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Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 21901

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Tsung Hung Lee

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Guest Editor

Graduate School of Leisure and Exercise Studies, National Yunlin University of Science & Technology, 123, Section 3, University Road, Touliu 640, Taiwan
Interests: sustainable smart tourism; smart tourism; community-based tourism; nature-based tourism; ecotourism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Fen-Hauh Jan

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Guest Editor

Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Transworld University, Touliu 640, Taiwan
Interests: sustainable smart tourism; community-based tourism; ecotourism; smart tourism; tourist behavior
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Numerous stakeholders (including tourists, hosts, governments, non-government organizations, for-profit organizations, and other tourist-related businesses), society, and environments may be involved in the development and implementation of sustainable tourism, which requires awareness of the effects of all stakeholders, society, and environments. This Special Issue aims to contribute to the study of sustainable tourism by presenting a wide range of papers from the field of natural and social science that clarify the effects of stakeholders, society, and environments on sustainable tourism.

Papers that develop state-of-the-art methods for assessing the frontier progress in sustainable tourism, new frameworks for theoretical or practical implications, and approaches for monitoring socio-cultural or environmental impacts with a view to promoting sustainable tourism, are all welcome. This Special Issue will elucidate up-to-date, high quality, international and multidisciplinary, and valuable insights for promoting support for tourism development, contributing to the existing literature.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles and reviews. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Aboriginal tourism;
Community-based tourism;
Ecotourism;
Festival tourism;
Marine tourism;
Nature-based tourism;
Religious tourism;
Rural tourism;
Smart tourism;
Wildlife tourism.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Tsung Hung Lee
Prof. Dr. Fen-Hauh Jan
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.

Keywords

ecotourism
environmental attitude
stakeholder
society
sustainable tourism
sustainability indicators
environmentally responsible behavior
eco-environmental innovation

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 672 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Greener the Hotel, the Better Operating Efficiency It Has? A Sustainable Tourism Perspective

by Cheng-Sheng Lin, Chin-Shyang Shyu and Cheng-Ping Li

Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 10927; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151410927 - 12 Jul 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2432

Abstract

The aim of this study was mainly to analyze the operating efficiency of Green Hotels during the epidemic, and to explore whether hotels that pay more attention to green energy and saving energy would be more economically efficient. The object of this study is the top 20 Green Hotels voted on the European Union Internet Forum from 2018 to 2022. According to the empirical results, all Green Hotels were affected by COVID-19, and their operating efficiency became worse. This study further used Tobit regression to find out the factors that affect the operating efficiency, and performs regression analysis on the efficiency values of the green energy environment variables. The findings showed that the green energy equipment of EU-certified Green Hotels had a negative effect on the operating efficiency, with a coefficient value of −0.362, indicating that the investment in green energy equipment cannot be achieved in a short period of time. In addition, the education level of managers and hotel green energy licenses have positive effects on the operating efficiency of Green Hotels. In particular, when the Green Hotel licenses are the most important, they have the highest coefficient value of the efficiency of Green Hotels at 0.484. This means that the higher the education level of Green Hotel managers and the higher the level of the Green Hotel license, the higher the operating efficiency. These findings suggest that Green Hotel management should pay attention to its green certificate level and the education knowledge of managers, so as to achieve sustainable energy saving and to improve operating efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives)

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22 pages, 4027 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Perspective of Cultural Sustainability: Exploring Tourism Commodification and Cultural Layers

by Lingxiao Bai and Shixiu Weng

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 9880; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139880 - 21 Jun 2023

Viewed by 4828

Abstract

Commodification is an important research issue regarding cultural sustainability. This paper draws on the theory of cultural layers to understand tourism commodification and the development of local cultures. Through 76 days of field investigation and about 60 face-to-face interviews, this paper explores the characteristics of tourism commodification in festivals and rites related to sacrifices to Genghis Khan and the relationship between its five layers of commodification. Research findings reveal that commodification mainly occurs in the layers of artifacts and patterns of behavior. In addition, the process of tourism commodification does not necessarily follow the sequence of cultural division from the outside to the inside; instead, the deeper layer of commodification will inevitably drive the commodification of its outer circle, and different layers of commodification display different social problems as well. It is also found that this theory is suitable for other tourism commodification cases examined in existing studies. Taken together, analyzing tourism commodification through layered thinking can unveil the degree of commodification, offer an avenue to address the extant debate over the pros and cons of tourism commodification, and provide a basis for guiding the regulation of tourism commodification more effectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives)

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20 pages, 6704 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Implementation Instruments for Developing Sustainable Tourism on Recultivated Land in the Middle Danube Flow

by Nataša Danilović Hristić, Nebojša Stefanović and Maja Hristov

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7724; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097724 - 8 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1665

