Resumen de Using sustainable tourism indicators to measure the sustainability of a community-based ecotourism venture: Malealea Lodge & Pony Trek Centre, Lesotho
This article constructs an evaluation framework using sustainable tourism indicators for measuring the sustainability of community-based ecotourism ventures. This framework is then applied to the Malealea Lodge & Pony Trek Centre in Lesotho. The results yield a number of concerning results that need to be addressed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the tourism venture. A mixed method case study approach was followed during which various sources of data were combined to determine the sustainability in terms of a number of social, economic, and environmental indicators. The evaluation framework proved valuable for the measurement of the present sustainability as well as the recommendation of areas for improvement of the sustainability performance. The constructed evaluation framework may serve as an important departure point for the determination of the sustainability of community-based ecotourism ventures in southern Africa. Although the constructed framework includes a number of baseline and community-based ecotourism-specific indicators, site-specific indicators may need to be added to take local conditions and circumstances into account for the reapplication of the evaluation framework to other community-based ecotourism ventures.
