Monitoring sustainable management in local tourist destinations: performance, drivers and barriers

Abstract

This paper presents a project involving the design, application, and monitoring of tourism indicators for the sustainable management of local destinations. The aim is to assess the tourism management of destinations and to identify the main drivers of, and barriers to, sustainable management, through: a quantitative assessment based on indicator calculations to assess the degree of sustainability of the destination; and a qualitative assessment through in-depth interviews with the destinations’ managers to assess the performance of tourism management. Results reveal that in recent years the majority of destinations have defined strategic tourism plans; the provision of accessible tourist resources and products has increased; more tourists use public transport; policies to minimize light and noise have expanded; and more beaches and ports have been awarded the blue flag symbol. Despite these improvements, a general decrease in traditional economic variables is identified (e.g. spending per tourist, and average length of stay), as well as in certified accommodation (e.g. DGQA, EMAS, EU Ecolabel and Biosphere). Time constraints and limited human and technical resources are the main obstacles to the introduction of more long-term, sustainable planned measures. However, the research shows that improvements are achieved when local managers receive support from higher-level public bodies.