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Optimization of tourism development in destinations: an approach used to alleviate the impacts of overtourism in the Mediterranean region
Abstract
Many of Mediterranean tourism destinations are currently experiencing overtourism related symptoms, e.g. high tourism-dependency, overcrowding and most recently even anti-tourist and anti-tourism movements and social unrest. What makes this phenomenon relevant and complicated is the lack of effective management solutions and policies to respond. Contemporary challenges suggest that new solutions, sharing of knowledge and communication between all stakeholders are needed to optimise the complex interrelations within these ecosystems. This study critically evaluates the usability of the extended Context analysis-Monitoring – Driving forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (CM-DPSIR) framework for integrated sustainable tourism planning. The analysis suggests the proposed framework facilitates structuring causalities within complex socio-economic systems experiencing excessive tourism development, to introduce the responses to optimise tourism development to alleviate the impacts of overtourism. The approach assumes the interconnections within the framework, different levels of drivers and responses, the participation of relevant stakeholders, the proactivity of Destination Management Organisations (DMO) and multilevel cooperation.
... This term has reaffirmed some of the tourism industry's inherent deficiencies and opened the door to its redesign (Mihalic, 2020). Initial studies focused on explaining the phenomenon of overtourism (Peeters et al., 2018;Capocchi et al., 2019;Cheer et al., 2019;Goodwin, 2019;Milano et al., 2019b), and this emerging field has been further advanced with numerous place-based case studies addressing specific contexts and destinations (Séraphin et al., 2018;Milano et al., 2019a;Namberger et al., 2019;Sarantakou & Terkenli, 2019;Mandić, 2021). What seems to be familiar to these case studies is their reliance on local language literature and data sources facilitated by the study design (for example, ethnography) or (co)authors originating from the case-study destination. ...
... (1) Despite its tentative break due to the pandemic over the past three years, the challenges associated with overtourism are still current for many tourism destinations (Séraphin et al., 2018) and relevant here as most research into this phenomenon involves place-based studies (Séraphin et al., 2018;Milano et al., 2019a;Namberger et al., 2019;Sarantakou & Terkenli, 2019;Mandić, 2021). ...
Language bias is a common yet undiscussed practice that can significantly constrain the rigour and generalisation of place-based studies and literature reviews. This paper discusses how research published in English compared with other languages is considered or not when conducting literature reviews. This research focuses specifically on tourism research and explores specific journal article examples in the contemporary subject area of overtourism within destination-based studies. To do this, we take a critical-linguistic, post-positivist approach to three case studies drawn from the literature on the phenomenon of overtourism. The study highlights how research in languages other than English is often discounted or omitted in academic fields that are dominated by English language publications.Nevertheless, our findings strongly support the proposition that place-specific research, to be rigorous and generalisable, should be supported by research carried out in relevant languages for its location. This research provides evidence that place-based research, based on literature from multiple languages and interdisciplinarity, can be reliable, valid and trustworthy. The study also notes the recommendations for conducting literature reviews within place-specific research and avenues for future research.
... Tourism destinations experience multiple pressures related to, inter alia, carrying capacity, growth, sustainable use of natural and cultural assets, and local communities, which have recently been discussed as overtourism (Adie, Falk, & Savioli, 2019;Dodds & Butler, 2019;Milano, Novelli, & Cheer, 2019b;Seraphin, Sheeran, & Pilato, 2018). Studies addressing overtourism reflect on its causes and consequences, including tourism growth (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020;Higgins-Desbiolles, Carnicelli, Krolikowski, Wijesinghe, & Boluk, 2019), overcrowding (Namberger, Jackisch, Schmude, & Karl, 2019), tourism-phobia and tourist-phobia (Milano et al., 2019b;Seraphin, Ivanov, Dosquet, & Bourliataux-Lajoinie, 2019;Taş Gürsoy, 2019), tourism planning and development (Panayiotopoulos & Pisano, 2019;Sarantakou & Terkenli, 2019;Seraphin et al., 2018); as well as discussing potential solutions including, strategies to enhance community resilience (Cheer, Milano, & Novelli, 2019;Cheung & Li, 2019), sustainable degrowth (Cheung & Li, 2019;Milano, Novelli, & Cheer, 2019a), visitor management (Goodwin, 2019), optimisation (Mandić, 2021;Oklevik et al., 2019), and smart approaches to tourism development (Koens, Melissen, Mayer, & Aall, 2019). Several scholars have discussed the threats that overtourism represent for heritage sites in particular (for example, Adie et al., 2019;Rasoolimanesh, Taheri, Gannon, Vafaei-Zadeh, & Hanifah, 2019); however, the focus of the majority of this research is on the perceptions of local communities of the impacts of tourism development. ...
... Previous optimisation research has primarily focused on the analysis of tourism demand (Oklevik et al., 2019). This study examines the role of tourism governance in optimisation, in particular the importance of stakeholder relationship in the transition from maximising to optimising tourism development (Jenkins, 2020;Mandić, 2021). Here, optimisation is defined as a heritage tourism destination governance approach that seeks to deliver policy responses to increase value for stakeholders within a destination system, with particular reference to addressing pressures of overtourism. ...
In this research we explore smart governance (SG) elements, strategies and outcomes using a sample of small cities located in two Croatian regions, coastal and continental. These differ from one another not only in terms of their history and administrative culture but also the intensity of their tourism development, significantly affecting the way the city is governed with regard to the main SG categories. Historic city status was chosen as a common denominator for the cities in the sample. Building on an extensive literature review, an extended version of the smart governance model inaugurated by Bolivar and Meijer (2016) was suggested, to encompass contextual factors (size – referring mostly to small cities; location - associated with different administrative cultures; tourism development intensity - measured by the set of intensity indicators; the status of the historic city as a specific local condition) and end with some policy measure proposals. A mixed-method approach was employed to address these issues. Firstly, an importance-performance analysis was conducted to evaluate the cities' mayors or deputies' perception of each of the proposed smart governance categories. Subsequently, a qualitative analysis exploring the cities' strategic documents was conducted to determine progress on smart governance and their development orientation. The research results have demonstrated the existence of an importance-performance gap between smart governance categories, with a few of them proving to yield significant impact. The findings are discussed in the light of contextual factors. The conclusions facilitate further understanding of this phenomenon and shed light on the specifics of governance in historic urban destinations within a given context. The major limitation of this study is the relatively small sample (42 out of 94 historic cities) and its focus on just one country (Croatia). Nevertheless, the findings may be valuable in the sense that they broaden the understanding of smart governance in historic cities. Furthermore, implications may be derived from the results obtained for both researchers and practitioners. There is a lack of studies on smart governance taking into account specific contextual factors, and we hope this research may help fill that gap.
