Tourism Development in Italian Natural Protected Areas: Traditional and Innovative Tools to Face Overtourism and Other Possible Negative Effects

Today natural protected areas are frequently successful tourist destinations worldwide. However, because of their nature and functions, they should develop sustainable forms of tourism and avoid attracting mass tourism. For this reason and also because the green tourism segment is growing very fast, the management of protected areas has to face several problems linked to different aspects of tourism sustainability. In fact, together with tourism development, what can arise is overtourism and its consequences, such as environmental damages, negative reactions of the local community, or other sustainability problems. As for socio-cultural sustainability, it is related to the impact of tourism development on the socio-cultural fabric of the place and the optimization of the relationship between hosts and guests. Overtourism is probably the most problematic aspect to evaluate, predict and plan in terms of possible negative impact on the natural and social-cultural environment. In the paper, the authors will identify and describe the variables that could significantly influence tourism sustainability in green destinations, above all in protected natural areas. They will present the case of Tremiti Islands Marine Reserve in order to identify and analyze the more effective instruments that can be used to cope with these problems in a natural protected area, considering the various aims and expectations of the stakeholders involved. Qualitative research is conducted interviewing different categories of stakeholders. Findings identify tools to prevent harmful behavior and for monitoring the impact of tourist flows and the traditional and innovative measuring instruments to reduce the impact of the flows of visitors which are on Tremiti Islands.