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The chapter explores the perils of the unbridled growth of tourism and offers some approaches to optimise the benefits of tourism for the stakeholders. It also discusses the catalysing role of the COVID-19 pandemic in reorienting consumer preferences and thereby government policies towards a more responsible paradigm. India's fast-growing economy and rapid build-up of infrastructure would unleash a commensurate growth in its tourism sector and hence call for a need to approach it from the perspective of responsible tourism. It assesses the model of the Responsible Tourism initiative of Kerala based on the three pillars of environmental, economic and social responsibility. The chapter also proposes pilot initiatives at select destinations across the nation with primacy placed upon carrying capacity. It calls for reorienting the approach to the destination level instead of state-level and preparing a framework of administrative structures and financing. It also proposes a responsible tourism classification for tourism enterprises to which incentives and subsidies could be aligned to encourage onboarding.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors and plays a key role for the economy of various countries. Tourism sector provides lot of opportunities and challenges to its stakeholders. Tourist's safety and security plays a vital role to increase the tourists to a location. Tourism policing plays an essential role to build destination image. Governments are making many efforts through tourism policing to protect the safety and security of the domestic and foreign tourist and also to handle overtourism and enhance responsible tourism. This paper analyses the importance of tourism policing to attract more tourists and its impact on tourist destination image building.

The accommodation sector has a strong impact on the host destination in terms of waste production, use of natural resources, physical impact on landscape and natural environment, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. (Hall et al., 2016). For this reason, the increasing attention to sustainability, also in the tourism sector, requires us to rethink the planning of the tourist accommodation development with reference to this approach. Moreover, it is necessary to take into consideration some important emerging trends in tourist consumption, in particular the greater interest in experiential holidays, the deep impact of sharing economy and the phenomena of ‘home stay tourism’ and ‘living like a local’. All of these are significantly orientating the demand and the offer towards a greater attention to authenticity (Grayson & Martinec, 2004; Paulauskaite, Powell, Coca-Stefaniak, &, Morrison, 2017; Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2016a and 2016b; Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2018).

The sustainability, environmental, socio-cultural and economic dimensions must be respected to develop forms of sustainable accommodations (Boley & Uysal, 2013; Elkington, 1997, 1998, 2004; Farrell, 1992). They have to be respectful of local communities and their identity and culture, not going beyond the host environmental and social carrying capacities (Graefe & Vaske, 1987; Hernandez-Maskivker, Ferrari, & Cruyt, 2019; Van Der Borg, 1992; Van der Borg, Costa, & Gotti, 1996; Vargas-Sánchez, Porras-Bueno, & de los Ángeles Plaza-Mejía, 2011). Those aspects must be referred not only to environmental ecosystems (Buckley, 2000; Sánchez-Cañizares, Castillo-Canalejo, & Cabeza-Ramírez, 2018) but also to the art, cultural heritage and local socio-cultural tissue of the destination (García-Hernández, la Calle-Vaquero, & Yubero, 2017). This is especially true in tourist destinations that are characterized by a remarkable fragility and sensitiveness. As explained by Jeong, Zielinski, Chang, and Kim (2018, p. 2), sensitive tourist destinations are areas that support responsible tourism, but do not necessarily have all the characteristics of ‘ecotourism’ or ‘responsible tourism’ destinations, as provided in their common definitions (Dolnicar & Leisch, 2008). Responsible tourism is a kind of tourist behaviour that occurs when tourists understand the impact of their behaviour on the environment and local people, and abide by the socio-cultural and environmental norms of the site (Jeong et al., 2018, p. 1).

Our research is focused on Matera. This southern Italian town, which has been the European Capital of Culture in 2019 and World Heritage Site since 1993, has an ancient and very peculiar history. It is a complex urban cave situated in a deep natural canyon, continuously inhabited since the Palaeolithic period. Today Matera, which has frequently been the location of important movies, is a successful international tourist destination and has shown an uninterrupted increase in tourism over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, this rapid tourist growth is threatening the town centre and its surroundings that are part of a protected area. In fact, the dimensions of visitors' flows are endangering a delicate destination with a fragile equilibrium, together with its priceless cultural heritage, traditions and way of living. In addition, it is giving rise to a residents' negative attitude towards tourists. For all these reasons, investments should be made to favour the development of different types of tourist accommodations (e.g. diffuse hotels or some forms of sharing accommodations) that are respectful of local economy, physical environment and cultural heritage as well as of the host community and its culture, traditions and identity (Gilli & Ferrari, 2016).

