This paper presents the background thinking to a CRC for Sustainable Tourism project that develops social and socio-economic indicators for tourism communities. The project emanates from the Green Globe 21 Standard that incorporates indicators for the environmental impact of tourism and seeks to develop other indicators. The paper provides the theoretical background to the concept of sustainable tourism and examines the preliminary findings of the key themes from some exploratory research. It examines the main literature in the field, extracts the key themes and "tests" these against the exploratory research undertaken. The paper concludes with a potential list of indicators to be used for measuring the social and socio-economic impacts of tourism on communities.