Clustering Sustainable Destinations: Empirical Evidence from Selected Mediterranean Countries

Kyriaki Glyptou, Nikos Kalogeras, Dimitrios Skuras and Ioannis Spilanis
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Kyriaki Glyptou: School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QN, UK
Nikos Kalogeras: Sustainable International Business (SIB) Research Center, Faculty of International Business & Communication, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, 6217 HB Maastricht, The Netherlands
Dimitrios Skuras: Department of Economics, University of Patras, GR 26504 Patras, Greece
Ioannis Spilanis: Department of Environmental Studies, University of the Aegean, GR 81100 Mytilene, Greece

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: Within the globalized tourism market, tourism destinations have the option to turn to sustainability as a conceptual and management framework for their unique branding and identity proposition. This research highlights the importance and utility of sustainability branding that stems from clustering tourism destinations based on the similarities of their tourism performance attributes. The study builds on secondary data from 11 coastal destinations in 8 Mediterranean countries. The analysis leads to the formulation of three main sets of evaluation indicators: (a) environmental footprint; (b) destination dependency on tourism; and (c) locals’ prosperity, incorporating elements of social and psychological carrying capacity. Findings identify three to four distinct destination clusters based mainly on the attributes of destinations’ cultural and natural attributes, seasonality of supply, typology of prevailing accommodation and tourist profile. From a theoretical perspective, the research identifies key clustering attributes of sustainable destinations that could inform management interventions around destination branding and competitive sustainability performance positioning.

Keywords: sustainable tourism destinations; sustainability indicators; Mediterranean; clustering; branding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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