Sports tourism is a relatively recent type of tourism, which has grown significantly in recent times. Not all effects of tourism are positive, so the analysis of its sustainability has particular relevance; especially since the publication of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The growing concern about tourism and sustainability makes it essential to examine how scientific research has adapted to new realities. This paper uses bibliometric techniques to investigate research trends related to sports tourism and sustainability. VOSviewer and SciMAT software were used. A total of 214 articles from Web of Science (WoS) indexed journals were analyzed. The results confirmed that interest in the study of these concepts has been growing, especially in the last four years. This is a comparatively new field of research (since 2002), so consolidated relations between thematic areas have yet to be observed, and there is a generally low concentration of authors and journals. Increases in several publications in this area are related to the celebration of mega sporting events or the publication of SDGs. The main contribution of this analysis lies in identifying important research issues, such as education and destination planning, which should continue to be addressed.

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Purpose Tourism sustainability is a challenge for 21st-century destinations – this paper aims to analyse smart destinations' sustainability through a case study of Benidorm, the first world destination to be certified under the UNE 178501 standard as smart tourism destination (STD). Design/methodology/approach The methodological component has been divided into developing a framework for measuring sustainability through economic, social and environmental open data. Moreover, studying the plan's contribution “Benidorm, Destino Turístico Inteligente y Sostenible” to the city's sustainability through a time series analysis. Findings The main contribution shows that Benidorm's transformation into an STD leads to more sustainable cities. Thus, the conversion of Benidorm into an STD has a sustained effect in the medium and long term, contributing to the sustainability of the city. Research limitations/implications An open question as a limitation is the subjectivity of the distribution of the relative weight of each indicator. However, statistical analyses are developed to explore the relationship between indicators and global sustainability. Practical implications The debate to contextualise this paper is bridging the gap between sustainability and tourism intelligence, giving an original framework for measuring destination sustainability that provides a reasonable starting point for comparing tourism sustainability in different destinations. Social implications Tourists in the 21st century prefer environmentally friendly tourism. Marketing campaigns based on destination sustainability must be based on data rather than mere slogans. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the originality of this paper provides a flexible framework for measuring sustainability from open data sources, being one of the first empirical analyses to study the effects on the sustainability of converting a mature destination into an STD.

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) approved the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development to improve the lives of countries and societies. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) incorporated the agenda into the tourism industry. This study has as its primary objective an exploratory analysis of tourism activity in the EU-28 countries over the decade 2009–2018 and its adaptation to the Sustainable Development Goals through the lens of employment. This study focuses on the goals of decent employment and economic growth (O8) and gender equality (O5). The results obtained suggest that, in general, the eastern countries of the EU-28 show better values for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) (8) and SDG (5) with respect to both employment and the wage gap. However, these countries have lower GDP-weighted remunerations, which can become an opportunity to obtain higher shares of tourism activity within the EU. It is concluded that there is a need to reinforce the awareness of the fabric of the tourism business and for public administrations to favor stable and decent employment and a reduction in the current gender wage gap.

The pandemic generated by COVID-19 is one of the most complex challenges humanity has faced in recent years. This study aims to explore the levels of dispositional optimism, resilience and psychological well-being in the sociodemographic and economic situation produced during the state of alarm and to investigate the resilience mediation between optimism and psychological well-being. The sample included 566 volunteers from Spain (73.5% women; M = 40.2 years, SD = 12.8). An ad hoc questionnaire was applied to request socioeconomic data and dispositional optimism (LOT-R). Resilience and psychological well-being were, respectively, evaluated by the Ryff scale and the Wagnild and Young scale. The results show that older and people with higher educational levels are more optimistic and have better psychological well-being. Well-being is also greater in married, divorced and widowed people and in those who have lived in outdoor spaces. However, those with spaced housing were more optimistic. Finally, it was found that the most optimistic people have better psychological well-being and that this is increased by the mediation process exercised by the ability to overcome adversity, provided age and educational level are controlled. It can be concluded that the design of preventive programs focused on improving strengths, positive emotions and skills in the population would be convenient to protect mental health.