A sustainable tourist experience is a memorable episode, linked to a specific time and place within a period of travel, with personal meaning and significant memories that also through its delivery or enablement makes a net positive contribution to all the various forms of capital (natural, cultural, social, human, built, financial and political) that make human well-being for all the key groups of stakeholders (including destination commun ities, tourism businesses and staff, tourists, and the planet as a whole) remembering that natural capital is a priority because it cannot be replaced with any of the other forms.

The second option was to ask the delegates to the 2019 Think Tank to offer a definition.  BEST EN Think Tanks aim to create new knowledge about tourism and sustainability by combining the collective wisdom of people with experience and motivations linked to sustainable tourism education and practice.  In this case the collective wisdom created a much better definition.

A sustainable tourist experience is a quality experience that teaches local knowledge and culture, benefits the destination environment and residents and contributes to individuals being more conscious of their social and environmental impacts when they are at home.