Sustainability as a key driver to address challenges

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to address the paradigm changes currently affecting tourism: the increasingly recognisable signs of irreversible climate change and the consequences of this and overtourism for service providers, destinations and tourists’ experiences. A more specific objective was to identify good practices carried out by destinations and companies in different tourism sectors to increase sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The research involved examining the academic, institutional and trade literature to develop an overview of the most important challenges and an accurate portrayal of how innovative and proactive companies and destination managers are addressing these issues. Findings Increased tourism demand has contributed to social and environmental unsustainability in tourism. Although the tourism sector has already implemented sustainable initiatives, an accurate quantification and measurement of these practices’ real impacts on global tourism’s sustainability is not yet possible. Originality/value This study’s value arises from the systematic identification of the implications of climate change and overtourism as major features of a paradigm shift in tourism. This paper also presents a set of good practices to provide tourism stakeholders with more sustainable strategies and inspire these entities to adopt appropriate measures.

Overtourism: A Literature Review to Assess Implications and Future Perspectives

“…In this framework, according to Veiga and colleagues [43], overtourism can be said to occur when too many visitors or tourists arrive in a particular place at the same time [44,45]. Thus, for Veiga et al [43], overtourism is strictly connected to the problem of mass tourism saturation that exists in many destinations worldwide, diminishing the quality of life of residents and creating negative experiences for tourists. It is argued, therefore, that overtourism has only become an important media topic in the last decade because of criticism and demonstrations led by social movements in various European cities [46,47].…”

“…Linked to the case of Venice, Veiga et al [43] chronicle how overtourism may come about through two main phenomena: (1) the impact of cruise tourism on sustainability and the environment and (2) the fact that the growing demand for accommodation in residential areas has had an adverse impact on social sustainability [45]. In their analysis, the authors contribute to the doctrinal debate explaining how companies and destinations can mitigate the impacts of climate change and the phenomenon of overtourism, identifying a number of good practices carried out by destination managers and companies in different tourism sectors.…”

“…Within this common framework, according to Veiga et al [43], in a bid to address the problem of overtourism, different destinations have developed distinct approaches, ranging from legal measures to limit or prohibit the expansion of tourism in already-congested areas and reduce the impact on residents' access to housing facilities to the adoption of technologies that monitor and manage tourism flows. The latter new technologies are also used to communicate with tourists in real time in order to provide information and suggest alternative attractions.…”

Tourism Research on Sustainability: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Tourism highly contributes to the carbon emissions linked to tourist transport, waste generation, etc. [58][59][60]. In this regard, there are articles assessing and making suggestions to mitigate these effects [61][62][63][64].…”

Reasons and Consequences of Overtourism in Contemporary Cities—Knowledge Gaps and Future Research

“…Growth-centric strategies of tourism development in particular cities led to another tragic mistake, which was opening doors of coastal cities for cruise tourism too wide. For many years, Venice was presented as a "perfect" example of a destructive impact of overdeveloped cruise tourism on the city's sustainable development, including influence on environment, citizens and tourists [6,16,26,27,31]. After the tremendous success of Game of Thrones being shot partly in Dubrovnik, this city is perceived as even more strongly "infected" by overtourism and, in particular, by cruise tourism [6].…”