An Assessment of the Implementation of the European Tourism Indicator System for Sustainable Destinations in Italy

Patrizia Modica, Alessandro Capocchi, Ilaria Foroni and Mariangela Zenga
Additional contact information
Patrizia Modica: Department of Economics and Business, University of Cagliari, Via Sant’Ignazio da Laconi, 70, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Alessandro Capocchi: Department of Business Economics and Law-DiSEADE, University of Milano Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8, 20126 Milano, Italy
Ilaria Foroni: Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8, 20126 Milano, Italy
Mariangela Zenga: Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8, 20126 Milano, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: The European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS) is a product of the European Union (EU) Sustainable Development Strategy, which was formulated with the objectives of promoting economic prosperity, social equity, cohesion, and environmental protection. In this paper, we present an analysis of the results of the implementation of the ETIS during the period 2013–2016, in the Italian tourist destination of South Sardinia. While the implementation of ETIS constitutes a significant advancement in Italy, and more widely in Europe, our findings reveal that an adaptive management approach is necessary for achieving the anticipated objectives and adapting these standardized indicators to different territorial contexts. Difficulties were encountered in both data collection and stakeholders’ involvement in the implementation process. Insufficient knowledge, and familiarity with the complex technical aspects of the indicator toolkit among primary stakeholders, was another constraint associated with its implementation. We believe that the findings of this analysis can provide guidelines and inputs for other European countries and tourist destinations that are currently in the process of implementing the ETIS toolkit or similar methodologies. In particular, the pioneering sustainable tourism performance measurement system (STPMS) can be adapted to meet local needs.

Keywords: tourist destination; sustainable tourism; indicators; European Tourism Indicator System (ETIS); Visit South Sardinia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3160/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3160/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:9:p:3160-:d:167717

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().