The slow tourism movement is gaining popularity as more destinations focus on the local environment and heritage experience. The approach to slow tourism usually occurs either when traditional destinations exhaust their life cycle with an evident reduction in sustainability, or when newly emerging destinations decide to develop in this way. The case of Madeira is different; the island has several decades of tourism development without excessive pressure or overcrowding, and in planning for the future it wants to sustain these conditions. Seeking to understand Madeira’s perception of the development model, we surveyed entrepreneurs in Madeira’s lodging, restaurant and bar, shopping, transportation, intermediation, and tourist activity industries, as well as its public sector. Even without having encountered the popularized the ideas of slow tourism, Madeira’s tourism entrepreneurs show significant alignment with the values of quieter tourism. In contrast to its mature counterparts (i.e., Europe’s other popular sun and beach destinations), for Madeira it is not a question of destroying or rehabilitating, but rather of continuing sustainable development processes. Our results suggest that although slow tourism is typically a reaction to a very advanced phase of the life cycle, it can be the result of an endogenous impulse, as is true for Madeira.
Tourism is emphasized as one of the sectors with the greatest potential for expansion on a global scale; therefore, it is important to understand related factors regarding tourism planning and sustainability. The main contribution of this study is to identify research trends linked to the keywords, respective gaps and specific needs for future scientific research within the research field of tourism planning and sustainable development. Using VOSviewer Software and applying bibliometric techniques, visualization maps of the intellectual structure were created for a systematic review of the literature. The number of articles published and the number of annual citations for the period 1997 to 2017 of the Web of Science database were used for this purpose. The results draw attention to multiple research clusters focused on the intellectual structure of tourism planning and sustainable development.
There were few previsions to strongly expand the growth of scuba diving activity, and nowadays training standards are enforced for safety and also for respecting the natural space where dive tourism takes place. Based on literature review, environmental impacts were noted in terms of providing positive aspects, mainly represented by economic benefits and employment opportunities. The negative side was revealed by wildlife impacts whereby animals change their behavior due harassment or contact with nature-based users, with authors reporting their concerns and measuring the consequences and long-term learning impacts. The over-usage of the reefs can result in physical devastation and chemical contamination. Land development in support of scuba diving can also cause negative impacts and affect the surrounding infrastructure, with alternating living patterns and by creating economic differences among the local society. When dive techniques are mastered, scuba diving itself does not represent a threat to the environment, neither to marine animals, but bad dive practices, poor buoyancy control associated to the lack of awareness can contribute to damage the benthic zone. Divers physical impact on the reef can benefit some species looking for opportunity to feed or compete for space, although, it destroys the habitat and lifting up sediment affect negatively coral structures by inducing stress and reducing the average amount of light.
The Laurisilva of Madeira is an important natural resource as well as a location for nature-based tourism and recreational activities. Despite UNESCO’s concerns and recommendations for assessing tourism capacity, the local population is perceived as overusing this resource; yet precisely how many tourists visit its most popular areas remains unknown. Tourism carrying capacity (TCC) was assessed on two Rabaçal trails using a specific formulation relating physical aspects to environmental correction factors. Tourism carrying capacity was found to be below theoretical limits, and trail access was not restricted despite being a major concern in natural resource management.
Sustainable development raises various challenges in terms of UPR for putting public policies into effect, and the concept, namely about the definition of metrics, is adapted to small parcels of territory. The objective of the present study is to introduce an alphanumeric reading scale for the tourism sustainability indicators in UPR, to be precise, Madeira and the Azores to allow a better interpretation and understanding. A total of 25 indicators were compared in the last 5 years and with the COVID-19 pandemic, although there are positive performances, a lack of data was observed for some indicators, and some lack of information in the last 2 years or more. During the last 5 years, the pillar of environmental sustainability has maintained its ideal form, but in comparison with the last 2 years, it has moved to critical status, which is in part a consequence of the lack of recorded data. There are indicators that are not registered on the UPR and some data from Turismo de Portugal refer only to the mainland zone. The major implication is raised in terms of the existing indicator systems, which are not all provided periodically, influencing the interpretation of the indicators of Portuguese UPR. Consequently, assertive, sustainable decisions are difficult to be taken based on non-existent or insufficient data.
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