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This chapter outlines the major findings of a survey on the rationale of the European Union actions for supporting tourism development and whether these undertakings can lead to a distinctive tourism policymaking. According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union documentation, the most important instrument for the implementation of policy is based on tourism-related separate actions analysis, in a way that would enable one to compare the policies at the national and international level. This study suggests that tourism becomes a field whose issues and actions are taken at the regional level. This calls for creating the necessary conditions for the development of the tourism product at the European Union level. Until now, European Union practices do not portend the formation of a distinctive policy in the tourism industry.

Introduction: Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and an important source of income, taxes and jobs while being closely linked to social, economic and environmental well-being of many countries, especially of the developing countries. Sustainable tourism can be considered as an extension of the sustainability concept in the tourism sector, to meet the current needs of tourists, without compromising the possibilities of future generations to satisfy their own needs. The sustainable development of the tourism sector cannot be achieved if certain social groups will not be able to continue accessing tourism services and, at the same time, if the negative aspects of the environmental impact are neglected. The components of sustainable development actually form the core of social innovation activities. New business models, digital devices, user-generated content, big data and online commerce have positive effects on sustainable tourism. But the quality of the tourist product is influenced by the quality of the human factor. Activities that can be performed remotely will be based on new technologies, which require new skills and competencies for employees. It is necessary to reconfigure the implementation of the tourist services process, in which the human interaction is reduced and, at the same time, the client experience is stimulated. The COVID-19 crisis can be considered a catalytic moment to reconsider the growth trajectory of the tourism industry, in the sense that all activities can be reorganised so that the development of tourism is sustainable, with a less destructive impact on the social and environmental component.

Aim: The purpose of this chapter is to review the valences of sustainable tourism in the context of societal changes at the European level.

Method: An extensive literature review was carried out and then the authors discussed the critical issues affecting sustainable tourism. To achieve this, the authors incorporated findings from various researches into four categories. The result is a new perspective and a new potential framework for analysis.

Findings: The authors identified four critical factors that have the potential to influence the sustainable tourism development: social innovation, digitalisation, management of crisis situations and human capital development.

Originality of the Study: This chapter offers a new perspective on the factors that influence the sustainable tourism. These new factors offer potential for further in-depth analysis and refinement.

Geotechnologies have a long tradition in several areas of society and research. The recent development of the ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies opened several doors to the contribution of tourism. Emergent technologies contributions to tourism and planning such as web mapping, augmented reality (AR), crowdsourcing and crowdsensing are relatively recent, and there is a lack of research around their potential for Creative Tourism enhancement. For example, combining web mapping with AR or storytelling can be an excellent contribution to operators, planners and tourists. For research purposes, new opportunities are open, particularly by integrating community-shared data. It is well known for the popularity of social networks, the exponential growth of photo sharing, but few studies have been implemented to understand their contribution to research. This chapter focuses on emerging geotechnologies concerning cultural mapping, Creative Tourism and sustainability. Since it is a new growing niche, more research is needed to develop and understand the potential of new approaches. Besides traditional techniques such as quantitative (e.g. surveys) and qualitative ones (e.g. interviews, focus groups and world café), it revises the role of geotechnologies on Creative Tourism development and growing activities. Results from case studies from Europe are analysed.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a holistic overview of issues and topics regarding tourism geography in Greece: from its origins to its current situation. By following a historical tracking of tourism activities in this country and the growth of tourism geography as an academic domain at the university level, the main goal is to analyze the shift of academic research on tourism from geographical perspective, as presented in both the Greek and English language literature. The chapter concludes that there is a need for practical orientation and redefinition of typologies of tourism geographies in order to apply a more sustainable and cross-disciplinary approach in the academic discourse on Greek tourism.

The reflections in this chapter explore the genesis of tourism geography in the Netherlands and Belgium marked by political and linguistic constraints, plus historical, political, and cultural factors, as well as the footprints of some pioneers. The dual language use of French and Dutch/Flemish has often been offered as an excuse for the low profile of the region’s universities in international knowledge networks. However, thanks to the involvement in thematic networks and a growing pressure for researchers to publish internationally in peer-reviewed journals, the research landscape in tourism has definitely changed. Geographical and spatial approaches to tourism have led to a colorful research landscape today.