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The purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate the significant influence of four sustainability dimensions in predicting the residents’ satisfaction with the development of sustainable tourism in the emerging tourism industry of Pakistan.

This study aims to investigate how university students experience a skill transformation process aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This transformation occurs through their participation in a service-learning programme alongside an international volunteering project. The theoretical framework for understanding this skill transformation process is based on the “rite of passage”.

Qualitative methodology is adopted by conducting 23 online surveys with volunteers (virtual and onsite) and five with coordinators across the rite of passage phases. Volunteering was carried out in five Mayan indigenous communities in Mexico as part of an international cooperation project with the goals of supporting community-based tourism development and strengthening volunteers’ skills in accordance with the SDGs.

Results show that international volunteering programmes for university students significantly enhance their interpersonal and professional skills, demonstrating strong potential for implementing the SDGs. These programmes provide learning and education opportunities for both volunteers and local communities. Volunteers gain a broader perspective on gender equality and cultural barriers. Additionally, volunteering supports sustainable tourism, economic worth and collaboration among institutions. Both volunteers’ personal characteristics (educational level and sociocultural context), as well as their sociocultural context, influenced the perception of the skill transformation process and learning about the SDGs. Finally, a new educational university programme in volunteering aligned with SDGs is proposed.

This research examines the practical ramifications of incorporating volunteer programmes into university courses. Universities must include these initiatives in their educational systems as a means of enhancing student learning.

A new educational university programme in volunteering aligned with SDGs is proposed. This study suggests a shift in university mindset, as well as increased funding for training and adherence to the SDGs.

This study pioneers the rite of passage framework in an international volunteer tourism project facilitated by universities, emphasizing volunteering as a valuable tool for SDG implementation, considering the interrelationships between objectives.

This paper attempts to examine drivers of tourism development by affording a framework that sustains economic growth and protects the local environment. It develops evaluative and predictive models to measure city performance. Further, a strategy-based model of low carbon cities (SMLC) is used to demonstrate possible tourism development scenarios. The model was applied to the city of Surakarta to operationalize city's transformation towards sustainability.

The research methodology is constructed on three interrelated components: theoretical framework, analytical methods and SWOT. First, the authors have initiated this study by an understanding of linkages between planning and tourism. Second, the SMLC has been used to test sustainable tourism in the city of Surakarta. Third, Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis was applied to formulize the recommendations.

When evaluated by the static SMLC model, the city of Surakarta was categorized as an unsustainable touristic city. However, when the dynamic SMLC was applied, the city of Surakarta was categorized as a sustainable touristic city under a high economy scenario. By reason of the methodological and analytical frameworks and the dynamic SMLC, the city of Surakarta could be promoted to a sustainable touristic city after applying opportunity-seeking strategy and policies.

The paper concludes with policy implications to realign city plan and support sustainable tourism development in the city of Surakarta.

This paper attempts to develop a framework for sustainable tourism as it operates in the city of Surakarta by (1) introducing the sustainable touristic city concept, (2) definition and characters, (3) evaluative and predictive models using the SMLC to measure city performance of the city of Surakarta and (4) rigorous and relevant insight into the magnitude of the benefits of tourism.

This study evaluates “potentials for using tourism in promoting indigenous resources for community development at Musina Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa.”

The study used a questionnaire survey, focus group discussions, and field observations to gather data. Microsoft Excel, Spreadsheet, cross-tabulation analysis, and manual sorting contributed to quantitative and qualitative data analyses.

The study uncovered vast significant indigenous species, resources, and tourism potentials with low impacts of indigenous species and resource benefits to the local communities. The details pointing to the actual and potential indigenous resources situations around tourism activities in Musina municipality emerged prominently. Thus, the study concluded such significant indigenous species, resources, and better tourism potentials need a well-combined strategy to channel the benefits to the local community's livelihoods.

The issue of indigenous resources, forests, trees, and tourism concerning rural community livelihoods has become of curiosity in the past few years. Nonetheless, few such studies have investigated the synergies between tourism and significant indigenous species and resources to improve their livelihoods.

This study evaluates prospects of using ecotourism industry to advance community livelihoods in Musina Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa.

Using questionnaire surveys, interviews primarily, supplemented by focus group discussions and interviews, primary data has been collected reflective of the potentiality of ecotouristic activities in Musina Municipality. To a lesser extent, field observations contribute to these primary sources. Extra insights are obtained through documentary reviews (secondary sources). Data is analyzed using quantitative statistical techniques supplemented by qualitative approaches.

The study confirmed substantial ecotourism potential of the Musina Municipality and that this potential is manifest irrespective of geographic and demographic factors. However, the study reports a low current ecotourism impact in the Musina Municipality with consequential minimal benefits accruing to the enhancement of the standard of living in the local community. An inference is made that the key gap area impeding the realization of ecotourism potential in the Musina Municipality is the absence of a well-articulated tourism strategy linked to the sustainable economic development of the communities involved. Several fruitful initiatives for ecotourism consonant with local factor endowments are proposed.

Although, taken in topical isolation, matters of community livelihoods and sustainable development have been increasingly coming to the forefront of research on tourism, few studies have taken a holistic approach predicated on the integration of community livelihood and sustainable development roles of various forms of ecotourism in community development within many rural areas. This study represents the first case study employing an integrated approach to analyze ecotouristic potential of rural Musina Municipality, one of the driest areas in the far North of Limpopo Province, South Africa, characterized by low standard of living juxtaposed with high touristic potential.

