Use of Natural and Cultural Resources through Tourism Activity for Regional Development

Dear Colleagues,

Resources/natural heritage, together with resources/cultural heritage, must be protected, preserved, restored, and passed on to future generations as part of the cultural and natural heritage of humanity. For this purpose, institutions such as UNESCO arise, which together with the European Union and the Council of Europe are responsible for ensuring the protection of natural–cultural heritage at the international level.

One of the ways to achieve this objective is by using and enhancing these resources through tourist activity. Natural resources such as biosphere reserves, natural monuments, national reserves, and parks and nature sanctuaries, and cultural resources made up of the assets of the values prevailing in each society at a given moment are established to be protected and preserved as a legacy of the past for future generations (tangible and intangible resources). In this regard, there are several benefits to be obtained when focusing on natural and cultural wealth as attractions of tourist interest: the recovery or conservation of heritage, regional or local economic growth focused on the commercialization of resources, social benefit for communities by improving living conditions, etc. Therefore, natural and cultural heritage becomes an element capable of generating socioeconomic benefits of great relevance for the development of societies through its use by tourism.

The scope of this Special Issue is broad, and manuscripts presenting conceptual and/or empirical work from all areas of knowledge on the use of natural and cultural resources by tourism are welcome. We welcome original research articles offering interesting empirical insights and novel theoretical contributions, as well as review articles.

Specifically, the following topics are welcome:

• Sustainable use of natural and cultural resources for tourist activity;
• Conservation, preservation, and safeguarding of natural and cultural resources as a consequence of their use through tourist activity;
• Deterioration of natural and cultural resources as a consequence of tourism;
• Regional and local development through the use of natural and cultural resources for tourist activity;
• Benefits to be obtained from the combination of natural and cultural resources with tourism;
• Other topics related to the subject.

Papers on the topics listed above can focus on any type of tourism, for example, community tourism, rural tourism, urban tourism, cultural tourism, geoparks and protected natural areas, ecotourism, agritourism, island ecosystems, coastal tourism, nautical and cruise tourism, tourism in lake areas, and snow tourism, among others.

Prof. Dr. María de la Cruz del Río-Rama
Prof. Dr. José Álvarez-García
Prof. Amador Durán-Sánchez
Prof. Dr. Pedro Cuesta-Valiño
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.