In this analysis a qualitative approach was adopted by carrying on face-to-face interviews with stakeholders. The main aims were to study to what extent tourist accommodations are perceived as sustainable by the main stakeholders' categories in Matera today, how their sustainability could be improved and if town innovations in this field already exist or could be promoted.

Many destinations are keen to be a part of the increasing and lucrative luxury tourism market. Before targeting luxury tourists in the marketing efforts, is it essential to understand the meaning of ‘luxury’ and what is considered exclusive? As an emerging luxury destination, Norway certainly offers many attributes that can satisfy the needs of luxury tourists. Marketing luxury provides, nevertheless, challenges for Norway as its main attraction is nature, which is fundamentally free and accessible to anyone. Thus, it is necessary to tailor-make unique nature experiences with luxurious products, resulting in exclusivity and once-in-a-lifetime experiences beyond the masses. Luxury tourists have also been advocated as more sustainable than mass tourists as addition to the issue of carrying capacity; many are also concerned with responsible tourism. Specialist travel agents play an important role in the marketing process as they have first-hand knowledge of luxury tourists as well as acting as guardians of information communicated in marketing. In addition to mainland Norway, the Svalbard islands in the Arctic region may be considered as truly unique and exclusive destinations. While sustainable development is a major concern in Norwegian tourism in general, it is even more vital in the Arctic regions. Therefore, marketing needs to provide a balanced picture of the attractions and attributes in order to become a luxury destination that is sustainable in the long run.

It is salient to be acquainted with the key elements that determine educational tourists’ decision in selecting an overseas destination while considering the rise of international competition amidst nations concerning international students. There has been a growth in the number of nations committed to attracting educational tourists. This issue is evident in countries involved in higher education (HE), such as Northern Cyprus, identified as an edu-tourism destination. Northern Cyprus can attract a whopping number of tourists, and the higher population is most likely to be made up of international students regardless of its interdiction on direct flights and political pressure. This chapter centres on analysing educational tourists’ motivators in selecting a tourism education destination abroad and on revealing effective recruitment and promotion plans towards attracting them. The chapter includes the descriptions and discussions of educational tourism, the HE industry over the years, globalisation and internationalisation of educational tourism, factors influencing educational tourists’ decision-making process and key elements influencing educational tourists’ decisions in HE institutions. At the end of the chapter, a case study is presented that reports the findings of interviews with educational tourists, overseas recruitment agents and Eastern Mediterranean University staff responsible for promoting the institution. The results identified eight factors affecting educational tourists’ decisions on study destination. Those factors comprise cost, ease of access, location, social factors, quality of education, instruction language, cultural environment and communication quality. The sub-factors of the main eight factors are scholarships, destination’s scenery, safety, friends’ and relatives’ influence and cultural differences. This chapter brings a significant knowledge about the motives that affect educational tourists in selecting at a particular HE destination. Based on the study’s findings, educational institutions may consider various recommendations to redesign their strategies towards attracting educational tourists more effectively. Generally, this study promotes an apprehension about the diverse elements that affect educational tourists’ selection of a destination study. An in-depth understanding of these factors will help education institutions’ decision-makers better develop plans of action to provide desired services to educational tourists, attract and keep them in return.

