In tourism, sustainable development represents a way to exercise a business activity such that the needs of both the tourists and the receiving regions are satisfied, while at the same time protecting and fostering future opportunities by preserving essential ecological processes, biological diversity and cultural integrity. There is broad scientific consensus about the need to consolidate an ethical paradigm that combines economic objectives with the principles of ecology, sustainable development and citizen participation. In view of this situation, it has become necessary to identify how to measure compliance with these principles, identify what indicators must be used and determine what perspective must be adopted. Therefore, the objective of this work was to develop measurement models of the sustainability concepts associated with rural tourism from the residents' perspective. Using data from a survey, the results obtained have led to the development and validation of instruments that reliably measure the sustainability dimensions from the residents' perspective. As a result, tourism managers have access to an instrument that allows them to analyse the opinions of the residents of an area regarding the tourism development that takes place there.

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In order to advance in a scientific field the key concepts have to be validated. Despite growing academic interest in integrated rural tourism, there is no research on validating its key concepts. The objective of this research was to propose and validate measurement models for the elements networks, embeddedness, endogeneity, complementarity, scale, and empowerment, which potentially determine this type of tourism. As a result, a refined and validated measurement instrument was developed, offering a reliable tool to use in future research.