Sustainable Urban Tourism

Dear Colleagues,

2017 was the United Nations International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. For 30 years, sustainable development has been an important topic in the policy and scientific discourse on tourism. Still, a number of studies indicate that tourism is arguably less sustainable—however, we choose to conceptualize and measure it. A core environmental challenge has proven to be the increase in tourism mobility, particularly that of aviation mobility. Further, due to the highly amorphous nature of tourism, it has proven highly challenging to operationalise and measure the social, cultural and environmental impact of tourism.

Urban tourism is the fastest growing form of tourism, and it stands out from other types of tourism in that people travel to places with a high population density, that time spent at the destination usually is shorter than normally spent on vacation, and that cities host a relatively large number of business and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions). In addition to being important destinations, cities have a significant role in the overall tourist system, by being gateways for international and domestic tourists, as well as being nodes in air transport systems and therefore acting as a place for stopovers in trips with multiple destinations. Further, as cities are multifunctional entities, tourists’ motivation for going can differ greatly. This multifunctionality allows for different experiences to be lived contemporarily, contributing to making the connection between urbanity, mobility, sustainability and tourism complex. As tourists’ and residents’ desires and needs intersect, cities face different demands for services and facilities. While cities are more dynamic and resilient than rural destinations, increasing tourist numbers can compromise the balance between different user-groups, possibly reducing urban quality of life. This can be observed in multiple urban tourist destinations, where overtourism is considered an increasingly important policy issue. At the same time, such ‘tourism problems’ are interlinked with wider societal issues and stakeholders in the city. With so many stakeholders involved, it is particularly challenging to engage all relevant stakeholders in governance. In fact, it can be argued that the issues involved in sustainable urban tourism are so great, that they cannot be solved within the boundaries of the current social, economic and political systems, and that a radical transition or transformation is required to come up with solutions.

In spite of its growth, urban tourism has received a disproportionately small amount of attention in academia, both from scholars of tourism, sustainable tourism and urban planning. Thus, this special issue aims at addressing more specifically the question of what sustainable urban tourism can entail. In doing so, we aim at covering all aspects of sustainability—not merely the environmental part. The journal of Sustainability has previously published two special issues of relevance in this context—on Sustainable tourism and on Sustainable cities (both in 2014). This Special Issue aims at developing further and combining the perspectives already touched upon in the two previous Special Issues. We welcome critical analyses of current urban tourism developments, as well as innovative design solutions to come to sustainable urban tourism, both in the Global North, but also in the Global South.

Prof. Carlo Aall
Dr. Ko Koens
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Sustainable tourism
• Urban tourism
• Smart Cities
• Impacts of urban tourism
• Urban tourism governance
• Overtourism
• Urban tourism in developing countries
• Sustainable Development Goals and urban tourism
• Sustainble Tourism in the New Urban Agenda
• Urban Tourism transitions and transformations