... Tourism destinations experience multiple pressures related to, inter alia, carrying capacity, growth, sustainable use of natural and cultural assets, and local communities, which have recently been discussed as overtourism (Adie, Falk, & Savioli, 2019;Dodds & Butler, 2019;Milano, Novelli, & Cheer, 2019b;Seraphin, Sheeran, & Pilato, 2018). Studies addressing overtourism reflect on its causes and consequences, including tourism growth (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020;Higgins-Desbiolles, Carnicelli, Krolikowski, Wijesinghe, & Boluk, 2019), overcrowding (Namberger, Jackisch, Schmude, & Karl, 2019), tourism-phobia and tourist-phobia (Milano et al., 2019b;Seraphin, Ivanov, Dosquet, & Bourliataux-Lajoinie, 2019;Taş Gürsoy, 2019), tourism planning and development (Panayiotopoulos & Pisano, 2019;Sarantakou & Terkenli, 2019;Seraphin et al., 2018); as well as discussing potential solutions including, strategies to enhance community resilience (Cheer, Milano, & Novelli, 2019;Cheung & Li, 2019), sustainable degrowth (Cheung & Li, 2019;Milano, Novelli, & Cheer, 2019a), visitor management (Goodwin, 2019), optimisation (Mandić, 2021;Oklevik et al., 2019), and smart approaches to tourism development (Koens, Melissen, Mayer, & Aall, 2019). Several scholars have discussed the threats that overtourism represent for heritage sites in particular (for example, Adie et al., 2019;Rasoolimanesh, Taheri, Gannon, Vafaei-Zadeh, & Hanifah, 2019); however, the focus of the majority of this research is on the perceptions of local communities of the impacts of tourism development. ...
... Previous optimisation research has primarily focused on the analysis of tourism demand (Oklevik et al., 2019). This study examines the role of tourism governance in optimisation, in particular the importance of stakeholder relationship in the transition from maximising to optimising tourism development (Jenkins, 2020;Mandić, 2021). Here, optimisation is defined as a heritage tourism destination governance approach that seeks to deliver policy responses to increase value for stakeholders within a destination system, with particular reference to addressing pressures of overtourism. ...
The sustainable development of tourism is a major concern for destination management organisations (DMOs) in heritage tourism. Smart tourism advocates claim that technologically-driven innovations can help DMOs to optimise tourism development by addressing issues such as carrying capacity, stakeholder management and community involvement. This study enhances the understanding of smart tourism governance (SG), showing how contextual factors affect DMO perspectives of SG. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate heritage tourism destinations in the United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that well-established DMOs do not perceive SG as potentially beneficial, as they already perform well in many areas in which SG promises improvements, such as citizen engagement, decision-making, and stakeholder engagement. Despite this, this research highlights the aspects of SG that these destinations can take advantage of as social inclusion, environmental performance and the provision of citizen-centric services. All of these can help heritage tourism destinations to optimise their tourism development. This research additionally demonstrates the effect of contextual factors, such as the level of public-sector support for tourism and the growing influence of non-tourism stakeholders in destination management, on DMO perceptions of SG and makes recommendations for how developments in the use of SG by DMOs can be made, in light of these.
... "Understanding the social impacts of tourism on communities is important for governments at all levels so that action can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a community backlash against tourists and tourism development" (Deery et al., 2012, p.64). The studies have demonstrated that the attitudes, consent, and behaviour of the local communities are volatile and related to the scale of tourism development and the perception of the impacts and distribution of tourism development benefits (Mandić, 2021;Seraphin et al., 2019). Thus, as they respond to mass tourism, residents behave like victims in some cases and sometimes as vandals or peaceful activists (Seraphine et al. 2019). ...
Using the framework of indicators delivered in Report D4.1. (HORIZON 2020, project Smart CulTour, grant agreement 870708) the data collection process was performed by six project partners on the level of 35 Local Administrative Units (LAU) belonging to the six Living Labs. In both sustainability and resilience models, the dynamic panel data method was employed, with the regression analysis additionally applied in the sustainability model to deal with the static indicators.
The obtained research results shed light on the nexus between cultural tourism development and destinations sustainability and resilience. Additionally, the TALC model demonstrated all LLs were in the stage of demand dependence, tending to reach the saturation stage unless restructuring policies and new products such as cultural tourism are introduced.
... However, heritage tourist destinations that face an excessive flow of tourists is useful to be managed by access scheduling [122,123]. This is a move from maximizing to optimizing tourism development [124,125]. Făgăras , Land locals need to know how many guests they can receive for Christmas in foster Christmas relatives activities, that is, how many they can host, feed and guide to community events. Women who prepare brunches also need to know how many guests they have to cook for. ...
Făgăraș Land (Romania) is a very old administrative formation with its own identity, preserved from the beginning of the Middle Ages. The mapping of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) highlighted the groups of caroling lads as the main strategic heritage resource, but also the existence of many other ICH resources that can be exploited towards the sustainable development of the area. These include local soups, an ICH gastronomic resource that can help build the area’s tourism brand. All resources, together with the peculiarities of the local medieval history, the memory of the anti-communist resistance in the Făgăraș Mountains and the religious pilgrimage to the local Orthodox monasteries, support the configuration of Făgăraș Land as a multidimensional associative cultural landscape. The content analysis of the information on ICH available on the official websites of the administrative territorial units (ATUs), correlated with the data from the interviews with local leaders, highlighted the types of local narratives regarding the capitalization of cultural resources and the openness to culture-centered community-based development, namely glocal, dynamic local and static local visions. The unitary and integrated approach of tourist resources, tourism social entrepreneurship, support from the local commons and a better management of the local cultural potential are ways to capitalize on belonging to the Făgăraș Land cultural landscape, towards sustainable community development of the area.
... Once established, mass tourism mobilizes the specialization of the place in the touristic activity and promotes economic growth. At the same time, other places remain protected due to the backwash effects of the touristic activity (Mandić, 2021). ...
The goal of this project is to provide an analytical description of Toba Caldera's potential to become a UNESCO Global Geopark by 2020. The research employed qualitative methods and was carried out through a review of the literature. Journals, government papers, news media, and the internet were all utilised as sources of supporting information. There are interconnections between Indonesia soft powers and the ongoing contributions of stakeholders in the Toba Caldera Promotion Project, which is intended to assist sustainable tourist growth. Toba Caldera is a popular tourist attraction across the world since it is home to 13 geo-sites that offer breath-taking views. According to the findings of this study, Toba Caldera's international fame will likely result in an increase in incoming tourist arrivals.
... Many of the Mediterranean tourism destinations are currently experiencing high tourism-dependency, continuous increase in a number of visitors, overcrowding and most recently even anti-tourist and anti-tourism movements and social unrest. Within the recent literature (Capocchi et al. 2019;Cheung and Li 2019;Milano et al. 2019;UNWTO 2018), these symptoms are discussed under the discourse of overtourisma phenomenon highly pronounced in the Mediterranean where it relates to loss of authenticity, concentration effects of visitor flows, the continuous growth of visitor arrivals and significant risks to the future attractiveness of the destination (Mandić 2021). Peeters et al. (2018) suggest that overtourism is still at the very beginning of the policy cycle, meaning that on the EU level, it has not entered the policy-making stage and is only fragmentarily addressed at the destination level. ...
Protected areas (PAs) are clearly defined geographical spaces that are recognised as such and are dedicated to achieving long-term nature conservation, with the associated ecosystem services and cultural values.
