Welfare rise, spatial mobility, and global information and communication channels (in particular, social media) have prompted the emergence of a specific booming and rapidly growing mobility industry all over the world, namely tourism. The tourist sector (including recreation and leisure activities) has turned into a complex contemporaneous socio-economic and geographic phenomenon, with a multiplicity of travel motives (e.g., entertainment, culture, relaxed life style, wellness, nature, etc.) and with a wide variety of impacts (e.g., urban- and regional-economic effects, crowding phenomena, environmental decay, etc.). Time has now come to offer a synthesis of the analytical apparatus in tourism research, with particular attention for system-wide, socio-economic and environmental dimensions of this important global industry. Tourism has in the past been a largely neglected field in regional science research. And therefore, it is laudable that João Romão has taken the decision to compose a systematically designed and well crafted monograph on the socio-economic, environmental and spatial dimensions of modern tourism. It offers a wealth of analytical insights and quantitative research tools for advanced tourism studies. It also fills an important gap in the current regional science literature. Peter Nijkamp, Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam

The pursuit of development has increasingly prioritized sustainability. Sustainable approaches to development and adopting people’s well-being as a main goal have substantial implications for the competitiveness of territories. When viewed through a nature lens, sustainability maintains a close connection with circular economy. If sustainability is the paradigm to which the world needs to commit, businesses, policy makers and people have to deal with the difficulties and uncertainties arising from those requirements and other severe phenomena, like international armed conflicts and pandemic crises. By using case studies, this book addresses territorial bottlenecks and grapples with social and developmental challenges. The book intends to function as a practical guide for policymakers and practitioners, providing them with the knowledge necessary to adopt and implement sustainable development strategies. It advocates the implementation of socially inclusive policies and the adoption of innovative governance models able to safeguard democratic principles while enhancing the efficacy of decision-making processes.

Creative Tourism and Sustainable Territories: Insights from Southern Europe examines the growth and development of this emerging and fast developing area of tourism practice, while assessing it’s impacts on sustainability and regional development.

With the exponential rise in leisure mobility, tourism has increasingly become of great economic significance. Cultural heritage, such as museums, churches, historical landscapes, urban parks, and exhibitions attract many visitors and countries, regions and cities which house such historic-cultural amenities have seen increasingly large waves of tourists. While an avalanche of tourists has a positive impact on the local economy, such modern mass tourism also brings about negative externalities such as congestion, decline in quality of life, low access to cultural amenities and loss of local identity; to the extent that the sustainability conditions of a locality might be endangered. This tourism dilemma is particularly pronounced in cities with a rich cultural past, such as Venice, Naples and Amsterdam. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars from North America and Europe, this book examines the interface of local cultural resources and modern mass tourism from a sustainability perspective. It puts forward innovative methodologies and best case practice for future cultural conservation policies.

This book focuses on digital institutions and the advanced technologies used on their basis, as well as their contribution to sustainable development in the unity of seventeen SDGs formulated by the UN, which is sequentially disclosed in six parts of the book. This book is dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the role of the digital economy in sustainable development and the offering of a set of scientific, methodological, and practical recommendations to increase the scale and effectiveness of this role. The first part explores the training of digital personnel for sustainable development, the second part reveals the regional features of Russia, and the third part describes the industry specifics of using digital technologies in entrepreneurship in support of sustainable development. The fourth part deals with financial, organizational, and managerial issues of using digital technologies in entrepreneurship in support of sustainable development, the fifth part is devoted to security, international factors, and risks, and the sixth part deals with the legal framework and state regulation of digital technologies and sustainable development institutions. The novelty of the book lies in its reliance on an institutional approach that allows rethinking and systematically studying the contribution of the digital economy to sustainable development. The book is aimed at scholars who will find in it an institutional understanding of the digital economy’s support for sustainable development and ways to improve it. The secondary target audience of the book is the subject of managing the sustainable development of the digital economy. For them, the book contains relevant and illustrative examples from practice and applied recommendations.