Abstract

Development of sustainable tourism is viewed through the scope of planning procedure, participation of all stakeholders, and resolving possible conflicts. The methodology is based on empirical exploration and compared two case studies of the Middle Danube Flow coast segment. The common denominator, apart from the location in the same region and on the bank of an international river, is the use of recycled land for the purpose of converting it into a tourist complex. This paper has a wider theoretical background, tailored and selected for this research purpose. Ambition was expressed to answer the questions of how to carry out the strategically set tasks at the level of detailed design and implementation, what kind of interactions to expect, and if it is possible to single out key approaches and steps and form recommendations for achieving satisfactory and non-conflicting results. The authors search and look for similarities among the chosen development directions and the decisions made which can point to a common methodological framework and options for creating an attractive, profitable, and sustainable tourist product. The conclusion is that desirable sustainable tourism can be reached through careful location and content selection, choice of adequate land use, and balanced alignment between protection and development. This paper indicates the possibility of an additional step towards a joint solution, which is not only a compromise, but is valued as being of high quality and desirable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives)

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14 pages, 79651 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Population Decline and Urban Transformation by Tourism Gentrification in Kyoto City

by Riku Tanaka, Haruka Kato and Daisuke Matsushita

Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2247; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032247 - 25 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4187

Abstract

In recent years, tourist cities worldwide have experienced rapid tourism gentrification, which was caused by the spread of P2P accommodation-matching digital platforms. The research problem is set as follows: whether tourism gentrification caused a population decline in the historical center area of tourist cities. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the causal statistical relationship between population decline and tourism gentrification, focusing on urban transformation by accommodation. As a case, this study analyzes Kyoto City, a world-class tourist city. In summary, we conclude that tourism gentrification caused population decline through displacement in the historical center of Kyoto City. On the other hand, it was found that population decline occurred from factors other than tourism gentrification in the outside area of Kyoto City. The academic contribution is to clarify the effect of population decline on the cause of urban transformation through time precedence with statistical correlation. For tourist cities where the population is declining, the distinction between cause and effect is critical for policymaking toward sustainable tourism where the population is declining. The practical implication is the need for urban planning against tourism gentrification toward sustainability tourism in the historical center of Kyoto City. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives)

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23 pages, 1752 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Placemaking and Tourism to Build Resilience: A Quest for Sustaining Peripheral Island Communities in Taiwan

by Chin-Cheng Ni and Dietermar Say

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 699; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010699 - 30 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2786

Abstract

Peripheral islands are prone to natural disasters. In the past, the literature on island community development focused on sustainability or vulnerability. However, resilience theory has gained attention as an alternate strategy due to unpredictable global evolution changes. Thus, this study explored how peripheral communities face disadvantageous global situations through adaption and cooperation within placemaking and tourism. We focused on two peripheral well-developed island communities, Nanliao and Xihu, in Penghu, Taiwan, and their approach to resilience. This study conducted a literature review, contextual analysis, field survey, and in-depth interview with a case study. The research results included the exploration of mixed placemaking, charity tourism, and the use of online interaction between the two communities. A resilient perspective, in which adaptive development (recovery), cooperative stability, and simultaneous transformation correspond to a third path, was explored. Our findings have challenged traditional dualism concepts, such as “top-down or bottom-up,” “global or local,” and “insiders or outsiders,” which seem to be increasingly meaningless in sustaining island communities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives)

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16 pages, 1142 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development and Validation of the Smart Tourism Experience Scale

by Tsung-Hung Lee and Fen-Hauh Jan

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16421; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416421 - 8 Dec 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3957

Abstract

Smart technology has been introduced in the tourism industry for several decades. Nature-based tourism destinations contribute to environmental education and sustainable tourism. Tourism experiences have been extensively assessed in past research; however, no studies have clarified the conceptualization and research instruments of smart tourism experiences, especially in nature-based tourism contexts. To fill this research gap, the present study aimed to develop a valid scale to evaluate the smart tourism experience of nature-based tourists. In study 1, a 32-item research instrument was developed using a mixed approach. In study 2, overall, 897 valid questionnaires were obtained, and confirmatory factor analysis was employed to examine a reliable and valid 29-item scale. In study 3, this scale was cross-validated with 662 respondents for the calibration sample and 674 respondents for the validation sample. The criterion-related validity was also assessed by examining the correlations among five dimensions of the smart tourism experience and overall satisfaction and loyalty. When tourists visit a smart tourism destination, they are more likely to respect the natural environment and use smart technology applications, which provide useful information to plan itineraries and identify diverse and entertaining recreation experiences. Consequently, these applications increase their satisfaction and loyalty, thus assisting in the development of sustainable tourism. The present study extends the theoretical framework of smart tourism experiences to managerial implications by providing a conception and measure, filling the research gaps, and contributing significantly to the tourism literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontier Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Stakeholder, Society, and Environment Perspectives)

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