Abstract

The article in its basic matter refers to variously intensified discussion about the "pattern" of sustainability related to the field of tourism, particularly to its social and cultural aspects. The author defends the belief that sustainable development is indeed based on the ethical rules which are to play an important role in the process of improving the condition of contemporary forms of tourism. The first part of the paper is dedicated to controversies around the idea of sustainable development. Thinking in the categories of the generational justice allows to notice the ethical imperative, which demands the formation of human attitude and behaviour in widely understood harmony with human natural and cultural environment. The generational justice, which the idea of sustainable development refers to, determines new dimension of human responsibility. The other part of the article is an attempt to response which sustainability in tourism is worth to strive for. The author represents the conviction that sustainable development in tourism should realize the universal principle of the chances equality, social justice and responsibility. The final fragments of the paper are dedicated to social and cultural dimension of tourism as a form of cultural connexion between arriving (tourists) and their hosts. Here appears the question about the cultural identity of each side. The author's belief that tourism politics cannot handle without the norms of ethical nature, is supported with the thesis that human's own good should be considered at the first place by taking care about the quality of life both in biological and social and cultural aspects.(original abstract)