This book enables readers to develop a multidisciplinary understanding of natural, human-made, and coupled human-natural systems. The authors explore the structure, function, and dynamic mechanisms of various systems, both natural and human-made, as well as analyze their reciprocal interactions under the concept of “coupled human-natural systems.” The chapters challenge traditional planning and management assumptions and strategies for natural resources, human-altered systems, and the environment. Acknowledging the critical role of effective regulations, policies, and governance structures, the authors analyze advanced research and practices on policy design for managing natural, human-made, and coupled human-natural systems. They conduct impact evaluation and integrative ecosystems assessment, as well as discuss policy interventions and decision-making strategies. They acknowledge the localization of policy design, considering regional and global dynamics that shape responses of local human-made and coupled human-natural systems. A special collection of chapters analyzes legal foundations for sustainable development and strong institution. The authors explore models from both natural and social sciences to obtain and present significant research results. The book is a dispensable source of sustainability research and practice in human-made, natural, and coupled human-natural systems. It is for the scholars, practitioners, and advanced graduate students interested in systems theories, methodologies, and applications.

Inland territories are currently of great interest in the tourism industry based on their natural and cultural resources, the surroundings and valuing of natural spaces, local traditions and cultures, ways of life, and the experiences of territories with authenticity. In this context, ecocultural resources are determining factors of development for the mobilization of economic and socio-cultural initiatives, promoting tourism and generating conditions of sustainability in inland territories. They are spaces of opportunity, maintaining resources and heritage with high preservation, enhancing new perceptions and forms of use, generating territorial cohesion, promoting self-esteem for local communities, and providing diverse and differentiated tourist experiences. The involvement of the community is decisive in valuing the destination, understanding local ecocultural realities, and developing the processes of preservation and service creation. It is considered a necessary approach for inclusion, protection, and aggregating the ecological and cultural binomial as a determinant for deeper knowledge of territorial realities and their specificities. Thus, sustainability and participation are crucial for the long-term future of inland tourism activities, with local governance assuming an important role in building tourism capacity, mobilizing resources, and streamlining entrepreneurial initiatives. Challenges and New Opportunities for Tourism in Inland Territories: Ecocultural Resources and Sustainable Initiatives provides knowledge on the trends for tourism in inland territories, territorial innovation, good governance practices, new projects in inland tourism, and other important aspects in the field. The topics covered include sustainability of local culture, cultural heritage, social responsibility, local governance, public policies, and innovation and tourism in inland territories. This book is essential for tourism management organizations, environmentalists, hotel managers, restaurateurs, tourism departments, practitioners, policymakers, public officials, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the innovative practices and initiatives in tourism with a specific focus on inland territories.

This book discusses how cities’ identities are formed and developed over time and portrays architecture and the arts as the embodiment of the historical, cultural, and economic characteristics of cities. Furthermore, it explores strategies and solutions to preserve the cultural heritage along the Silk Road, representing a compilation of research addressing the economic and social opportunities and challenges related to the development of a more sustainable and responsible approach to tourism development and the preservation of heritage. As such, it covers a wide range of audiences including economists, architects, planners, tourism experts, and decision-makers interested in making use of cities' available resources and features, offering strategies to explore development opportunities through sustainable and responsible tourism along the Silk Road. This book is a culmination of selected research papers from the first version of the International Conference on "Silk Road Sustainable Tourism Development and Cultural Heritage (SRSTDCH)" which was held in 2021 in collaboration with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the European Interdisciplinary Silk Road Tourism Centre, Greece and the 5th Edition of the International Conference on “Cities’ Identity Through Architecture and Arts (CITAA)” which was held in 2021 in collaboration with University of Pisa, Italy.

This book tackles the question of how tourism development and suitable policies can be used to promote sustainable development in Low-Density Territories (LDTs). The respective chapters, written by prominent experts, identify the problems associated with LDTs; highlight the comparative advantages of these territories with regard to tourism; propose methodologies for assessing the impact of tourism; and present case studies on the application of sustainable policies in tourism. Given its scope, it will be especially interesting for academics and researchers investigating LDTs and sustainable tourism, and for policymakers interested in developing these territories. LDTs represent an economic challenge, especially because most of them are home to an increasingly ageing population unable to pursue economic development. In these territories, tourism is emerging as an excellent opportunity to promote innovative dynamics, to lure investment, and to attract new people. However, it is important to promote sustainable tourism, which preserves the environment and communities’ quality of life. The Chapter "Tourism, immigrants and lifestyle entrepreneurship: The (In)coming of people as a key factor for sustainability of low-density territories – A case study in Portugal" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.