Search Results (49)

In response to the global goal of carbon neutrality, the tourism industry faces mounting pressure to reduce emissions. Characteristic towns that rely on traditional, high-emission models urgently require low-carbon tourism transformation strategies to meet environmental targets while preserving cultural heritage and economic vitality. This study investigates the low-carbon transition pathways of tourism in characteristic towns, using the three-dimensional impact mechanism of tourists, residents, and enterprises as a conceptual entry point. Drawing on empirical research conducted in Zhouzhuang and Tongli—two ancient towns in Suzhou—the study identifies key drivers and barriers to the development of low-carbon tourism. Results indicate that the overall low-carbon transformation score for Suzhou’s characteristic towns is 63.3, suggesting a moderate level of progress. Specifically, Zhouzhuang scored 66.9, while Tongli lagged behind at 57.6, highlighting notable disparities in transition efforts. The study applies multi-agent game theory and system dynamics to analyze the interactive mechanisms among tourists, residents, and enterprises in the low-carbon transition. Our findings reveal that tourists’ low-carbon consumption behaviors, residents’ environmental awareness, and enterprises’ green investments significantly influence the transition process. Further analysis using a chain mediation model shows that policy support positively affects low-carbon outcomes by promoting enterprise investment and influencing resident behavior. The study’s innovation lies in its development of an integrated analytical framework that captures the dynamic interplay among multiple stakeholders, offering a comprehensive perspective on low-carbon tourism transformation in characteristic towns. This study contributes to the sustainable tourism literature and provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners working toward carbon neutrality in tourism destinations. Full article

This study probes the complex interplay between tourism development (TDI), economic growth (GDP), and environmental sustainability, focusing on the ten most influential tourism nations: China, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany, Turkey, Spain, the United States, and Russia, covering the time from 1994 to 2023. This study uses feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) together with Driscoll–Kraay (DK) and panel quantile regression (PaQR) to examine the environmental as well as economic effects of TDI combined with trade openness (TOPE), foreign direct investment (FDI), energy prices (EPS), and population density (POPD). All models show that tourism development, indicated by TDI, and economic growth increase carbon emissions, demonstrating these variables’ adverse environmental impact. Energy prices, trade openness, and foreign direct investment lead to decreased emissions because these factors help promote energy-efficient clean technology. Furthermore, GDP growth positively influences TDI, while excessive carbon emissions negatively impact the appeal of tourism. The results indicate the need for sustainable tourism policies and investment in clean energy and green infrastructure, aligned with SDG 9, to foster innovation in energy-efficient practices and infrastructure. The research also supports SDG 13 by advocating climate-resilient tourism models and policies that decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. By adopting various advanced econometric approaches, this study provides strong evidence on the relationship between tourism, the macroeconomy, and environmental results. It offers fresh insights on how to achieve the growth of tourism and climate protection at the world’s top tourist destinations. Full article

This study used Chinese data to discover the causal relationship between the cultural and historical preservation and foreign tourism consumption and development. China has increased its cultural and historical protection investments and has made significant efforts in terms of environmental protection after economic growth. Tourism as an industry that develops with local environmental protection while providing economic growth is believed to be highly sustainable and attractive for many provinces to restructure their economic growth in China. This research uses empirical data from 2011 to 2019 and the regression method to show that cultural investment and environmental protection efforts have increased the amount of foreign visitors as well as the destination’s image and reputation. The results show that more cultural tourism resources and larger protection investments lead to greater tourism consumption. The cultural and historical protections have attracted foreign visitors from countries with completely different cultural backgrounds than China, particularly visitors from countries geographically far from China. Furthermore, the local service and hospitality industry grows with the development of tourism, and green innovation policies, which improve the local environment, increase tourism motivation, and develop the local economy by increasing foreign tourism consumption. This study contributes to the literature by connecting regional preservation, tourism development, and green innovation and motivates future policy decisions by demonstrating that the green policy effect stimulates tourism development; such development could alleviate the negative impact of the green innovation process on economic structural changes. Further details of cultural and historical interests from foreign visitors could aid in better understanding the tourism demand and increasing a destination’s reputation. Full article

