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This paper aims to present the Azores tourism strategy and outline how local communities are centered at the heart of tourism development.

This paper analyzes the development of tourism in the Azores Archipelago and how it contributes to value creation and retention, as well as job creation. It explores the role of local communities in the tourism experience, and the strategic options on the 2030 horizon.

Tourism has become a main driver for economic growth and social prosperity in the Azores, with sustainability acting as a definitive driver of tourism development. However, to fully leverage the potential of tourism to impact local communities and the regional economy, it is of the utmost importance to stimulate the dispersal of inbound tourism across the nine islands. This will help to spread out value and job creation, help in reducing pressure on fragile resources and at the same time, mitigate seasonality and provide more stable income throughout the year.

A new approach to tourism development is proposed, where the success of tourism is to be measured by the quality of the tourist experience and the benefits that tourism adds to the Azores, assigning the local community with a central role in decision-making processes related to tourism. To reinforce the focus on the sustainable development of the territory, anchored on its certification as a sustainable tourist destination, the first archipelago in the world with this distinction, a strong focus on Nature (Land and Sea), is adopted as the main priority. Communication with the end consumer is strongly proposed as a way of stimulating the desire to travel, supported by the positioning proposed in the new tourism strategy (PEMTA, 2030) – Azores: Nine islands, the experience of a lifetime.

This study aims to discuss the idea of a rethinking of tourism, as proposed in the academic literature, in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, to evaluate the rationale for such a process and to consider by and for whom such a rethink should be undertaken.

This is a viewpoint paper, interpreting the literature on the topic of refocusing and rethinking tourism in general and identifying issues arising from such arguments – in particular, the impact of such a process on tourists and their destinations.

Whilst a rethink of tourism is appropriate and necessary in many respects, the rationale and goals of such a process need to be made specific and focussed rather than general and based on interest groups' preferences and beliefs.

Much of the discussion about rethinking tourism has focussed on what is perceived to be wrong with tourism by the various interest groups rather than what the goal and value of a refocus might be. This paper questions that approach and argues for change at local and specific levels rather than a sweeping and generalised approach.

The purpose of this article is to critically review the contributions made by the global trends issue participants on how tourism will impact people and planet and so provide answers to the strategic question defined for this global trends issue.

A content analysis of the papers selected was performed to identify the most significant ideas and proposals and how they may contribute to knowledge and/or professional practice.

As the tourism industry prepares to reach new records, there is a clear need to rethink tourism in the post COVID-19 era. The option of following a traditional pre-pandemic model of tourism development and growth is no longer productive, instead organizations and destinations must take the opportunity to develop a model where society takes center stage, the resources are used in a sustainable way and the results are distributed amongst all those involved in the tourism value chain.

In this concluding article the authors, supported by the views and proposals of the entire writing team, provide answers to the strategic question, thus demonstrating how tourism will affect people and planet in the short and medium terms.

Discussions on tourism development address the urgent need to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on tourist destinations. Despite decades of trying to find potential ways to foster sustainability, however, current tourism development is still mainly driven by political interests and growth agendas. In spite of concepts intending to improve sustainable tourism development, negative dynamics, such as over-tourism and the exploitation of nature and local communities, dominate the current reality of tourism. This article focuses on the concept of degrowth as a potential solution for rethinking tourism policy and practices to ensure greater sustainability. Its aim is to explore the gap between these policies and the academic theories on instigating sustainable change, and the actual reality of the tourism industry, which is primarily driven by economic motivations such as growth.

To explore this dichotomy, this paper investigates the values of tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs. Small businesses are the most dominant group in the industry in terms of numbers. I contend that researching their viewpoint on current developmental trends could lead to valuable insights into how to tackle this gap between theory and reality. This paper also explores how the degrowth paradigm may promote sustainability in tourism, as well as the potential role that tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs could play in this development. The discussion is illustrated by a case study based on interviews with tourism entrepreneurs in Iceland.

The findings indicate that various tourism stakeholders have different approaches to growth, with many tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs tending to embrace degrowth practices by acting according to their value base, albeit sometimes unconsciously. This focus on aspects other than growth could potentially encourage tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs to contribute to sustainable development.

The examples discussed in this paper are locally limited and cannot be generalized due to the small size of the interviewed sample group. The scalability of individual entrepreneurs’ impact is limited due to their small size.

The actions and values applied by these tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs demonstrate how degrowth can be manifest on a small scale: growth is only embraced up to a certain limit, so it oes not exceed social and environmental capacities; from that point on, community well-being plays the key role. This study demonstrates the untapped knowledge tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs could provide to rethinking the tourism industry.

This study demonstrates the importance of shedding more light on ethical issues and values beyond growth in both academic and political discussions. Addressing tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs as smaller-scale actors of tourism degrowth could be a meaningful starting point for holistically rethinking tourism and give them a voice.

This research emphasizes untapped knowledge by acknowledging entrepreneurs and their potential for rethinking tourism development, concluding with recommendations for practice and policy.

