Resumo: Traditionally, tourism has been viewed as the miraculous panacea, an inexhaustible source of economic and social well-being, bringing the consequent desire to choose for its development in terms of short run maximization. However, during the last years, a new vision has replaced this assumption: the concept of sustainable development of tourism, which means an environmentally respectful development, based on solidarity along time and space, qualitative and not merely quantitative, and requiring the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders. To sum up, this new development has to be sustained on three dimensions: economic, social and environmental one. In order to measure the tourist sustainability in a concrete territory -the south of the Iberian peninsula-, this paper uses different indicators, linking quantitative parameters -such as the density of the demand and the tourist supply- with others of clear qualitative character -such as the indexes of tourist supply perceived quality-. Finally, and in order to provide to this dissertation a certain normative character, a diagnosis of the tourist sector in the province of Huelva is carried out, putting forward, as a consequence, some strategies to achieve its sustainable development, both in temporary and territorial terms.