This study explores visitor perceptions and behaviors regarding sustainable tourism in Brighton, focusing on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability across key tourism sectors, including Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), Tour Operators (TOs) and Travel Agencies (TAs), and accommodation and transportation sectors. Using the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism this study identifies critical areas for improvement and proposes a comprehensive model to enhance the sustainability and resilience of the city’s tourism supply chain. The findings reveal that certain stakeholders in the tourism supply chain are highly regarded for their community engagement and sustainability efforts, while others are seen as needing more focus on social responsibility and community engagement. Some areas show significant gaps in environmental sustainability, while others excel in economic performance but lack integration of environmental and social considerations. The final model integrates targeted approaches to address sustainability gaps across Statistical Framework for Measuring Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST) scales. It emphasizes the need for community-focused initiatives and effective visitor management to enhance social and environmental sustainability. Economic aspects are addressed through partnerships aimed at promoting sustainable transport and implementing green certification practices. Additionally, the model highlights the importance of inclusive economic programs and transparency to strengthen the social and economic dimensions of sustainability. The integrated model advocates for a holistic, optimized tourism supply chain management approach, ensuring sustainable practices across all sectors. This research contributes actionable insights for policy and destination management, promoting a balanced approach to economic growth, environmental preservation, and community well-being in Brighton’s tourism landscape Full article

Ecotourism represents a modern form of tourism that accepts the principles of sustainable development and the adequacy of the conditions of tourist destinations. The environmental awareness of all parties participating in tourism, objects, and subjects of tourism determines the development of ecotourism. Ecohotels, or “green hotels”, as an integral part of ecotourism, represent tourist accommodation facilities that have the “The Flower” certificate, their business activities minimize the impact on environmental quality. The management of ecohotels therefore implements programs and measures determining sustainable competitiveness at the local, regional, and supra-regional levels in the business in interaction with reducing the carbon footprint, water consumption, energy consumption, and waste production. They also support the use of recyclable materials and bio-products and the introduction of environmental management respecting the principles of green management in all areas of the tourism business. The competitiveness of ecohotels is in interaction with the willingness of tourists to use their pro-environmental services. The presented study is focused on the willingness of tourists to use the services of ecohotels, with an emphasis on identifying an effective strategy for supporting the development of ecotourism in the Slovak Republic. The study concentrates on the willingness of tourists to use ecohotels as part of their tourist activities based on a questionnaire survey. The study identifies the factors of strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats of the use of ecohotels by tourists in supporting the development of ecotourism. Through the exact quantification of the weights of individual factors in terms of Saaty’s matrix and a SWOT analysis, an effective strategy for the use of ecohotels in supporting the development of ecotourism is defined. In recent years, the stimulation and use of tourists’ interest in environmental quality, with an emphasis on reducing negative impacts on the environment, has resonated; thus, a model of effective marketing strategy is presented. Full article

Swimming pools are key assets in the hotel industry. With climate change and water stress, more sustainable pools are needed in tourist areas. The study examines the relationship between hotel categories and the consumption of water in swimming pools in a Mediterranean coastal region facing water scarcity. The study focuses on the Costa Brava, with a focus on Lloret de Mar, a popular tourist destination. The research employs a combination of data analysis and the utilisation of evaporation models in order to estimate the consumption of water by swimming pools. The findings indicate that hotels in the higher categories, particularly those with three or four stars, contribute a notable proportion of the total water consumption due to their larger pool sizes and higher guest numbers. The study underscores the necessity for the implementation of sustainable water management strategies, particularly in the context of climate change. It recommends the utilisation of pool water-saving technologies as potential solutions. Furthermore, the paper highlights the broader environmental impact of tourism infrastructure on water resources and suggests policy measures to mitigate these effects. The research aligns with global sustainability goals such as the European Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda. Full article

