Conceptualising Tourism Sustainability and Operationalising Its Assessment: Evidence from a Mediterranean Community of Projects

Spyros Niavis, Theodora Papatheochari, Yannis Psycharis, Josep Rodriguez, Xavier Font and Anna Martinez Codina
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Spyros Niavis: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
Theodora Papatheochari: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
Yannis Psycharis: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
Josep Rodriguez: Tourism Technical Office, Barcelona Provincial Council, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Xavier Font: Tourism Technical Office, Barcelona Provincial Council, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Anna Martinez Codina: Tourism Technical Office, Barcelona Provincial Council, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: Sustainable tourism development is considered an essential challenge for improving resource management in coastal and maritime areas. In this context, various initiatives have been developed for facilitating the assessment and monitoring of tourism sustainability. Nevertheless, the perception of sustainability varies across different tourism stakeholders, since they approach tourism development under different perspectives while the issue of data availability has been a great barrier in measuring sustainability. The present paper examines the perceptions of sustainability observed over a Community of projects with the common aim of enhancing coastal and maritime tourism sustainability at the Mediterranean. Based on surveys, the Community of projects conceptualizes sustainability, reveals their own strategies in operationalizing sustainability assessment and evaluates the usefulness and the main gaps of various sustainability assessment toolkits. The findings of the study signify that tourism sustainability is a broad concept allowing for different interpretations. The assessment of sustainability seems to be affected by the perception and weight attributed to the economic, social, environmental, and governance pillar of sustainability by each project. Finally, the applicability of international assessment toolkits could be questioned as these do not reflect the objectives of the projects and tailored made approaches are considered as essential for operationalizing sustainability assessments.

Keywords: tourism sustainability assessment; perceived ease of use; perceived usefulness; Mediterranean; indicators; Destination Management Organisations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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