice and academic research.

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