E3S Web of Conferences 101, 01004 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/201910101004 ICESD 2019 Methodological Guidelines for the Sustainable Development of the Bulgarian Touristic Resorts through Reducing the Harmful Impact of Transport Elenita Velikova1, * 1 Department of Economy of tourism, UNWE, 1700 Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract. The achievement of sustainable development of Bulgarian tourist resorts is questionable after the European Commission has put Bulgaria's two-month ultimatum to prove that it can deal with the problem of dirty air. Tourism is a sector that is accused of violating sustainable development due to its many negative environmental impacts. A significant part of the harmful impact is due to the transport used to reach the desired destination and the movement itself. Sustainable development is a key objective of the EU and Bulgaria should not lag behind in terms of the essential indicators for its achievement. This publication aims to propose effective measures to reduce the harmful impact of passenger transport on the environment by establishing sustainable transport practices in touristic resorts. The environmental component of sustainable development is among its main priorities. Based on expert analysis of Bulgarian touristic resorts, our own research and experience in the studied subject will offer effective measures to increase their sustainability by reducing the harmful impact of transport on the environment. 1 Introduction transport practices in tourist destinations and thus contributing to the sustainable development of tourism. In Sustainable development is a topic of importance to the order to achieve the stated objective, the state of the public since the 1990s as a result of human's threatening Bulgarian tourist resorts will be analyzed in relation to impact on Planet Earth. Demand for approaches that established sustainable transport practices, the current increase economic growth without restricting future negatives of mobility and transport, hindering the generations' access to available resources is a priority task sustainable tourism will be established, and on this basis in many countries' economies. Tourism is an activity that mechanisms for overcoming or minimizing the harmful is no exception in this manner. Since the UN Conference impact of transport based on expert analysis, personal on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro research and experience. in 1992, approaches have been sought to make the tourism sector contribute to the sustainable development of the regions. 2 Literature review The interest in the development of this topic is Sustainable development of tourism and sustainable motivated by the fact that the issues of mobility and tourism are terms that have not yet been found in the transport and their impact, or even their contribution to specialized literature. The concept of "sustainable the sustainable development of tourism, are poorly development" becomes universal after the publication of addressed or insufficiently explored in the existing the report "Our Common Future" by the World specialized literature on tourism in Bulgaria. Even in the Organization for Environment and Development (1988). National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Development Since then, attempts to define concepts have focused on in Bulgaria 2014-2030, no attention has been paid to this several main areas. problem. There is an overview of the transport Sustainability should be understood as the ability of infrastructure in the country and the preferences of the systems (environmental, economic and social) to tourists to the variety of transport to reach the tourist compensate for emerging fluctuations and imbalances [1]. destinations by 2030 but the opportunities for achieving A wider understanding of the concept of sustainable sustainable tourism development by ensuring sustainable development combines a number of ethical norms such as mobility or ecological transport is not the subject of the well-being, humane treatment and wealth distribution, analyzes or part of the strategic measures. That is why the recognizing the limited possibilities of nature to purpose of this publication is to provide effective regenerate human embezzlement and disturbances. guidelines on limiting the harmful impact of passenger transport on the environment by establishing sustainable * Corresponding author: [email protected] © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). E3S Web of Conferences 101, 01004 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/201910101004 ICESD 2019 In general, sustainability is associated with the ability A key part of the definitions is the ecological to preserve a particular behaviour of the system, with its component of sustainable development. This gives us combined impact on the internal and external grounds to look for opportunities to minimize the harmful environment [2]. Sustainable development is a common impact of tourism on the environment in order to ensure goal of the EU, including our country. Sustainable its sustainable development. In this respect, one of the development should cover all sectors of the economy and main critics of tourism is related to the means of transport is not an isolated phenomenon within a country. used to reach the desired destination. That is why it is interesting for us to see how the harmful impact of Sustainable tourism development requires transport on the environment can be minimized. management not only of human, physical and financial capital, but also of environmental assets that are not substitutable, are not unlimited and without which the 3 Methodology of research application of others would lose its meaning. Sustainable tourism should seek to benefit from natural resources in a The subject of research in this publication is sustainable way that meets human needs while preserving the natural tourism, and the subject of the analysis is how it can be balance in the environment. These needs must be able to achieved through environmentally friendly transport be satisfied in the future. Sustainable tourism evolves on practices. According to us, the opportunities to reduce the the basis of harmony between resource use and harmful impact of passenger transport on the conservation through the integration of the local environment will greatly increase the sustainability of community. In all definitions of sustainable development tourism in the long run. Ensuring environmental and sustainable tourism, the issue of preserving the equilibrium is a complex task that depends on the efforts ecological balance is a main subject. of all stakeholders. Sustainable tourism is not a specific type of tourism, There are studies that are trying to identify but a way of managing tourism at all. As a starting point opportunities for sustainable transport. According to them, in our analyzes, we adopt the definition of sustainable the sustainable development of transport is an essential tourism defined by the World Tourism Organization necessity for the successful economic development of the (UNWTO): Tourism envisaged as leading to the country and is a factor for the improvement of the state of management of all resources in such a way that economic, the environment and raising the living standards of the social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while population. The development of sustainable transport is a maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological difficult task, requiring significant investment and process, biological diversity, and life support systems [3]. strategic, organizational and technical measures [5]. At the beginning of the concept of sustainable Therefore, we believe that if we combine the concept of development erroneously as such types of tourism are sustainable transport development with the development considered the ecological, the alternative, the soft, the of tourism, we can reduce the harmful impact of tourism green, etc. The idea of the 21st century is for all types of and transport on the environment, which in turn will lead tourism to be sustainable. to sustainable development of the two sectors, with equal other conditions. According to the World Tourism Organization (2004), the main parameters of sustainable tourism, its A starting point in our analyzes to reduce this harmful implementation and management, are applicable to all impact will be indicators that determine the choice of forms of tourism and all types of destinations, including tourists on a means of transport. It depends on: mass tourism and the different segments of tourist niches. - the total duration of the journey to the destination, The principles of sustainability relate to the economic, especially for short stays; socio-cultural and environmental impacts of tourism and to the appropriate balance between these three - travel costs (direct costs are taken into account by the dimensions in order to ensure long-term sustainability. consumer); Sustainable tourism should therefore: - adequate transport services, luggage transport, bicycle, • Realize the optimal use of environmental resources, etc .; which is a key element in the development of tourism, - the availability of and information regarding local maintaining ecological balance and helping to preserve public transport; natural heritage and biodiversity. - providing a direct connection without being moved; • Respect the socio-cultural identity of host