The Sustainable Tourism Framework is a structured approach designed to promote coexistence between tourism activity and local communities, with the goal of minimizing conflict and mitigating significant unfavorable effects. The framework centers on three core dimensions, environmental, socio-cultural, and economic, and examines how these elements intersect to affect the overall well-being of a destination. Environmental goes over how tourism harms the natural area and resources, socio-cultural gives a deeper understanding as to how tourism may affect the community, and economic impacts state how tourism may affect the jobs and affordability of the area. By categorizing impacts in this way, the framework enables a clearer understanding of how tourism can generate both harm and opportunity, and it supports targeted efforts to address root causes rather than symptoms. For governing bodies, this structure provides a practical tool for identifying priority areas and implementing policies, such as regulations for businesses or visitor guidelines, that protect local interests while letting tourism still exist. In the context of this project, applying the framework will help organize the analysis around the interconnected ways tourism affects both the people and natural environments of Costa Rica, ensuring that the assessment captures the full scope of its impacts.