The main purpose of this study was to reveal the relationships between green purchasing intention, sustainability consciousness, environmental attitude, and ecotourism experience within the scope of the theory of planned behaviour. The results of the analysis showed that there are positive relationships between sustainability consciousness, environmental attitude, ecotourism experience, and green purchasing intention. The model was tested using SPSS with 435 survey responses. Tourists with a higher consciousness of sustainability develop positive attitudes toward the environment. Tourists with positive attitudes toward the environment intend to purchase more green products. However, while tourists with more ecotourism experience have stronger green purchasing intentions, less ecotourism experience does not affect green purchasing intentions. This study highlights the critical role of sustainability consciousness in shaping environmental attitudes and behaviours. Full article

The allure of urban green spaces has captured the attention of researchers, especially in regions abundant in botanical wonders worldwide. Surprisingly, the case of Morocco, a country with a strong botanical tradition, has received little attention from researchers. Here, we explore the unique case of the emblematic “Majorelle Garden” in Marrakech, southern Morocco, through the reviews of its many visitors posted on the TripAdvisor platform. This article looks at the question “to what extent can a garden—such as the Majorelle—be a major attraction in a cultural tourist destination?”. Methodologically, we adopted a quantitative approach, examining visitors’ sentiments using the VADER tool from 2006 to 2023, and classifying them into three categories: negative, neutral, and positive. Furthermore, by utilizing LDA (latent dirichlet allocation), we uncover key topics running through visitors’ experiences. Our findings show that positive sentiments prevail, given the culturo-historical and symbolic quality of the garden as a crucible and vector of creativity, with the emergence of sub-corpuses that highlight certain divergences and convergences around the “Majorelle” case. This insight supports sustainability efforts by empowering the managers of the garden studied and industry professionals to develop and implement relevant strategies for managing and marketing the garden tourism attraction experience. In addition, this case study shows how a private urban garden reveals its key role in preserving cultural and botanical heritage, essential for future generations. It shows the garden’s positive impact on sustainable tourism through its ability to attract cultural visitors who appreciate and respect the local environment. Full article

This research focuses on the proposal of a corridor design that allows social and ecological integration in the context of a city with emerging potential as a tourist destination in Chinchero, Cusco. Key challenges addressed include lack of infrastructure to manage growing tourism demand, fragmentation of social identity, displacement of the local population due to gentrification processes, uncontrolled urban sprawl, and inappropriate exploitation of natural, cultural, and agricultural lands. To address these issues, a comprehensive diagnosis was carried out covering various urban-environmental dimensions, such as topography, road infrastructure, archeology, climate, and biodiversity. In this process, digital tools such as Blender, AutoCAD, Photoshop, and Affinity Designer were used. As a result of the analysis, an urban green corridor is proposed consisting of seven sectors covering the shores of the Piuray lagoon, the city center, and its archeological area, through the creation of socially active public spaces equipped with cultural, sports, and recreational facilities. The city of Chinchero, with its growing importance as a tourist destination, presents the opportunity and the need to develop a controlled urban development axis that promotes the connection between environmental, cultural, archeological, social, and tourism aspects. This objective is materialized in the form of a green corridor that seeks to promote social integration and a sense of territorial belonging. Full article

