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Despite indicators being regarded as ideal tools to help achieve sustainability in tourism, their application within Ireland remains under researched. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to advance the knowledge base in the hospitality and tourism field by presenting baseline research from the first application of all 43 of the indicators that make up the European tourism indicator system (ETIS) in county Clare, Ireland.

This study used the pre-existing visitor, enterprise and resident surveys that accompany the ETIS indicator system in a number of honey pot destinations within county Clare. This approach was complemented further through desk research to gather the necessary data on all 43 core indicators of the ETIS.

While the application of the ETIS in county Clare constitutes a significant advancement towards evidence informed planning for tourism. There does exist a number of information gaps relating to specific core indicators of the ETIS. Which, if not monitored and benchmarked over time, could have serious ramifications for the future sustainability of tourism in Ireland.

This paper not only discuss the findings from the application of all 43 core indicators of the ETIS in one specific destination but also develops new knowledge on the use of tourism indicators and the move towards evidence informed planning for tourism. Furthermore, this study contributes significantly to the theoretical development of our field, as the ETIS has not been applied in its entirety throughout Europe.

Events are a significant component of Ireland’s tourism offering. They are an important source of economic activity and an incremental driver of social change and development throughout the country. However, the visual and physical impacts often created by event activities to the environmental and social resource base upon which, events depend, have begun to draw attention to the way events are planned and managed. Although the concept of sustainability has become the topic of much discussion and debate in event management literature, there exist many gaps in relation to its practical application in event management planning in Ireland. This is despite the statutory obligation of local authorities in Ireland to license events and to facilitate the process of planning for large-scale outdoor public events in Ireland. Yet, with the continued expansion of Ireland’s event industry, there is a fundamental need for an evidence-informed approach to planning for event management. Through the application of the European tourism indicator system (ETIS), the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the national event industry in Ireland could be secured. This paper aims to examine and discuss the application of the ETIS as a possible tool to facilitate greater levels of sustainability and accountability within the events industry in Ireland.

This study used a quantitative content analysis approach involving a complete population sample of local authorities in the Republic of Ireland to determine the application of the ETIS within the legal process of planning for event management in Ireland.

While the findings have identified a basic provision for event management within a number of local authority legally required County Development Plans, none, however, were using the ETIS to monitor the impacts of events at the local level. This lack of data collection and benchmarking highlights the need for greater levels of sustainability and accountability within the legal process of planning for event management in Ireland.

This study suggests the ETIS as an easy, cost effective and viable solution to facilitate an evidence-informed approach to planning for event management at the local level. However, the lessons learned from this study may also have implications for destination planners and event managers outside of Ireland.

Tourism sustainability is a challenge for 21st-century destinations – this paper aims to analyse smart destinations' sustainability through a case study of Benidorm, the first world destination to be certified under the UNE 178501 standard as smart tourism destination (STD).

The methodological component has been divided into developing a framework for measuring sustainability through economic, social and environmental open data. Moreover, studying the plan's contribution “Benidorm, Destino Turístico Inteligente y Sostenible” to the city's sustainability through a time series analysis.

The main contribution shows that Benidorm's transformation into an STD leads to more sustainable cities. Thus, the conversion of Benidorm into an STD has a sustained effect in the medium and long term, contributing to the sustainability of the city.

An open question as a limitation is the subjectivity of the distribution of the relative weight of each indicator. However, statistical analyses are developed to explore the relationship between indicators and global sustainability.

The debate to contextualise this paper is bridging the gap between sustainability and tourism intelligence, giving an original framework for measuring destination sustainability that provides a reasonable starting point for comparing tourism sustainability in different destinations.

Tourists in the 21st century prefer environmentally friendly tourism. Marketing campaigns based on destination sustainability must be based on data rather than mere slogans.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the originality of this paper provides a flexible framework for measuring sustainability from open data sources, being one of the first empirical analyses to study the effects on the sustainability of converting a mature destination into an STD.

This study aims to examine the main factors and the related impacts that have caused a negative shift in the social perception of tourism among residents of Barcelona. Namely, it contextualises the recent evolution of the impacts and the social perception of tourism among the city’s residents; analyses the relationship between the social perception of tourism and different tourist, real estate, demographic and economic factors; and lastly, it identifies the social impacts that majorly influence the negative perception among residents in every neighbourhood.

This study applies quantitative and qualitative techniques to a selection of five neighbourhoods of Barcelona. First, the character of the neighbourhoods was analysed, and external statistical information was later provided to understand the state and evolution of the factors that shape perceptions of tourism. Secondly, representatives of the community movements were interviewed in-depth. This consecutive qualitative approach enabled the comprehension of how these factors shape the residents’ perception.

The results showed that residents generally shared similar perceptions despite variations among neighbourhoods. Perceived negative effects included not only the most direct consequences of tourism such as anti-social behaviour and congestion of public spaces but also indirect ones such as population displacement and the weakening of social structures.

