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Measuring Tourism Sustainability: The Case of Andalusia

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Regional Science Perspectives on Tourism and Hospitality

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the concept and measurement of sustainable tourism at regional level. Various contributions towards the definition and the measurement of sustainable tourism are presented, with special attention paid to the initiative of Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism. This project, launched by the World Tourism Organization in 2015, aims to build an international statistical framework for the measurement of sustainable tourism, by integrating economic, social, and environmental indicators. Furthermore, several specific issues are discussed in this chapter regarding the analysis and implementation of tourism sustainability at a regional level, which are relevant both for academics and for local and regional public authorities. Finally, the System of Sustainable Tourism Development Indicators for Andalusia is presented as a good practice of a regional monitoring system for the measurement of sustainability in tourism, designed under the basis of the MST initiative. Andalusia, the southern Spanish region, is a major international tourist destination.

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Acknowledgements

This study benefits from the Project “Tourism SMEs, Global Value Chains, and Innovation” (INTURPYME), which was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in the framework of the Spanish National 2013 R&D Plan (ECO2013-42889-P).

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Correspondence to Isidoro Romero .

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Tejada, P., Romero, I., Moreno, P. (2021). Measuring Tourism Sustainability: The Case of Andalusia. In: Ferrante, M., Fritz, O., Öner, Ö. (eds) Regional Science Perspectives on Tourism and Hospitality. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61274-0_21

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