With the expansion in the tourism-related activities, the issue of overtourism has gained impetus rapidly in media and academic discourses. Many scholars believe that the concept is not novel and is rather associated with the familiar concept of carrying capacity of a tourist destination. The carrying capacity concerns have been raised earlier in recreational studies. These studies have focused on determining the maximum number of tourists that could be accommodated without any deterioration in the social, environmental and physical environment, and unacceptable decline in the tourist experience. However, as the tourism development projects expanded to attract more tourists, the host community reacted to the excessive tourism activities which hamper their lives. Consequently, overtourism or excessive tourism led to conflicts between the local community and tourists. The concerns aggravated as locals raised their voices against the unmanageable growth of tourism and irresponsible behaviour of tourists. This chapter presents a descriptive analysis of various conflicts that have taken place at tourist destination reported of overtourism. The authors have attempted to categorise the conflicts based on the capacity thresholds and suggested several management strategies that could be undertaken by respective destinations to resolve the conflicts. The major conflict categories are socio-cultural, socio-demographic, infrastructural, eco-spatial and economic. The authors expect that identification and categorisation of conflicts with related solutions would lead to better management of destinations. Furthermore, the destinations would adopt preventive measures to nip a potential conflict in the bud.

Tourism product designing is a process of integrating all the components of a tourism product, i.e., the 5 A's: Attraction, Accommodation, Accessibility, Amenities, and Activities. The lack of awareness and unaccountability of mass tourism has demanded the need for “Responsible and Accountable Tourism, calling for better places to live and visit.” However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on mass travel, “Mother Earth” got the opportunity of environmental restoration. The tourism business was badly hit by the pandemic and created an introspection phase for the tourism stakeholders to control and check their activities for a better global recovery. The responsible tourism product development in this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world needs controlled planning and a duty-bound PPP (Public–Private Partnership) model. A scoping review was done to analyze the planning process of the responsible sustainable tourism product. It was observed that all the stakeholders involved in tourism product development need to understand their accountability. Local host communities and tourists visiting the destinations should be culturally and environmentally sensitive. They should be involved in decision-making during the tourism product development and be pride bearers. The responsibility of the various tourism agencies, organizations, and individuals toward minimizing the impact of carbon footprints is evident from various research.

In conventional discourses on sustainability, the relationship between economics and ecology is central. A number of nations' economies benefited from responsible tourism following these conferences. By supporting local businesses and attractions, ‘green’ tourism helps communities achieve their natural and cultural objectives while also preserving their limited resources. In terms of sustainable travel, Kerala was an early leader. This study looks at RT initiatives in various stages, with an emphasis on green tourism's sustainable responsible travel practises. The green economic development bottom line method was used for this descriptive research. These results highlight the difficulties inherent with RT implementation. Our review of secondary data shows that the first rollout of RT was unsuccessful, but that subsequent stages showed great promise. In order to create sustainable tourism on a worldwide scale, the study also highlights the necessity for more research in other culturally distant places.

While the number of tourists worldwide is expected to reach 1.8 billion people by 2030, tourism destinations try to meet demand for increasing tourism. However, some tourism destinations are experiencing a maturity period of destination life cycle intensively. During these mature periods, while they meet the demand above their tourism carrying capacity, they encounter some problematic issues. In tourist destinations such as Venice, Barcelona and Paris, the negative feelings developed by the local people towards overtourism or tourists result in serious problems like negative destination images, tourism phobia, etc. In these destinations, to prevent the negative consequences of overtourism, destination stakeholders should develop solutions to these problems. There are many solution techniques for the problems which cause overtourism. One of them is the different tourism types which have been developed as an alternative to mass tourism. These alternative tourism types can be handled as a method for solving problems revealed through excess demand in tourism destinations at risk. For example, some tourism destinations which have both beach tourism and nature-based tourism types can bring nature-based tourism activities to the forefront with promotion and marketing activities and therefore, the tourism demand could be balanced between these tourism types. In this context, firstly, comprehensive literature review of overtourism and alternative tourism will be conducted in this study. And then the different types of tourism such as ecotourism, cultural tourism and responsible tourism will be discussed in detail and their relation in reducing the negative consequences of overtourism will be investigated theoretically via secondary data. Therefore, alternative tourism potentials will be investigated and tried to present the managerial suggestions for the development of different alternative types of tourism. As a result, it has been seen that, alternative tourism not only contributes to the growth of tourism in both popular and remote destinations but also makes sure that destinations get their fair share in income distribution of the country.