This study’s innovation lies in linking objective statistical data that describe the reality of a tourist neighbourhood (housing prices, number of available beds, family income, etc.), to the subjective perceptions of its residents. Thus, it is possible to identify the perceived impacts of tourism (which have an impact on the local population’s satisfaction), and relate these to the true evolution of tourism variables in the neighbourhood. This contrasted reading between perception and reality is important for future initiatives for the regulation of tourism in the city.

No tourist segment is at present marked by such a massive expansion of offers like the ones of spa tourism. Today, only in Germany more than 350 medicinal baths and spas try to position themselves on the market highly demanded “self‐payers” (see Deutscher Heilbäderverband 2002, p. 257–573.). Even outside the spas, the offer of health‐tourism develops dynamically. The demand‐side oft he market for health‐tourism services is very promising and has initiated a world‐wide mobilization health‐conscious tourists. To be actually perceived in this very growing market, suppliers — particularly medicinal baths and spas — which have a rather “traditional” image — must distinguish themselves with a clear profile. Moreover, capital projects or business promotions require clear decisive factors towards specialization and how to position oneself in the long‐term. Last but not least it remains to be answered how medicinal baths and spas should be presented on the market at the level of tourism destinations or countries in order to differ from other spa destinations. Of course, these questions are not only a challenge for medicinal baths and spas in the German‐speaking countries. Particularly in Eastern Europe where today huge amounts of money are invested into the infrastructure of health‐tourism, a basis for long‐term support factors as well as for decision taking factors are required to align the specific offer with the needs of selected target groups. For this complex setting of tasks the European Tourism Institute (ETI) has developed a well‐aligned instrument for data‐collection, data‐evaluation and data‐analysis which makes possible consistent decisions on product development and product positioning for the individual spas well as for marketing on the regional or state level. Therefore, the comparative analysis of spas takes into consideration the needs of the market as well as the specific design of offers and the attractiveness of locations.

This viewpoint aims to explore the question: How can we restart and monitor the path towards the tourism of the future?

This paper identifies the progress made at scientific, institutional, political and technological levels, and how it is possible to foresee that we will enter in a new era of tourism indicators.

A significant body of literature clearly demonstrates that tourism cannot be viewed simply from an economic point of view as it has a great influence on sociocultural and environmental dimensions. The impact of tourism and how to ensure its long-term success has been invoked for the last few decades, leading to the direct consideration of sustainability indicators in a wide array of scientific publications. However, despite significant advances, the lack of funding, lack of support or interest from the political community, bureaucracies or lack of methodological guidance and of technical skills along the entire value chain pose clear challenges to the development and adoption of wide data systems to support sustainable tourism policies.

The paper sheds light on the Portuguese position regarding the recovery of the tourism sector in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights the commitment to knowledge and monitoring of sustainability in tourism, articulated at international level, and how this is essential in order to make progress and to overcome the challenges facing the sector. At the same time, it demonstrates how fundamental it is to identify solutions to boost the potential of tourism as an economic, social, environmental and cultural phenomenon.

The development of the tourism industry is closely linked to its sustainability. The need to reconcile economic growth and sustainable development is imperative and cannot be delayed.

Long-term sustainability requires a balance between three different dimensions: economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability. The competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism industry is, in turn, extensively dependent on the proper and efficient functioning of the transport system. There is no tourism without travel and transport or mobility. The tourism industry benefits when public transport is widely used by tourists.

The need of a well-functioning sustainable transport system rises in the maritime transport sector before the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972) that for the first time has paid attention on the durable long-term preservation of the ecological balance, taking account of the interests of future generations. In fact, at international level, the Civil Liability Convention was adopted in 1969 to ensure an adequate compensation for oil pollution damage (including loss profit of the seaside tourism), resulting from maritime casualties involving oil carriers.

The European Commission works on a number of legislative initiatives in this area for a long time, before the Single European Act of 1986 recognised the European Community competence in the field of environment. In the same year, the ‘official’ definition of sustainable development was developed for the first time in the Brundtland Report in 1987. According to this definition, sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In spite of the quick evolution in this field, the Brundtland definition remains still valid, but it has been supplemented by an integration with the aim to make it less anthropocentric and more ecocentric. According to the Lisbon Treaty, in force today, one of the main objectives of EU is to operate and co-operate to ensure sustainable development in Europe, maintaining a high level of environment protection. This Treaty considers sustainable development, regarded as economic prosperity, security and social justice, an objective pursued both in Europe and in external relations with third States. It demands that environmental protection requirements are integrated into the definition and implementation of the community policies and activities, with a view to promoting sustainable development. Therefore, one of the fundamental objectives of the EU is to promote sustainable tourism development in Europe.