Green tourism is part of the global effort to create a more sustainable living environment, taking into account the needs of both the industry, the tourists and the local communities. CCIs are considered trustworthy ambassadors of authenticity and life values, and can therefore effectively promote and/or strengthen the ecological value. This paper focuses on the role that cultural and creative industries (CCIs) can play in the implementation of sustainable development, especially in regard to green tourism, focusing on their role as communicators of green messages. The methodological tools used for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data for this research include semiotic analysis in a number of CCIs’ products, coding their ecological messages; content analysis of the CCIs’ digital posts for a one-year period in order to examine the form, types and content of the communication; and a digital ethnography of the users’ comments in order to study the perception and interaction of the receivers of such messages, focusing on past, present and potential tourists. Through the case study of Greece—a well-known tourist destination with rich cultural resources—the author tries to answer to the following research questions: (a) Could green tourism be promoted as a life value through CCIs’ products and messages? (b) Are there any good and innovative practices for such promotion through the synergy of the tourism industry with CCIs that could be used as models for further cases? This paper concludes that CCIs can promote sustainability as a life value through role modeling, educational programs, and subconscious or more straightforward messages, using both their products and formal communication channels. The more successful way for Greek CCIs to promote green tourism is through synergies with official tourism promotion mechanisms. The research shows that in many cases, this linkage has been successful in a number of ways. Full article

In recent years, the tourism industry has developed rapidly. However, traditional tourism information has the disadvantages of slow response speed and limited information content, which cannot reflect the evolution trend of spatial and temporal patterns of tourism information in time. Here, based on the Baidu Index, we construct an evaluation framework to analyse the spatial and temporal flow of tourism information in the Chengdu–Chongqing urban cluster from 2011 to 2021. Then, we analyse the urban links between different network levels from the evolution pattern. Finally, we use the geodetector model to analyse its driving mechanism. The results show that Chengdu and Chongqing are the most active cities in the study area in terms of tourism information. The unbalanced development of tourism information between Chengdu and Chongqing and other cities in the region gradually deepens during the period 2011–2019 (polarization effect), but the unbalanced development moderates after 2019. On the other hand, cities in the middle of the Chengdu–Chongqing cluster always have weak agglomeration effects of tourism information. Cities with high tourism information outflow rates in the Chengdu–Chongqing city cluster are mainly concentrated around Chengdu. The average outflow rate of Deyang is the highest, at 27.8%. Cities with low tourist information outflow rates are primarily located in the west, central and south. Ya’an is the city with the lowest outflow rate, with an average of −62.2%. Specifically, Chengdu is the dominant and most radiantly influential city. The tourism information of the Chengdu–Chongqing urban cluster shows a radial network with Chengdu and Chongqing as the core. The driving force analysis shows that the push factor of tourist source, such as the number of people buying pension insurance, is the core driving mechanism, while the pull factor of destination, such as the park green area, and resistance factors such as psychological distance, are in the secondary position. In general, this paper uses Internet tourism data to expand the traditional tourism information research of the Chengdu–Chongqing urban cluster, which can better respond to the changes and needs of the tourism market and provide reference for the spatial optimization of tourism destinations. Full article

Sustainability in tourism is a goal and a path that must take into account the needs of visitors, the tourism sector, and communities, as well as the environmental, economic, and social impacts now and in the future. Sustainable tourism must make appropriate use of its territory and natural resources. The green tourism attraction of walkways is becoming very popular worldwide and needs to be studied, particularly in Portugal. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has profoundly changed consumers’ relationships with tourism. This scientific paper, which has a markedly theoretical and exploratory character, examines the concept of green tourism, highlighting its distinctive characteristics, the environmental and socioeconomic benefits associated with this approach, and strategies for its successful implementation. It also discusses case studies of destinations, worldwide and in Portugal, that have adopted green tourism as an effective strategy for sustainable tourism development. The main conclusions explain that the walkways function as a sustainable tourism system in their economic, sociocultural, and environmental aspects, with a profound impact on the surrounding are, and the Paiva Walkways correspond to the best sustainability practices in terms of green tourism, promoting the participation and involvement of communities in their activities, creating public–private partnerships that add value and share the same values of sustainability, as well as seeking environmental certifications. Full article