Theories of complex adaptive systems (CAS) have been brought into tourism literature by a range of scholars (e.g.Baggio, 2008;Baggio, Scott, & Cooper, 2010; Brouder & Eriksson, 2013;Ma & Hassink, 2013; Hartman, 2016;Hartman, 2018a). Whereas thesetheories are strongly embedded for instance in evolutionary biology (Kauffman, 1993; Walker et al., 2004) and urban and regionalplanning and development (Davoudi, 2012;Sengupta et al., 2016;Rauws, 2016), it is not yet widely embraced in thefield of tourismareas development and governance. Theories of CAS can help to further theorize the mechanisms at play regarding destinationdevelopment in order to help tourism areas adapt in times of change. The capacity to adapt is a crucial property to develop as a meansto survive and thrive in the context of continually changing circumstances e.g. related but not limited to (recent) phenomena such asovertourism, COVID-19 climate change, economic crises, and many other factors that put pressure on tourism areas. Adaptation canbe understood the process of changing the structures and functions of systems as a means to respond to changing contexts and tomaintain or improve the performance of these areas as competitive tourism areas (Heylighen, 2001; Hartman, 2016, p. 299). Theories of CAS can contribute to these debates by providing a systems perspective on tourism areas' development. In line, the theories help todraw attention to a set of characteristics of systems that has explanatory and analytical value in the context of dynamic tourism areasin times of change. This research note highlights how those characteristics can help to identify avenues for further research
Protected natural areas (PA) are often regarded as areas of high recreational value; thus, many of them are increasingly
threatened by tourism development. This has spurred interest in research across socio-economic and biophysical context to
respond to the complexity of this global issue. This study applies the DPSIR framework to nature-based tourism development
to discuss the cause–effect links and to consider a range of social responses to advance the objective of sustainability of these
exceptional areas. Instead of site-perspective, the study builds upon an inductive and Ground theory approach to emphasise
the need for (eco)system thinking to identify priorities for actions. The proposed framework delivers the analysis of global
and local drivers of change to generate a profound understanding of Triple bottom line impact processes and response
implications. The study demonstrates that sustainability of nature-based tourism and resilience of PAs are not possible in
the absence of developed institutional capacity, multi-layer management system, monitoring, education and the consent of
the community.
This research note addresses Overtourism from locals’ perspective. The main contribution of this research note is that locals, as volatile groups have also proven to be resilient in some cases. This resilience has been developed through an ambidextrous approach, which is the balance between exploitation (using a negative situation) and exploration (turning it into something positive). The paper identified four archetypes of locals in regard to their attitudes towards tourists in an overtourism context: victims, peaceful activists, vandals, and resilient locals.
This article outlines a conceptual framework and research agenda for exploring the relationship between tourism and degrowth. Rapid and uneven expansion of tourism as a response to the 2008 economic crisis has proceeded in parallel with the rise of social discontent concerning so-called “overtourism.” Despite decades of concerted global effort to achieve sustainable development, meanwhile, socioecological conflicts and inequality have rarely reversed, but in fact increased in many places. Degrowth, understood as both social theory and social movement, has emerged within the context of this global crisis. Yet thus far the vibrant degrowth discussion has yet to engage systematically with the tourism industry in particular, while by the same token tourism research has largely neglected explicit discussion of degrowth. We bring the two discussions together here to interrogate their complementarity. Identifying a growth imperative in the basic structure of the capitalist economy, we contend that mounting critique of overtourism can be understood as a structural response to the ravages of capitalist development more broadly. Debate concerning overtourism thus offers a valuable opportunity to re-politicize discussion of tourism development generally. We contribute to this discussion by exploring of the potential for degrowth to facilitate a truly sustainable tourism.
Overtourism is a contemporary phenomenon, rapidly evolving and underlined by what is evidently excessive visitation to tourist destinations. This is obvious in the seemingly uncontrolled and unplanned occurrence of urban overtourism in popular destinations and arguably a consequence of unregulated capital accumulation and growth strategies heavily associated with selling cities as tourism commodities. The vested interests of social movements has converged into growing protests against overtourism and associated degrowth campaigns have emerged out of this activism that calls for alternative governance and management measures that eschew touristic monoculture and simplistic economic growth-oriented models. Accordingly, we explore the evolution of the tourism degrowth discourse among social movement activists in Barcelona, and in particular, where this is related to claims associated with overtourism and the extent to which this might be influencing a paradigm shift from 'tourism growth' to 'tourism degrowth'. Methodologically, we draw from an overarching framework that leverages long-term ethnographic research in Barcelona. Here, we employ in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observations, informal conversations and retrospective evaluation of field diary entries.
This paper introduces the Smart City Hospitality Framework, which could serve as the foundation for a destination-design-driven approach to urban tourism governance and dealing with overtourism issues. This conceptual framework is purposely designed to stimulate collaborative (informed) reflections on overtourism and urban tourism development that could support system analyses, problem structuring and development of transition agendas and pathways within the context of turning urban tourism into a transition arena that contributes to setting in motion a sustainability transition at city level. It merges the dimensions of sustainable development (environmentally responsible and equitable economic development) and city hospitality (the extent to which the city acts as a good ‘host’ to all its ‘guests’, including residents and businesses). Resilience resides at its centre to highlight the temporal aspects of these dimensions, and their interdependencies. To show how this framework can serve as the foundation for destination design efforts in practice, a short description of (experiences with) serious game-playing sessions that employ its logic in six European cities is provided.
This paper critically examines the ways in which overtourism exacerbates as a result of the proliferation of new, non-institutionalized forms of tourism accommodation and their impacts on land uses, spatial planning and landscape management, using the case study of Santorini, Greece. The longstanding practice of policy favouring intensive exploitation of small-scale land ownership, for tourism and second residence development, has played a catalytic role in the dominant model of tourism development, escalating the fragmentation of Greek territory and Greek tourism space; largely on the margins of national regional plans and coupled with lack of proper controls or regulation of tourism land uses, it has proven especially detrimental to the Greek landscape. This paper describes, analyses and discusses such processes and their mechanisms, in the case of the island of Santorini, in light also of the recent proliferation of new forms of non-institutionalized tourism accommodation intensifying phenomena of overtourism and further impinging on spatial and landscape planning, use and management.
The phenomenon of “overtourism” in cities is hardly a new one, however the process and nature of resistance has changed significantly in recent years. The work of Colomb and Novy [2017. Protest and Resistance in the Tourist City. London: Routledge] encapsulates the manifestations of resistance in numerous cities. They argue that many of the contestations surround tourism rather than being about tourism. This paper explores resident resistance in the Hungarian capital city Budapest. This includes the rejection of the Olympic bid in 2017 and protests surrounding a controversial new development project in the city park. An uncontrolled night-time economy has also adversely affected local resident quality of life. Questionnaire data collected from both local residents and tourists as well as an analysis of Facebook sites using Sentione software will be used to illustrate the key areas of discontent. The research attempts to demonstrate that tourism is often marginal rather than central to residents’ discontent and resistance to developments.
