IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p15967-d1280788.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Governance of Tourism-Based Social–Ecological Landscapes

Author

Listed:
  • Federica Epifani

    (Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy)

  • Donatella Valente

    (Laboratory of Landscape Ecology, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy)

Abstract

In this research, we intended to develop a tool that is able to support the governance of tourism destinations in pursuing adaptation strategies to face environmental impacts. The Sustainable Tourism Assessment Index (STAI) is a synthetic index suitable to assess a destination’s readiness for the implementation of sustainable tourism development trajectories, and it is characterized by a place-based and holistic approach. STAI has been tested in two specific destinations, Gargano and Grecìa Salentina, both located in Apulia (Italy). The two areas were analyzed based on a set of selected indicators, appropriately adapted from a literature analysis, using data from multi-source scraping and referring to the year 2019. Principal component analysis allowed us to compare the tourism performance of the two areas. STAI was then calculated at the municipality scale on the basis of the values of each variable. According to the results, we argue that STAI is a useful tool for governing tourism destinations, including minor ones, and helps support the implementation of development strategies in accordance with the SDGs. Moreover, it helps in comparing different locations in the same region/country from a different perspective of sustainability, as well as assessing the levels of governance sustainability of a tourism-based socio-ecological destination.

Suggested Citation

  • Federica Epifani & Donatella Valente, 2023. "Sustainable Governance of Tourism-Based Social–Ecological Landscapes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15967-:d:1280788
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15967/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15967/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eleonora Santos, 2023. "From Neglect to Progress: Assessing Social Sustainability and Decent Work in the Tourism Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Damiano De Marchi & Rudy Becarelli & Leonardo Di Sarli, 2022. "Tourism Sustainability Index: Measuring Tourism Sustainability Based on the ETIS Toolkit, by Exploring Tourist Satisfaction via Sentiment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, July.
    3. C. Michael Hall, 2015. "On the mobility of tourism mobilities," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 7-10, January.
    4. Nikola Bošković & Milica Vujičić & Lela Ristić, 2020. "Sustainable tourism development indicators for mountain destinations in the Republic of Serbia," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(22), pages 2766-2778, November.
    5. Yiming Liu & Sunhee Suk, 2021. "Coupling and Coordinating Relationship between Tourism Economy and Ecological Environment—A Case Study of Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Giovanni Liberatore & Paola Biagioni & Camilla Ciappei & Carlo Francini, 2023. "Dealing with uncertainty, from overtourism to overcapacity: a decision support model for art cities: the case of UNESCO WHCC of Florence," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7), pages 1067-1081, April.
    7. Costanza, Robert & Fisher, Brendan & Mulder, Kenneth & Liu, Shuang & Christopher, Treg, 2007. "Biodiversity and ecosystem services: A multi-scale empirical study of the relationship between species richness and net primary production," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 478-491, March.
    8. Andrei-Florin Băbăț & Mirela Mazilu & Amalia Niță & Ionuț-Adrian Drăguleasa & Mihaela Grigore, 2023. "Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Index: From Theoretical Definition to Practical Analysis in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-26, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krzysztof Miśkiewicz, 2024. "Geotourism Product as an Indicator for Sustainable Development in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Alena J. Raymond & James R. Tipton & Alissa Kendall & Jason T. DeJong, 2020. "Review of impact categories and environmental indicators for life cycle assessment of geotechnical systems," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(3), pages 485-499, June.
    3. Elena Ojea & Paulo Nunes & Maria Loureiro, 2010. "Mapping Biodiversity Indicators and Assessing Biodiversity Values in Global Forests," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(3), pages 329-347, November.
    4. Malone, Thomas C. & DiGiacomo, Paul M. & Gonçalves, Emanuel & Knap, Anthony H. & Talaue-McManus, Liana & de Mora, Stephen, 2014. "A global ocean observing system framework for sustainable development," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 262-272.
    5. CRN, Charles Raphael & Filbert Rodrick, 2024. "Reaching Historic Heights of Tourism Arrivals in 2023: Tourists’ Feedback on the Travel and Tourism Pillars’ Quality in Tanzania," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3), pages 1986-1993, March.
    6. Ding, Helen & Nunes, Paulo A.L.D., 2014. "Modeling the links between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human wellbeing in the context of climate change: Results from an econometric analysis of the European forest ecosystems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 60-73.
    7. Paulo A.L.D. Nunes & Elena Ojea & Maria Loureiro, 2009. "Mapping of Forest Biodiversity Values: A Plural Perspective," Working Papers 2009.4, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    8. Ramel, Cindy & Rey, Pierre-Louis & Fernandes, Rui & Vincent, Claire & Cardoso, Ana R. & Broennimann, Olivier & Pellissier, Loïc & Pradervand, Jean-Nicolas & Ursenbacher, Sylvain & Schmidt, Benedikt R., 2020. "Integrating ecosystem services within spatial biodiversity conservation prioritization in the Alps," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    9. Houdet, Joël & Trommetter, Michel & Weber, Jacques, 2012. "Understanding changes in business strategies regarding biodiversity and ecosystem services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 37-46.
    10. Kaur, Harpaljit & Habibullah, Muzafar & Nagaratnam, Shalini, 2019. "Impact of Natural Disasters on Biodiversity: Evidence Using Quantile Regression Approach," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 53(2), pages 67-81.
    11. Halkos, George E., 2011. "Nonparametric modelling of biodiversity: Determinants of threatened species," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 618-635, July.
    12. Zhenyu Qi & Yuezhou You, 2024. "The Impact of the Integration of the Culture Industry and Tourism on Regional Green Development: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-21, April.
    13. Santos-Rojo, Cristina & Llopis-Amorós, Malar & García-García, Juan Manuel, 2023. "Overtourism and sustainability: A bibliometric study (2018–2021)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    14. Chen, Haojie, 2020. "Complementing conventional environmental impact assessments of tourism with ecosystem service valuation: A case study of the Wulingyuan Scenic Area, China," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    15. Trespeuch Léo & Robinot Élisabeth, 2023. "Exploring the Impact of Corporate Philanthropy on Brand Authenticity in the Luxury Industry: Scale Development and Empirical Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-21, August.
    16. Xiao Hu & Yujie He & Ze Kong & Jiang Zhang & Minshu Yuan & Le Yu & Changhui Peng & Qiuan Zhu, 2021. "Evaluation of Future Impacts of Climate Change, CO 2 , and Land Use Cover Change on Global Net Primary Productivity Using a Processed Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
    17. Joanna Fidelus-Orzechowska & Magdalena Sitarz & Maria Król, 2024. "Change Patterns between 1993 and 2023 and Effects of COVID-19 on Tourist Traffic in Tatra National Park (Poland)," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.
    18. Zhongwei Guo & Lin Zhang & Yiming Li, 2010. "Increased Dependence of Humans on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-8, October.
    19. Susaeta, Andres & Gutiérrez, Ester & Lozano, Sebastián, 2023. "Profit-efficiency analysis of forest ecosystem services in the southeastern US," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Valencia Torres, Angélica & Tiwari, Chetan & Atkinson, Samuel F., 2021. "Progress in ecosystem services research: A guide for scholars and practitioners," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15967-:d:1280788. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.