The enjoyment of a holiday has to do with landscape, buildings, people, and their activities. For truly sustainable development, these components need to become better integrated. Ways of achieving this were discussed at the IVth World Health Organization International Conference on Tourist Health, Rimini, Italy, in May 1994. It was agreed that attention to the health enhancing aspects of each component in the built environment is essential. Risks to health from man-made hazards in tourist resorts therefore need to be eliminated where possible, or otherwise minimised, contained or controlled. A systematic approach is outlined here in which owners, managers, operators, workers and users all have responsibilities and in which occupational physicians can contribute.