Global tourism growth is unprecedented. Consequently, this has elevated the sector as a key plank for economic development, and its utility is deeply embedded in political, economic and social-ecological discourse. Where the expansion of the sector leverages natural and cultural landscapes, this applies pressure to social and ecological underpinnings that if not reconciled, can become problematic. The way this plays out in Australia’s Shipwreck Coast and the wider Great Ocean Road region, especially the implications for community resilience, is the focus. Emphasis is placed on the vulnerability of peripheral coastal areas to development that withdraws from destination endowments, yet fails to provide commensurate economic yield as a suitable trade-off. This is obvious where tourism intensification has led to concerns about the breach of normative carrying capacities. Temporal overtourism driven by seasonal overcrowding is countenanced as emblematic of tourism in the Anthropocene where focus tends to be largely growth-oriented, with much less attention given to bolstering social-ecological resilience, especially community resilience. At stake is the resilience of regional areas and their communities, who in the absence of garnering commensurate economic returns from tourism expansion find themselves in social and ecological deficit.
Concerns with growth have steadily advanced since the Limits to Growth report due particularly to human impacts on the natural environment. Since that time, neoliberal capitalism has become increasingly reliant on growth exacerbating these problems. The destructive outcomes of these strategies has led to a growing interest in degrowth. Analysts are examining how we can create economies that eschew a growth imperative while still supporting human thriving. Tourism as a key facet of capitalism is implicated in these issues and recent concerns with “overtourism” are only one symptom of the problem. This article presents a conceptual consideration of issues of degrowth in tourism. It examines current tensions in international mobility and argues just and sustainable degrowth will require greater attention to equity. This analysis suggests that essential to such an agenda is redefining tourism to focus on the rights of local communities and a rebuilding of the social capacities of tourism. This article argues for the redefinition of tourism in order to place the rights of local communities above the rights of tourists for holidays and the rights of tourism corporates to make profits.
Oklevik, O., Gössling, S., Hall, C.M., Steen Jacobsen J.K., Petter, G.I. & McCabe, S. (2019): Overtourism, optimisation, and destination performance indicators: a case study of activities in Fjord Norway, Journal of Sustainable Tourism: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1533020
Many global tourist destinations have experienced growth in arrivals. This has triggered various conflicts in destinations and sparked debates as to how to deal with what is increasingly referred to as ‘overtourism’. Most Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) pursue strategies to stimulate arrivals even further. Pro-growth discourses are reinforced by lead bodies such as the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). However, maximisation strategies based on higher numbers of tourists increasingly cause conflicts with local residents, whereas simultaneously undermining climate change mitigation pledges as negotiated in the Paris Agreement. New approaches to destination management based on optimisation are therefore warranted. Drawing on a survey of inter- national tourists (n=5,249) in south-western Norway, this article discusses whether ‘activities’, i.e. the development of local, small-scale and ideally more sustainable experiences, can contribute to economic growth without necessarily increasing numbers of arrivals. Results con- firm that destinations should seek to better understand their markets, including length of stay, spending, and/or activity intention, to identify profitable markets. Ultimately, such knowledge may help addressing overtourism conflicts while building tourism systems that are more eco- nomically, socially, and environmentally resilient.
At the time of posting the article was available open access
Introduction
Overtourism’ is a relatively new term in the public and academic debate on negative consequences of tourism. However, the phenomenon itself is not a new one, as problematic forms of tourism crowding and their effects on local communities and environment have been studied for decades. Yet, there is much evidence that the character of tourism in many locations is changing rapidly.
It is important to realise that overtourism is still at the very beginning of the policy cycle. The policy-cycle theory states that policies develop through a range of stages, of which the first is the agenda-setting stage. Overtourism has developed well into the agenda-setting stage, but did not enter the policy-making stage at the EU level, and only very rudimentarily at the destination level. Therefore, it is not possible, nor desirable, to describe precise and exact policy measures because there is scarce empirical evidence to found such measures on.
The study highlights that while overcrowding is a well-known phenomenon primarily associated with negative experiences emerging from the presence of too many tourists at certain places and times, overtourism is a much broader and more complex phenomenon. In this study we adopt the following definition of overtourism:
Overtourism describes the situation in which the impact of tourism, at certain times and in certain locations, exceeds physical, ecological, social, economic, psychological, and/or political capacity thresholds.
While overcrowding is seen by the industry as an issue that mainly stands in the way of continued growth, the impacts of overtourism can represent an existential risk for destinations around the world. There are many examples where the cultural and natural heritage of a place is at risk, or where costs of living and real estate have substantially increased and caused a decline in quality of life. The spread of overtourism could cause the loss of authenticity and imply a significant risk to the future attractiveness of a destination. Uncontrolled tourism development can cause significant damage to landscapes, seascapes, air and water quality, as well as the living conditions of residents, causing economic inequalities and social exclusion, amongst many other issues.
Aim
This study aims to improve the understanding of the wider and more recent development of overtourism, to identify and assess the issues associated with it, and to propose policies and practices to mitigate its negative effects. The study involves an extensive literature review; the evaluation of 41 case studies; statistical analyses of selected overtourism factors (such as tourism density (bed-nights per km2) and tourism intensity (bed-nights per resident), Airbnb prevalence, airport proximity, cruise port availability, or UNESCO World Heritage Site status), as well as the critical analysis of relevant policy documents.
Description and overview of overtourism
Many overtourism issues are related to the (negative) perception of encounters between tourists, residents, entrepreneurs and varying tourist groups, due to the perception of high tourist numbers at certain times and places. Root causes of overtourism may relate to low transport costs and technology developments (i.e. digital platforms, social media). Although a lack of available data impedes a thorough analysis of the effects of social media platforms on overtourism, there is evidence of their role in causing concentration effects of visitor flows in time and space, as well as pushing additional growth in visitors’ arrivals.
One of the main results of this study is that the impacts of overtourism can be social, economic, as well as environmental. Perhaps not aligned with the image often portrayed in the media, the case studies’ analysis also suggests that the most vulnerable destinations are not necessarily cities, but rather coastal, islands and rural heritage sites.
An important complication of any assessment of overtourism is the lack of a commonly accepted set of indicators, hindering the effective evaluation of destinations that are at risk of overtourism or have already entered a ‘state of overtourism’. This study is a first attempt to relate a range of statistics at the NUTS 2 (second level of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) regional level to overtourism and to identify regions at risk. In total, over 290 regions were assessed, including 53 with at least one destination already confronted with overtourism. Indicators show widely varying levels for regions at the NUTS 2 level.