Against the backdrop of increasing concern for the environment, tourism activities have had a mixed impact. For example, in the field of marketing communications, the last few years have seen many companies promoting “green” tourism. In this context, this article aims to identify the group(s) focused on green tourism or sustainable development in order to predict their future trends. To achieve this objective, quantitative research was conducted based on an online survey distributed through social media. Several objectives were considered in the research, focusing on the behavior of the respondents, the decisive elements in choosing a destination, the analysis of socio-demographic characteristics, and the identification of groups oriented to the practice of green tourism. Univariate analysis was applied to the collected data (to identify the most appropriate variables for clustering) and multivariate analysis (using three types of methods: Ward, Centroid, and Two-Step Cluster). The following results emerged from the research analysis: characteristics of each segment in relation to question nine and profiles of all segments, of which the most representative (two, five, and six) stand out. The segments extracted with Ward’s method were created by the authors to highlight the most important characteristics: Smilers, Ecologists, Villagers, Relaxed, Luxury, Ecotourists, and Jobless. The research results contribute to a deeper understanding of Romanian customers’ needs when choosing a green destination, but also support the business community by providing economic actors with access to data to segment their solutions and services offered to customers, as well as the possibility to develop tailored products/services. The study represents a new approach to tourism and ‘green marketing’ in Romania by being the only one that shows to interested parties the seven specific consumer segments for the green tourism market in Romania, one that approaches the two fields in close connection. The results represent a significant theoretical advance for travel and tourism studies and provide valuable insights into the green tourism sector. Full article

Under the dual background of climate change and post-epidemic economic recovery, the study of the eco-efficiency of tourism destinations in the process of urbanization is critical to promoting the green and healthy development of tourism. This paper selects tourism destinations in 30 provinces of China in 2000–2019 as the research object, calculates the economic efficiency and eco-efficiency of China’s tourism destinations by constructing the Super-SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) model and visualizes the spatial distribution pattern and evolution trend of economic efficiency and eco-efficiency of China’s tourism destinations through spatial hotspot and center of gravity analysis. The coupling model is used to find the coupling relationship between the efficiency of China’s tourism destinations (economic efficiency and eco-efficiency) and urbanization. Finally, Tobit panel regression is used to find out how urbanization affects the eco-efficiency of tourism destinations. The results show that: (1) the eco-efficiency of tourism destinations in China is higher than the economic efficiency, as well as showing a downward trend. (2) The economic efficiency of tourism destinations in western China has increased while the eco-efficiency has declined. (3) China’s tourism destinations are undergoing the process of transformation and restructuring, and have not yet reached the decoupling standard. (4) On the whole, the improvement in urbanization is conducive to promoting the economic and environmentally sustainable development of tourism destinations. The main driving indicators are the living standards for urban residents, urban resources and environment, the industrial structure, and the role of the government. This study attempts to find a balance between the economic benefits and ecological impacts of tourism destinations and alleviate the real demand for the rapid economic recovery of tourism destinations in the post-epidemic era and the tension between human activities and the ecological environment. The research results are expected to provide a path for the healthy development of tourism destinations in the process of China’s new urbanization and provide a reference for tourism destinations in developing countries similar to China. Full article

Forest-bathing experiences can be seen as guided recreational activities led by non-clinical trained practitioners in the context of green, slow, and mindful tourism. Notwithstanding its growing practice, there is a lack of research on the psychological benefits which can help support nature-based tourism destination managers in unlocking the potential of this emerging tourism demand. This study will fill in this gap by testing the hypothesis that a three-day forest-bathing retreat, which fits with the most common type of holidays in Europe, will enhance positive affect, vitality, optimism, and gratitude as indicators of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Forty-four adults were involved in the residential program and filled-in self-report questionnaires before and after the experience to assess the well-being dimensions considered. Results showed a significant increase for all the assessed variables. We conclude that forest bathing as a mindful tourism practice carried out in natural settings dominated by forests can favor hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, thus becoming a potential source of attractiveness for nature-based touristic destinations, but more transdisciplinary efforts are needed to exploit this potential. In particular, research gaps still exist in Europe on cause–effect relations between forest features and psychological benefits, how forests could be managed to guarantee these benefits to the advantage of a tourism destination, and how tourism and forest management sectors could collaborate in this direction. Full article