The book examines if and how principles of sustainability are translated into public policy through a close analysis of the pattern of tourism policy-making in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. The key vehicle for this study, which focuses in particular on the period between 1992 and 2000, was the first Northern Territory Tourism Development Masterplan (TDMP) and the debates and processes surrounding its genesis and implementation. Taking three different, though complementary, conceptual perspectives the book explores the various ways in which the existing political framework facilitated or hindered the incorporation of principles of sustainable development.