Findings from this study suggest that the most relevant indicators for overtourism are:
tourism density (bed-nights per km2) and intensity (bed-nights per resident);
the share of Airbnb bed capacity of the combined Airbnb and booking.com bed capacity;
the share of tourism in regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP); air travel intensity (arrivals by air divided by number of residents); and closeness to airport, cruise ports and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Though the means and distributions of the indicator values differ significantly, there is a large overlap in values between the groups of regions with and without overtourism. Yet, it is difficult to assign a general value or threshold to an individual or combination of indicators that could serve as a predictor of overtourism. It is thus suggested to assess the risk of overtourism at the regional level. In the analysis, a preliminary number of 15 regions not currently recognised as destinations in a state of overtourism were identified as ‘at a high risk of overtourism’. These are the regions of Valencia, Andalucía and the Canarias in Spain, the regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Bourgogne in France, the province of Trento in Italy, Madeira and the Algarve in Portugal, and the Ionic Isles and the Peloponnesus in Greece. The UK has five regions in the top-15 at risk of overtourism: Cumbria, Cornwall, West Wales and The Valleys, East Wales and North Yorkshire. Before any effective early warning tool can be implemented, comparable indicators and values must be identified in order to enable the assessment of a more comprehensive list of destinations at ‘risk of’ or ‘in a state of overtourism’. Still, the study provides a preliminary practical check list for destinations or regions to assess whether they may be at risk of overtourism based on a qualitative assessment
https://research4committees.blog/2019/01/17/overtourism-impact-and-possible-policy-responses/
Download the report here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/629184/IPOL_STU(2018)629184_EN.pdf
Please refer to the report as:
Peeters, P., Gössling, S., Klijs, J., Milano, C., Novelli, M., Dijkmans, C., Eijgelaar, E., Hartman, S., Heslinga, J., Isaac, R., Mitas, O., Moretti, S., Nawijn, J., Papp, B. and Postma, A. (2018). Research for TRAN Committee - Overtourism: impact and possible policy responses. European Parliament, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels.
Length-of-stay (LOS) is a key parameter in destination management that determines the number of guest nights relative to arrival numbers, with concomitant repercussions for revenue generation and other performance indicators. This article investigates the development of LOS for 32 destinations in developed and emerging economies as well as Small Islands and Developing States (SIDS). The analysis is based on UNWTO data for 478.5 million international tourist arrivals, or about 40% of the global total in 2015, for the years 1995–2015. Results show considerable differences in LOS between destinations, with a global trend of falling LOS, by 14.8% over the study period. However, in individual destination countries, LOS was found to be increasing. Analyses of LOS trends reveal that these can neither be explained by distance–decay relationships nor business to leisure arrival ratios. Results are discussed with regard for destination management and revenue optimisation, transport infrastructure needs, as well as sector greenhouse gas emissions.
Tourism today has a problem. It is addicted to growth, which is incompatible with sustainability goals. Despite three decades discussing pathways to sustainable tourism, tourism authorities continue to promote tourism growth despite the ecological and social limits of living on a finite planet. This article argues that tourism must be understood and managed with a wider context of sustainability. Additionally, strategic approaches to transitioning to a sufficiency approach to tourism and leisure is essential if sustainability is to be secured. Recommendations include: transforming the United Nations World Tourism Organization into an Office for Sustainable Mobilities, creating a global Tourism Wealth Fund, fostering diverse approaches to tourism strategies for development and regulating and managing tourism for a better balanced accounting for fairness, ecological limits, human benefit and sustainable futures. The growth fetish is resulting in tourism killing tourism. An approach focused on sustaining tourism is not a sustainable form of tourism send proof to Editor as well as author.
Although tourism destination governance has been a subject of academic enquiry for some time now, in practice, governance is still a challenge for many tourism destinations around the world. Adaptive co-management (ACM) is a dynamic approach to governance whereby institutional arrangements and ecological knowledge are continually revised through a process of 'learning-by-doing'. Founded on the active participation and collaboration of diverse stakeholder groups, ACM has been used extensively in the governance of natural resource contexts and so may offer valuable synergies for tourism governance; particularly the governance of tourism in protected areas. This review paper presents a critical review and synthesis of the ACM literature, identifying synergies and opportunities for enhancing tourism governance practices in protected area contexts through an ACM approach. A conceptual framework is developed from the review that identifies principles, stages, variables and expected outcomes of the ACM approach. Future research directions for ACM in tourism are proposed that incorporate governance, social learning and multi-stakeholder engagement.
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Sustainable tourism is not a static target, but a dynamic process of change, a transition. This book considers how monitoring using indicators can assist tourism to make such a sustainability transition. It encourages the reader to view tourism from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective and draws on material from a wide range of sources. The book explains why monitoring is important for different groups of stakeholders; public and private sector, NGOs and communities. It also examines important monitoring considerations such as what and where to measure, how much will monitoring cost and how the data can be presented. The book puts particular emphasis on indicator use and implementation. It highlights the process and techniques to develop and use indicators and then provides clear and detailed examples of monitoring in practice around the globe at different geographic scales.
One focus of ecosystem service research is the connection between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being as well as the socioeconomic influences on them. Despite existing investigations, exact impacts from the human system on the dynamics of biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being are still uncertain because of the insufficiency of the respective quantitative analyses. Our research aims are discerning the socioeconomic influences on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being and demonstrating mutual impacts between these items.
Tourism studies have a tradition of seeking alternative pathways to economic development that minimise negative externalities for destinations. However, despite discourses that focus on sustainability and conservation tourism's contribution to global environmental change have continued to increase. Instead, the contribution of tourism to sustainable development should be understood in the context of degrowth processes that offer an alternative discourse to the economism paradigm that reifies economic growth in terms of GDP. A paradigm supported by institutions such as the UNWTO. A steady state understanding of sustainability is postulated that stresses both efficiency and sufficiency in terms of the natural capital and ecological resources on which economic throughput is based. Steady state tourism is therefore defined as a tourism system that encourages qualitative development but not aggregate quantitative growth that unsustainably reduces natural capital.
Governance is a key concept in politics and public policy that is increasingly utilised in tourism. Using the notion of “policy as theory”, a typology of governance suitable for tourism is systematically developed. Categorical variables are developed from the relationship between state intervention and self-regulation and the relationships between policy actors and steering modes. The resultant matrix identifies four governance types: hierarchies, markets, networks and communities. A 12-point framework of governance identifies core elements, including classifying characteristics, policy themes, policy standpoints, democratic models, primary focus, views of non-central actors, distinctions between policymaking and implementation, success criteria, implementation gaps, the reasons and solutions for those gaps and the primary policy instruments used. An example of the application is provided using an analysis of state party's implementation of the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity. It is concluded that clear categorical variables contribute to improved formulation and evaluation of explanatory claims, help clarify key concepts and assist in the comparative analysis of governance and tourism policy between jurisdictions and over time. “”121993
The DPSIR framework was devised in the late 1990s as a tool for the reporting and analysis of environmental problems, ranging in scale from global systems to localized watersheds. Since then, international organizations have begun to apply this framework to the evalua-tion of sustainable development initiatives, to better understand and overcome barriers to sustainability. While this may seem a logical application for an integrated environmental assessment tool, the use of DPSIR in sustainable development will likely perpetuate the least satisfactory outcomes of development. DPSIR cannot address the impact of aggregated, informal responses on the drivers and pressures related to environmental problems and sustainability challenges. This problem is not merely an oversight of the framework, but an issue that emerges within the structure of DPSIR itself through the unexamined, unacknowledged hierarchy of actors that this framework implicitly creates with its typology. Therefore, a DPSIR-centered approach is not a new direction for development within international organizations, but instead, a reproduction of existing inequalities between actors and stakeholders within current approaches.
