*4.3. Enabling Conditions*

Realising tourism's potential in the green economy requires a number of enabling mechanisms that provide appropriate instruments for achieving sustainable development. Government administrations' involvement through implementing development plans and strategies is key in this process. In this area, the narrative review highlights the importance of studies on green governance, planning and roadmap strategy design (Law et al. 2016; Koide and Akenji 2017; Loia et al. 2021) and the development of green marketing practices in tourism (Hanna et al. 2018; Temperini et al. 2012).

Regarding the private sector, the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility exemplifies the leading role of tourism businesses in the goal of sustainable development. This is especially the case for small businesses, as the predominance of small and medium-sized enterprises in tourism, their central role in human activities and their

growing importance in sustainable tourism development suggest that these entities can help tourist destinations move towards sustainability goals (Toubes et al. 2021).

A considerable number of research studies focus on the adoption of quality certifications (eco-certification and eco-labelling programmes). These certificates follow certain standards; for example, the ISO has established a number of general global quality and environmental management standards for manufacturing and service industries that are also applied in the hospitality industry, such as ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management), OHSAS 18001 (occupational health and safety) and ISO 22000 (food safety standard). In general, the benefits of green certification in tourism to environmentally sustainable growth are acknowledged in the research (Lebe and Vreˇcko 2015), mainly in the application of eco-certification in international tourist hotels (Chen 2019; Bandara et al. 2018; Abdou et al. 2020; Triši´c et al. 2021). Voluntary compliance of tourism businesses with sustainability certification is also a way to gain competitiveness against local competitors (Panzer-Krause 2017; DeBoer et al. 2017).

Several studies address consumers and users' perceptions regarding the application of the requirements of a green economy (Lucrezi et al. 2017; Lee et al. 2016; Tao and Chen 2016). This research explores the adoption of green measures in hotels and holiday apartments, the growth in consumer demand for green tourism products and services and tourists' willingness to pay an extra for these services (Nelson et al. 2021; Fudurich and Mackay 2020). The role of green human resource practices (training, empowerment and rewarding for pro-environmental behaviors) in fostering employees' green recovery performance is also a key element that makes an appreciable contribution to maintaining or restoring environmental quality (Luu 2018; Pham et al. 2019; Nhamo 2010)].

The green economy could contribute to human wellbeing by fostering a more holistic approach to tourism development, quality oriented, cautious and compliant with social and environmental factors, more humanized and committed to protecting the cultural and natural values of the territories. The implementation of a new model of sustainable and circular tourism will only be possible with the involvement of all the actors that make up the economy and are interconnected: public administrations, businesses, tourists and the local community.

#### *4.4. Gaps in Existing Studies for Potential Future Research*

A central debate is on the compatibility of a green economy's objective with indiscriminate economic growth. Some authors argue for the need for major changes and a global economic structure that ensures environmental boundaries are not transgressed (Stroebel 2015). A genuine green economic future for tourism is based on the idea of steady-state economics. Steady-state tourism is a tourism system that encourages qualitative development but not aggregate quantitative growth to the detriment of natural capital (Hall 2010). According to this approach, the focus of responding to climate and environmental change must be on development, which is a measure of quality, rather than growth, which is a measure of quantitative change. The COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the greater need to address changes to achieve a true green economy (Gössling et al. 2020).

As early as 1973, Schumacher (1973) concluded that government efforts should focus on sustainable development. The bioregional economy also focuses on strengthening local values and resources, such as local businesses, training local workers, improving the natural and cultural environment, to achieve a better place to live (Cato 2013). Holden (2013) argued that routine measures are not enough to address the environmental challenges facing the tourism industry, and that without a stronger environmental ethic in the market, it will be difficult to impose controls on tourist behaviour designed for environmental conservation. Therefore, there is a need for further research on ethical issues and to deepen the debate on social justice, inequities in global trade and the risk of "greenwashing" (Hall 2015; Newton 2015).

Deepening the sustainability challenges and effects of climate change is also an important area for future research. Specifically, the urgency of implementing climate change

mitigation and adaptation measures to minimize the harmful impact on ecosystems and biodiversity on which personal and economic well-being depends. There is strong evidence that the global tourism system is highly wasteful of resources and that significant mitigation efforts in addressing climate change would have no overall negative economic effect (Gössling 2020). Understanding the implications of climate change for a destination requires developing an integrated systems approach that holistically considers supply and demand effects and adaptation options. Future research must also consider how climate change will interact with other major influencing variables in the tourism sector, such as fuel prices, increasing travel safety and health concerns, aging populations in industrialised countries, increased environmental and cultural awareness, advances in transportation technology and environmental constraints, water supply and pollution, among others.

Finally, significant gaps in knowledge remain about how environmental effects and measures are perceived. We find that the study of tourists and visitors' environmental behaviour is a research area that needs to be addressed in order to more accurately estimate potential changes in long-term tourism demand.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, D.R.T.; methodology, N.A.-V.; validation, D.R.T.; formal analysis, D.R.T.; investigation, D.R.T. and N.A.-V.; resources, N.A.-V.; data curation, N.A.-V.; writing original draft preparation, D.R.T.; writing—review and editing, D.R.T. and N.A.-V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


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