Diseño de una metodología para evaluar la implementación de un modelo de turismo sostenible: la Carta Europea de Turismo Sostenible en el Parque Nacional de Garajonay, La Gomera

This article describes the methodology that has been designed to evaluate the implementation of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST) in the Garajonay National Park (La Gomera, Canary Islands). The ECST is a document supported by the EUROPARC Federation (forum where protected natural areas are represented at a European level), whose main goal is to apply the concept of sustainable development to tourism in the protected areas of Europe. Due to the fact that there are no standardized or official systems of evaluation of this kind of processes, the Technical Office that manages the implementation of the ECST in La Gomera has designed a methodology that can be applied to this territory as well as to other protected natural areas acredited by the Charter. The system comprises a series of thematic blocks which are evaluated through both quantitative and qualitative indicators. The application of this methodology has been successful from the strategic point of view, as it has contributed to the identification of existing barriers, of reached and unreached objectives, of the advances achieved and of the potentialities that emerge from the implementation of the ECST, and, of course, to the planning of new objectives and actions.