Potential of the digital ecosystem for the sustainable development of the tourist destination

Sustainable development is a key concept in the twenty-first century that aims to achieve a balance between present resource usage and responsibilities to future generations. The paradigm began in the field of environment protection but rapidly moved its attention and oriented itself to a variety of economic sectors, including tourism. The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of the concept of sustainable tourism development and to investigate the possibilities of the digital ecosystem in achieving this sustainability. The publication presents findings from an author’s research on the state of digital transformation in destination Veliko Tarnovo. As a result of the research, the indicators for measuring sustainable tourism, the main goals of the sustainable tourist development and the possibilities offered by the digital ecosystem for their achievement have been derived. The challenges facing DE in political, organizational, technological and ethical aspects are also reported. As a result of the analysis, we concluded that the digital ecosystem as an innovative organizational and business model successfully supports the sustainable development of the tourist destination.