In this article, the authors introduce the strategic question and demonstrate its relevance to society and for organizations. They also profile the articles selected for the annual global trends issue and explain how they illustrate the various angles on how tourism is impacting people and the planet.

The authors draw on a review of their previous research and other available information and on the articles selected to identify how tourism is impacting people and the planet. A brief explanation of the positions and proposals presented by the global trends issue authors as well as their key contributions is also presented.

From the analysis undertaken by the authors, it is clear that there is a need to rethink tourism in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is even more important as the tourism industry has already recovered to 2019 levels (pre-pandemic performance) and is expected to break new records by the end of 2023. As the authors reach this milestone, the choice now is either to continue to follow the traditional pre-pandemic model of tourism development and growth or to take the opportunity to rethink where the tourism industry is heading and how it will impact people and the planet. The authors advocate for the second option, supported by research undertaken by the authors in recent years that clearly shows the favourable impact of tourism and why it must be treated and developed with society in mind. This involves use of resources in a sustainable way and distributing the outcomes among all those involved in the process.

In this introductory article, the authors contextualize the strategic question and demonstrate its relevance to society and for organizations. They also analyze the context of growth that the tourism industry has gone through since the end of 2022 and highlight the perspectives offered by a team of experts invited to reflect on the theme underlying the strategic question.

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.

The immature research endeavor on refugee entrepreneurship has not adequately covered the success factors of refugees. The current work aims to address this gap through the theory of planned behavior and the theory of procedural utility to identify the success factors of refugee entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality industry.

The current work is based on a qualitative approach drawing on data from 24 semistructured interviews with refugee entrepreneurs in Istanbul-Türkiye.

The thematic analysis of the data set revolved around three interrelated themes: personal, organizational and environmental factors, which offer a better understanding of the elements defining successful refugee entrepreneurs.

The paper also offers various practical implications and policy recommendations for the economic integration of refugee entrepreneurs in the public and private sectors.

The results enhance the understanding of successful refugee entrepreneurship in their new hosting environment, contributing to the existing research agenda by identifying the key themes of refugee entrepreneurs’ success factors.

Building a cycling route is an interesting example of sustainable, environmentally friendly leisure and tourism project and this also fosters innovation in eco-friendly transport options. Financial resources must be found to achieve these ambitious goals and crowdfunding could be the answer. The study analyses the factors that influence potential backers' decisions to contribute to the fundraising campaign.

A Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA) was applied to elaborate a map of factors that could influence the process of the crowd's contribution to a crowdfunding round for supporting the enhancement of a cycling route. The factors taken into account were the motivations to contribute, the crowdfunder's features and the dynamics of the fundraising campaign.

The results demonstrate the strategic role played by rewards in the design of a crowdfunding round for a sustainable tourism and leisure project. The results also add more insights by considering backers' attitudes to rewards.

Understanding the factors that can influence the decision to pledge in the tourism and leisure context has extremely valuable implications for tourism businesses developing the business idea and associated capital raising strategies. The study also has practical implications for all institutions trying to foster innovation in eco-friendly transport, particularly in promoting more cycling and improving the image of cycling in the culture.

The study is a step forward in understanding the factors that lead backers to support a sustainable project in the tourism and leisure context and the related dynamics of the crowdfunding round.

Sustainable tourism will be an appropriate strategy to be promoted during the post COVID-19 pandemic, as this is a turning point for the tourism industry to grab the unique chance to have a true reset by focussing on achieving long-term sustainability and a shift from a ‘me to we’ economy. To support sustainable tourism and foster future success in the tourism industry, the process of integrating green knowledge and knowledge management can begin with entrepreneurial education in higher education institutions (HEIs). However, empirical research on university students' green entrepreneurial intention in sustainable tourism has not been exhaustively studied. Additionally, there is a need to further explore knowledge management process and entrepreneurial learning in HEIs. Hence, the aim of this study is to analyze knowledge management as a technique to explore the green entrepreneurial intention of students in HEIs in sustaining Malaysia's tourism post COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory research with quantitative analysis was conducted through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that there is a positive and significant relationship between green entrepreneurial knowledge and green entrepreneurial intention in sustainable tourism among university business students. Additionally, knowledge revision and conceptual change positively and significantly influence green entrepreneurial knowledge and green entrepreneurial intention in sustainable tourism. However, knowledge application has no impact on green entrepreneurial knowledge and green entrepreneurial intention. The results of this study also reveal that green entrepreneurial knowledge does not have a mediation effect on green entrepreneurial intention. The present work contributes by going beyond the study of entrepreneurial intention, as the research focusses on interconnection among these three major areas: knowledge management, sustainable tourism, and entrepreneurship education post COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the combination of these diverse aspects in this study provides insights to educators and policy makers to investigate the importance of green entrepreneurial knowledge and benefits of knowledge management that can be integrated into entrepreneurship education for current and future sustainable tourism development.