Streszczenie:

The paper presents the issue of the sustainable tourism which corresponds with the concept of the sustainable development. The work concentrates on the theoretical analysis of the sustainable tourism, often treated as a tool of accomplishment of the sustainable development or the tool of the development of tourism itself. The article is an attempt to state the basic rules of the sustainable tourism on the so-called rural health resort areas. The work shows what kind of tourism can be developed on the analysed rural areas, at the same time being in harmony with the concept of the sustainable tourism. In the paper the analysis of the national and foreign literature from the domain of the concept of the sustainable tourism, including rural areas, and the observation of the chosen indicators of the sustainable development of health resorts villages are presented. The concept of the sustainable development arose in the 1970s and it was an expression of the critical reaction to the growing interference in natural and social and cultural resources. The concept of the sustainable development is not opposite to the possibilities of economic growth, on condition that the pace of the reproduction of the environmental resources is not slower than the pace of the usage of these resources. The theoretical basis of the usage of the rules of the sustainable development in the world literature started to be seen at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The document „Agenda 21 for Travelling and Tourism Economy” turned out to be fundamental for the development of the concept of the sustainable tourism. The practical use of the concept of the sustainable development in the rural areas economy needs devising indicators and indexes characterizing this development. The indicators are divided into: indicators of environmental pressure (danger, stress), indicators of condition (quality) of the environment and indicators of preventive activities. The economic significance of the tourism lies in its positive influence on the different departments of the economy, including agriculture. One of the more important impacts is stopping the migration of people from the rural areas.