In recent years, there has been a boom in environmental assessment reports utilizing environmental indicators. Most of these
publications are based on the casual chain frameworks (e.g., Pressure–State–Response (PSR), Driving force–State–Response (DSR),
and Driving force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR)). These frameworks have made an important contribution by emphasising
the importance of causality. However, the reliance on simple uni-directional chains is at the same time not very conducive
to a good understanding of the complexity of the processes behind environmental indicators. This limits the usefulness of
these frameworks for environmental (impact) assessments. In this paper we propose an enhanced DPSIR (eDPSIR) framework for
environmental indicators that takes inter-relations of indicators into account by relying on the use of causal networks rather
than causal chains. It will be shown how the concept of causal networks can increase insight into the inter-relation of environmental
issues and associated indicators, can facilitate the identification of key indicators for particular kinds of questions, and
can provide a useful first step to the establishment of dose–response functions. Working with causal networks can contribute
to more appropriate environmental policies and better management decisions.
The Drivers–Pressures–State–Impacts–Responses (DPSIR) framework has evolved as an interdisciplinary tool to provide and communicate knowledge on the state and causal factors regarding environmental issues. Based on a social constructivist and discourse analytic perspective, this paper provides a critical examination of theoretical foundations of the DPSIR approach. We focus on the example of biodiversity, but our conclusions are relevant to other fields of environmental research. The DPSIR framework is viewed through the ‘lenses’ of four major types of discourses on biodiversity: Preservationist, Win–win, Traditionalist and Promethean. Based upon this examination, we argue that the DPSIR framework is not a tool generating neutral knowledge. Instead, application of this framework reproduces the discursive positions the applicant brings into it. We find that when applied in its traditional form to studies in the field of biodiversity, the framework is most compatible with the Preservationist discourse type and tends to favour conservationist and to neglect other positions. Thus, contrary to what is often claimed, we find that the DPSIR framework has shortcomings as a tool for establishing good communication between researchers, on the one hand, and stakeholders and policy makers on the other. The problem with the framework is the lack, so far, of efforts to find a satisfactory way of dealing with the multiple attitudes and definitions of issues by stakeholders and the general public.
Tourism destinations behave as dynamic evolving complex systems, encompassing numerous factors and activities that are interdependent and whose relationships might be highly nonlinear. Traditional research in this field has looked after a linear approach: variables and relationships are monitored in order to forecast future outcomes with simplified models and to derive implications for management organizations. The limitations of this approach have become apparent in many cases, and several authors claim for a new and different attitude. While complex systems ideas are among the most promising interdisciplinary research themes emerged in the last few decades, very little has been done so far in the field of tourism. This article presents a brief overview of the complexity framework as a means to understand structures, characteristics, and relationships, and explores the implications and contributions of the complexity literature on tourism systems. The objective is to allow the reader to gain a deeper appreciation of this point of view.
Tourists are not all the same, they have different pictures of their ideal vacation. Tourists are heterogeneous. Market segmentation is the strategic tool to account for heterogeneity among tourists by grouping them into market segments which include members similar to each other and dissimilar to members of other segments. Both tourism researchers and tourism industry use market segmentation widely to study opportunities for competitive advantage in the marketplace. This chapter explains the foundations of market segmentation, discusses alternative ways in which market segments can be formed, guides the reader through two practical examples, highlights methodological difficulties and points to milestone publications and recently published applications of market segmentation in the field of tourism.
Purpose
This paper aims to place current burgeoning interest in overtourism into historical context.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws upon the author’s experiences of working for approximately four decades on tourism and recreation using such concepts as impacts and carrying capacity.
Findings
This paper shows that overtourism is not a new concept. Rather it has a substantial history, although early origins within park and recreation settings in North America have been superseded by an emphasis on the urban areas of historic towns, particularly in Europe.
Originality/value
The paper provides a corrective to the common assumption that overtourism is a new phenomenon and, in doing so, points out the deficiencies of concepts and approaches, such as carrying capacity, that are being revived but have been used previously, criticized and found wanting.
Overtourism is a rapidly evolving concept relevant to sustainable tourism. While various definitions of overtourism exist, we conceive it as a form of post-mass tourism phenomenon that has transitioned from a state of ‘mass’ to a state of ‘over’, implying irreversible impacts on local populations and landscapes. As such, the focus of overtourism, as discussed in this paper, is on a destination’s supply-side attributes. Using a case study approach, we explore overtourism concerns in five countries, namely France, USA, China, Spain and Italy. The main objective of the paper is to explore the kinds of economic taxations used in managing overtourism. Study findings indicate tourist taxes and entrance fees as popular approaches employed in overtourism concerns; however, their effectiveness in solving environmental problems remains debatable. We propose a combination of destination specific economic and non-economic policies to combat overtourism including the imposing of correctives taxes and fees; sharing benefits among the locals and tourist authorities; maximising the social and economic benefits from tourism for local residents directly impacted by development; smoothing and extending visitors spread and flow; curbing fossils fuels energy consumption and regulating accommodation supplies. The long-term solution is the formulation and implementation of tourism policies that are integrated with the energy, environment and socio-economic policies at the national level. In the absence of integrative policy frameworks, many popular destinations around the world will eventually have to confront issues arising from overtourism.
Purpose
Urban heritage areas are under significant pressure as a result of increasing populations and significant visitor growth. The growth in visitor numbers is of particular concern as this is leading to the phenomenon of overtourism. In Asia, although the issue of overtourism requires immediate attention in order to avoid the loss of tangible and intangible heritage, many of those responsible for managing urban heritage areas lack the skills and competencies to prevent it or mitigate its effects. The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory competency framework for managing urban heritage areas sustainably, for thereby preventing and/or mitigating overtourism.
Design/methodology/approach
In developing this framework, the authors examined how the context needs to change in order to implement sustainable urban heritage management, and they identified the particular competencies and associated skills and knowledge that are required of the stakeholders responsible for urban heritage areas to manage, prevent and/or mitigate overtourism. This analysis was based on a series of case studies examining the planning and management of urban heritage areas in Asia.
Findings
It was found that meeting three key objectives was essential in improving the competencies of stakeholder heritage area planners and developers as it relates to overtourism: integrated team approach, a mindset change on the part of key stakeholders and a common vision guiding the development process.
Research limitations/implications
It was found that in order for urban heritage managers to sustainably manage the heritage under their responsibility and prevent and/or mitigate overtourism, a fundamental shift in mindset is required on the part of key stakeholders, moving away from a “silo” approach and towards an integrated approach to urban heritage management, in which the team leaders and management teams have an interdisciplinary set of competencies and are supported in the planning and management process by subject/discipline specialists. The authors found that the set of competencies that are required by heritage management teams lie at the intersection of the four key areas of policy and planning intervention in urban heritage areas, which are: community economic development, urban planning and design, urban heritage area planning, and tourism planning and management. The competencies can be categorized under three headings: interdisciplinary perspective, soft management competencies and technical competencies.
Originality/value
This paper was developed based on the authors’ experience in planning and tourism initiatives throughout Asia and on a long history of urban heritage tourism and planning work around the world. Most of the discussion focusses on how urban destinations can prevent and/or address the issues associated with overtourism by enhancing the competencies of the teams and practitioners who are responsible for managing urban heritage areas.
