Sustainability and tourism development in three Italian destinations: stakeholders' opinions and behaviours

Abstract

The paper focuses on tourism sustainability and environmental policies. It presents the findings of an empirical research study on environmental awareness in three Italian areas. The aim of the research was to study local stakeholders' environmental awareness so as to verify their willingness to support environmental needs. Institutional stakeholders and local tourism entrepreneurs were interviewed at each site. The areas have been analysed as case studies in order to evaluate the local communities' commitment towards protecting the environment. In addition, the opinions of different stakeholders within each site and across sites have been compared. This work also underlines the importance of endogenous processes of a socio-cultural type, such as primary drivers of innovative eco-compatible behaviours, compared with the role played by market-driven external forces or traditional government regulation. The findings demonstrate that, in lacking shared responsibility, conflicts and tensions inside the local community paralyse innovative environmental behaviours when they ought really to be turned into opportunities for debate so that shared strategies and solutions may be identified.

Keywords:

• stakeholders' environmental awareness
• sustainability
• tourism enterprises

Notes

The research results and a previous version of this paper were presented at the IASK International Conference ‘Advances in Tourism Research’, held in Aveiro, Portugal, 26–28 May 2008.

The full report is available at the URL http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/files/docs/tsg/tsg_final_report_en.pdf

The full texts of the communications are available at the URL http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/documents/communications/index_en.htm

The project was conducted by the Institute for Service Industry Research as lead partner from 2005 to 2007 with the involvement of partners from Greece and Italy. The project was financed by the EU, within the framework of Archimed Program, whose priority axis is the integrated and sustainable management of cultural and natural resources and landscapes.

The empirical surveys were carried out in summer 2007.

The structured questionnaire submitted to local entrepreneurs implemented the questionnaire used in a previous survey on the Sorrentine–Amalfi coast (Petrillo, 2001).

On this issue, references are indicated in the previous section.

Certification for EMS requires compliance with the ISO 14000 standards or the EMAS regulation. Both EMAS and ISO 14000 are systems of voluntary regulation in tourism activities, which only differ in their validity range. EMAS is recognised at the European level, whereas ISO 14000 is recognised worldwide, as it is an international standard. Eco-label is a European environmental quality label, informing consumers that products or services have met certain levels of environmental performance, and rewarding products and services whose environmental impact is limited during their whole life cycle. Unlike EMS that is process related, eco-label is a selective and voluntary instrument, both product and performance related.