THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND CONTEMPORARY TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

This paper discusses the role of the Environmental Management Systems (EMS) applied to the tourism sector. Among contemporary instruments, being used to encourage the movements of tourist companies towards sustainability, an important role have voluntary/market instruments. That is why this paper analyses the principles, tasks, good practice experiences advantages, disadvantages and perspectives of EMS. Special attention is devoted to the ISO 14000 standards, representing the most important international regulations for environmental management. The above standards are the base for implementation of EMS within tourism, and make it possible for companies to direct the course of their actions towards a full agreement with the international criteria. Although application of environmental management in tourism is a relatively recent phenomenon, the potentialities of the EMS are huge and they can significantly contribute to putting tourism on a sustainable path.