Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse to what extent the recognition of sustainable management of coastal resources may act as a driver of local economic growth. To this end, the importance of Blue Flag certification in promoting the development of a local tourism sector is analysed. Using a natural experiment based on some localities increasing the number of their certified bathing areas through recognition of sustainable management, whereas other localities reduce them, we analyse the impact of that recognition on the evolution of the local tourism sector in Comunitat Valenciana (CV) in Spain. CV is the Spanish region with the largest number of beaches with this award, and tourism linked to beaches and marine activities represents a large share of its economy. The results confirm that in this case, Blue Flag recognition has a positive impact on the economic development of the tourism sector in those municipalities that have opted for more sustainable tourism, whereas municipalities that have not introduced any sustainable ecolabel schemes have had lesser development of tourism.
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