This Regional Spotlight focuses on the challenges of over-tourism facing some destinations in New Zealand and how it affects both the local communities hosting visitors and the brand image of the country. Like many destinations around the world, there is a need at the local level to understand how to better manage tourist flows and ensure sustainable development of tourism in New Zealand. The strain of over-tourism is being experienced differently throughout the country, with some towns and villages risking damage to their natural environment and residents' goodwill more than others. Over-tourism also threatens New Zealand's positive destination brand image strongly associated with picturesque landscapes and a clean and green natural environment. Thus, concerted action at all levels of government, together with the commitment of industry, and the authentic involvement of residents, is needed to adopt a sustainable market orientation to tourism development that genuinely meets the needs of present and future generations.
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in establishing destination appeal and reflect on the implications for smart tourism destination development. The focus is on identifying and analysing technological solutions by considering six elements shaping tourism destination appeal, namely, attractions, public and private amenities, accessibility, human resources, image and character and price.
Design/methodology/approach
To deliver public and private sector implications, the authors have reviewed and analysed relevant papers that were published in hospitality and tourism journals (42 Q1 and Q2 ranked journals based on SCImago Journal Rank) between 2010 and 2018.
Findings
ICTs affect the marketing and management of tourism destinations. They foster their innovativeness (e.g. interpretation of destination factors, new travel trends, innovative products, VA and AR), contribute sustainability (e.g. visitor management and reducing the use of resources) and improve accessibility (e.g. information provision, navigation, availability of sites and travel planning). The adaptation of technological solutions in the hospitality industry can be related to increased productivity, profitability and quality of services. Additionally, ICTs facilitate visitor decision-making (e.g. online distribution channels and information accessibility), influence overall travel experience and enable the sharing of visitors’ impressions.
Research limitations/implications
The significant limitations of this study include restrictions on the timing of publication and on journal selection.
Originality/value
This paper reviews full-length research papers that were published in relevant tourism and hospitality journals. This paper complements the current literature by addressing the role of ICTs in establishing destination appeal and reflecting on implications for smart destination development and future research.
Is overtourism a new issue in tourism development, or just a new term for an existing phenomenon? The problems caused in some destinations by the increasing growth in tourism have resulted in the recent introduction of the term ‘overtourism’, recalling issues discussed in the literature since the early ‘70s. This paper aims to answer the question of whether overtourism is a novel issue through an initial exploratory study.
While almost all travel destinations seek to increase tourists, less attention is paid to balancing the growth in tourists against consequent visitor–resident irritants, which is essential if the objective is to make tourism more sustainable. Overlooking the carrying capacity of a destination is a common mistake committed when formulating travel visa policies. Overtourism is a term recently used to contextualize this potential hazard to many popular tourist destinations worldwide. One notable case in point is the “multiple-entry permit” policy implemented in Hong Kong which is causing conflicts between mainland Chinese visitors and Hong Kong residents. To investigate the overtourism phenomenon in Hong Kong we develop a hysteresis model. We hypothesized that ceteris paribus, the implementation of a “multiple-entry permit” policy would lead to an overwhelming growth in day-trippers and cause a permanently negative cointegrating relationship with residents’ sentiment. We confirmed our hypothesis by using the bound tests of Autoregressive-Distributed Lag models. Our findings suggest that policymakers should note that the deterioration in visitor–resident relations from overtourism may exhibit a significant hysteresis effect that will persist far beyond the original stimulus. “Developing resilience in tourism” and “exploring sustainable degrowth” are discussed as potential strategies for long-term tourism growth.
City tourism has been booming for years. As a result, the number of tourists per inhabitant increases in many city destinations. This can lead to conflicts over the simultaneous (over-)use of spaces, often referred to as overtourism. Therefore, many studies of over-visited city destinations focus on the social carrying capacity. Whereas many studies investigate one aspect created by overtourism, the present study concentrates on the city as a whole with all its distinct tourist phenomena. Against this background the social carrying capacity of Munich is analyzed by focusing on the perception and evaluation of different forms of tourism in Munich and their specific impact on the daily life of the inhabitants. A survey conducted in 2018 identifies how the inhabitants of Munich perceive different forms of urban tourism, how much they feel disturbed by them and how they react to them, for example by avoiding the identified tourist spaces. The paper outlines that there are different forms of overtourism, and the phenomenon tends to be more complex than the term suggests, and that it is crucial to differentiate between the various forms of urban tourism depending on the number of tourists, their characteristics, and their spatial and temporal distribution.
The recent discourse on overtourism and anti-tourist attitudes has opened up the space to reimagine tourism development and planning. Employing an interdisciplinary approach we combined research by design methodology and rapid ethnography in order to problematise Dubrovnik's overtourism. The research turned for inspiration to the ex-Yugoslavian resorts and integrated planning. The paper advocates a praxical, socially informed and environmentally aware perspective and proposes interventions that offer the potential of practical applications in Dubrovnik's urban planning. Focusing on the need for connectivity and continuity the interventions address issues of segregation and marginalisation of local groups, such as students and seasonal workers. Inspired by the utopian ideals of socialist resorts, the research developed an urban armature that aims to connect the different parts of the old and modern city, reclaim tourist spaces for locals, and create open spaces in local areas.
Protected area managers need a wide range of skills to manage the complexities of protected area systems. The IUCN Best Practice Guidelines Series aims to address these needs, including sharing experience drawn from good practices around the world. Many protected areas are managed for tourism and visitation as one component of achieving their purpose, involving a wide range of stakeholders, including the private sector. The rapidly expanding demand for tourism development associated with protected areas emphasizes the need to provide clear guidance that will contribute towards sustainable tourism consistent with the primary conservation objectives of protected areas. The legal, political, economic and social contexts for tourism in and around protected areas vary widely across the globe, yet there are many common elements and a diversity of experiences that can enrich the understanding of those involved.
These guidelines are an initiative of the IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist (TAPAS) Group. One of several voluntary groups convened under IUCN WCPA, the TAPAS Group is a network of over 500 volunteers who are committed to promoting sustainable tourism in protected areas as a tool in achieving the long-term conservation of nature and associated ecosystem and cultural values. The TAPAS Group’s work includes disseminating knowledge, case studies and best practices on tourism and protected areas. This is the third edition on the subject of tourism in IUCN WCPA’s Best Practice Guidelines series, and builds on the foundations created by these guidelines published in 1992 (McNeely, et al., 1992) and in 2002 (Eagles, et al., 2002).
This Regional Spotlight considers the issue of over-tourism and the (ecological) survival of Venice as a destination. In Venice, ecology, economics and culture are inextricably linked to the conflict between human and natural capital. The attempts to neatly arrange the challenges in sustaining the city, convenient categorical interest groups and occasional hostility in implementing policies call for an ambidextrous management approach (exploitation and exploration) instead of the Trexit approach suggested by the anti-tourism movements.