Musina municipality is one of the driest regions in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is, like many rural communities within the country, a low-income area. Nonetheless, being embedded within the tourism-orientated landscape of the Vhembe district in Limpopo, it possesses the potential for community-based tourism. This study aims to review the perception and application of tourism development policy in the Municipality using primary and secondary data. The study discovered poor enforcement of tourism development policy paired with a substandard knowledge of sustainable and responsible tourism principles. Consequently, the negative environmental impacts of tourism activities had exacerbated. The study recommends a need for improved policy implementation and strategies to advance local communities’ livelihoods while also managing natural resources.

Discussions about digital tourism continue to increase among scholars as Information Communication and Technology (ICT) infrastructure develops. Dynamic changes due to technological aspects have given rise to various developments in the tourism industry. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the scientific structure of the development of digital tourism topics through a bibliometric analysis approach. In total, 102 publications from research on digital tourism were taken from Scopus database between 2001 and 2021, for further bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer application. Interesting findings describe the most cited digital tourism publications, the contribution of digital tourism by various authors, institutions, countries, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence for the main trends of digital tourism. This study compiles a detailed review of digital tourism research. This article adds substantial value to the digital tourism topic by analyzing bibliometric data. It provided scientific information regarding digital tourism for other researchers and future research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the process of tourism growth at a national scale in Iran, by taking into account the reviews of previous studies, views of experts and structural analysis.

In this investigation, structural analysis technique has been used to identify the correlation between variables by using mix method data analysis. By using cross-impact analysis (N × N integer matrix) in the form of the Micmac method, the economic, sociocultural and environmental factors have been evaluated.

The results of the distribution of factors in the coordinate axes and the graphs between them indicate their features, and for reaching a sustainable system of tourism development, at first, priority should be given to the negative influential factors, especially the environmental fields, and then the focus should be on the decrease of the dual and risk variables as they cannot be anticipated.

For the rapid growth of tourism in many countries, governments ensure that policies have been heeded in designing and preparing general plans of the country to understand how the development trend is moving on. In this respect, arisen impacts of tourism system are one of the important issues during the development path and in the field of tourism future. Because of the complexity and broadness of tourism activities, these impacts have also many interconnected dimensions that should also be considered while studying tourism impacts.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the increasing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in smart tourism destinations, in their integration in the activity of the tourism companies, and in their interaction with visitors/tourists. In summary, it is intended to evaluate in the city of Porto how the use of technology before, during and after the visit influences the tourist experience.

The authors empirically investigate the importance of using ICTs during tourism experience, assess the access/availability of ICT at the destination and its importance in tourist’s decisions. It is analyzed if the applications and/or information available on the internet are important and positively influence the tourism experience in Porto, that is, the degree of tourist satisfaction. The empirical evidence is based on a quantitative analysis, using a data set involving 423 tourists in the city of Porto.

The importance of the internet access at the destination, especially in places like airports and hotels, since most tourists are primarily using their mobile devices and computers during the trip, and the existing information technologies available in the destination (internet, smartphones or other mobile devices and applications) are considered very important in explaining tourists’ experience.

This study identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the technological strategies, providing useful information for destination management, discussing innovation in tourism, and proposing a framework that empirically evaluates how technological components used in smart tourism destinations can improve tourists’ experiences.

To evaluate some of the current discussions about the possible impacts of social networks on the development of gastronomy in the Republic of Serbia. There could be either positive and/or negative impacts and this viewpoint provides some reflection on what the future might hold for some if not many tourism destinations in Serbia and the region when the tourism industry restarts after the pandemic of Covid-19 virus.

The research was conducted in December 2021, on a total of 244 respondents in three cities in Serbia. SPSS software was used, version 26.00, and the obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Then, to determine the structure of the questionnaire and the percentage of variance, an exploratory factor analysis was performed together with a higher order factor analysis, in order to obtain the desired number of factors. Subsequently, the authors used multiple regression analysis to confirm the significance of the predictors. The goal of the research was to determine whether, and to what extent, social networks can predict the choice of restaurants and gastronomic offers in Serbia. Serbian gastronomy has a great influence on the development of tourism, so this research has a wide scientific and practical contribution.

This paper provides a context and viewpoint on the possible implications of impacts of social networks on the development of gastronomy in the Republic of Serbia in the future. It has been proven that social networks can have an impact on the development of gastronomy and tourism itself.

To examine the impact of social networks on the development of gastronomy, the authors conducted a survey online due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The limitation of this research was precisely that the authors did not have the opportunity to conduct the research live due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is recommended that such surveys be conducted live in direct contact with respondents in the future in order to obtain a larger sample with fully completed questionnaires.

The importance of social networks is increasingly a topic of study of world research, especially when it comes to gastronomy, which is becoming increasingly important as an activity in the tourism industry. The results indicate that the greatest importance in predicting the choice of restaurants and gastronomic offers has social networks and marketing. The importance of the work is reflected in the recognition of the importance of social networks, in order to better place Serbian gastronomy.

This paper offers a synthesis of views that fosters an understanding of the possibility of impacts of social networks on the development of gastronomy in the Republic of Serbia before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The viewpoint proffered in this paper provides scope for a rapid evaluation of the current status of gastronomy tourism in Serbia which can help practitioners and researchers in the faster and better development of gastronomy and tourism.