The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework was developed in the late 1990s to structure and organize indicators in a meaningful way. Since then, the framework has increasingly been applied in research projects with the aim of supporting decision making. A number of attributes of the framework regarding structuring and communication issues in research further strengthen its original purpose of bridging the science policy gap. We reviewed several studies that were mainly concerned with criticism and drawbacks of the DPSIR framework. Based on these studies and our own experiences in applying the DPSIR framework in an EU project to develop a decision support tool, we developed two criteria that we believe are crucial for policy relevant research: (a) the development of conceptual models integrating knowledge from different disciplines, specialists and policy makers, as well as those affected by their decisions; and (b) the potential to explain the results and analysis of research to different disciplines, specialists, stakeholders and the public and to demonstrate alternatives and provide decision options. We analyzed 21 studies using the DPSIR framework with regard to their relevance for decision making. We analyzed the definitions of the five DPSIR elements and whether specific end users were addressed in the respective studies. We found that in many studies, the DPSIR elements were defined in literature review or by researchers and that only a few studies targeted specific government authorities as users of research results. Eight out of 21 studies applied transdisciplinary research concepts and integrated broad ranges of stakeholder opinions and values into the research. Nine out of 21 studies presented alternative outcomes to decision makers and used the valuation of these outcomes by stakeholders to add further support to the decision-making process. The different positive and negative implications of the DPSIR framework are discussed with reference to research that supports policy making. Finally, we conclude that studies employing DPSIR may provide effective solutions for “real world problems” by taking into account additional criteria based on knowledge integration, stakeholder involvement and the provision of alternatives. Therefore, DPSIR is a useful tool to support decision making by means of showing solid evidence with alternatives and decision options, rather than by presenting predetermined solutions.
In the wake of the Brundtland Report's articulation of the concept of sustainable development (1987), ecotourism has been promoted as an optimum way to achieve sustainable development in the tourism sphere. Ecotourism, as a subset of sustainable tourism, is touted as a win-win endeavour – a high-yield, low-volume strategy is often pursued in the hope of achieving good economic returns for local communities while simultaneously creating fewer negative environmental impacts than other economic development options. However, the concept of sustainable development contains the tensions of an oxymoron as the conservation implied in “sustainability” conflicts with the growth and resource use implied in “development”. In an era where market imperatives dominate, this results in “trade-offs” between requirements for environmental conservation and demands for greater economic growth through tourism. This paper narrates the story of governance and the development approval process for an ecolodge on Kangaroo Island (KI) in order to explore the nature of such trade-offs. Evidence suggests that the requirements of environmental protection are “traded off” in the pursuit of tourism development and the income and employment it provides. Is sustainability possible when such incremental development, in fact, results in “death by a thousand cuts”? 1987-“”“”
This article defends the proposal of sustainable degrowth. A starting premise is that resource and CO2 limits render further growth of the economy unsustainable. If degrowth is inevitable, the question is how it can become socially sustainable, i.e. a prosperous and stable, rather than a catastrophic, descent. Pricing mechanisms alone are unlikely to secure smooth adaptation; a full ensemble of environmental and redistributive policies is required, including - among others - policies for a basic income, reduction of working hours, environmental and consumption taxes and controls on advertising. Policies like these, that threaten to "harm" the economy, are less and less likely to be implemented within existing market economies, whose basic institutions (financial, property, political, and redistributive) depend on and mandate continuous economic growth. An intertwined cultural and political change is needed that will embrace degrowth as a positive social development and reform those institutions that make growth an imperative. Sustainable degrowth is therefore not just a structuring concept; it is a radical political project that offers a new story and a rallying slogan for a social coalition built around the aspiration to construct a society that lives better with less.
The Guanabara Bay basin, SE Brazil, is shown as an experimental site to evaluate development and sustainability in coastal areas. We developed a Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework in a practical context to integrate natural and socio-economic indicators. Sustainability reflects public policies towards the utilization of natural resources. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) included in DPSIR evaluates losses and benefits resulting from such policies. CBA has some limitations due to the difficulty of valuating environmental goods and services. Instead of valuating them we propose to combine sustainability indicators and defensive expenditures for the implementation of public policies. This approach agrees with the environmental conservation paradigm implicit in sustainable development. It allows an estimation of the physical natural capital depreciation (PNCD), by using it to correct the gross domestic product (GDP) of the study area, and demonstrating the present non-sustainable characteristics of the current policies applied to the area.
Sustainability science needs approaches that allow for the integration of knowledge across disciplines and scales. This paper suggests an approach to conceptualize problems of unsustainability by embedding the Drivers–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) scheme within a multi-level institutional framework represented by Hägerstrand’s system of nested domains. The proposed taxonomy helps to decipher and to better understand key casual chains and societal responses at the appropriate spatial levels for particular sustainability problem areas. To illustrate the scheme more concretely the example of recent problem-solving efforts for Baltic Sea eutrophication driven by Swedish agriculture is examined. The discussion focuses on how the scheme fulfills the four research strategy requirements within the field of sustainability science and how the scheme is distinct from alternative approaches.
This paper is an attempt to apply the Driving forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Responses (DPSIR) framework to identify the issues of pollinator loss. The linkages between the significant pressures on insect pollinators, their underlying socio-economic driving forces and responses, with the focus on Europe, are addressed in the study. A review of literature revealed the shortage of empirical studies that prove direct links between policy responses and specific pressures on the pollinators. Based on written evidence and expert judgement, land use practices and the use of agrochemicals were regarded as the most significant pressures on different functional groups of pollinators. As demonstrated in the study, agricultural and rural development policy has been the key driving force of these pressures. The application of the DPSIR framework proved to be useful in identifying the pathway of human pressures on pollinators. The study also concludes that there is further need for specific empirical research on the effects and effectiveness of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures (agri-environment measures in particular) to support farming practices that facilitate the protection of the environment and the prevention of pollinator loss.
couple ecological integrity, ecosystem services and well-being within the DPSIR framework
- For Example
- Atkins
For example, Atkins et al. (2011) and Hou et al. (2014) couple ecological integrity, ecosystem
services and well-being within the DPSIR framework.
Overtourism: Issues, Realities and Solutions
- R Dodds
- Butler
Dodds, R. and Butler, W. R. (eds.) (2019) Overtourism: Issues, Realities and Solutions. Berlin: Walter
de Gruyter.
Using the DPSIR Framework to Develop a Conceptual Model
EPA (2015) Using the DPSIR Framework to Develop a Conceptual Model: Technical Support
Document. EPA/600/R-15/154 (August). Retrieved from http:// nepis.epa.gov/ Exe/ ZyPURL.cgi
?Dockey = P100O10D.TXT.
Overtourism: Causes, symptoms and treatment
- H Goodwin
Goodwin, H. (2019) Overtourism: Causes, symptoms and treatment. Tourismus Wissen (April), 110-114.
Tourism policy and governance: Quo vadis? Tourism Management Perspectives
- M Joppe
Joppe, M. (2018) Tourism policy and governance: Quo vadis? Tourism Management Perspectives, 25,
201-204.
Workshop on a Comprehensive/Detailed Assessment of the Vulnerability of Water Resources to Environmental Change in Africa Using River Basin Approach
- P Kristensen
Kristensen, P. (2004) The DPSIR framework. Workshop on a Comprehensive/Detailed Assessment
of the Vulnerability of Water Resources to Environmental Change in Africa Using River Basin
Approach. UNEP Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya. https:// doi.org/ 10.1007/ 978 -3 -642 -20736 -5.