Sustainable Development of Regional Tourism
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 3759
Special Issue Editors
Interests: tourism; cultural tourism; rural tourism; tourism and heritage
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A ‘region’ is the place where ideas of sustainable development are put into practice. What happens in this space is a real picture of the condition of the sustainable approach to issues in practice. Sustainability is also important in the functioning of tourism. This global phenomenon significantly affects the functioning of a region, and it is the behavior at the local, regional scale that is responsible for the success or failure of sustainable actions, the result of which should be a better condition of tourism in the region both in environmental, natural, and social terms.
The multiplicity of tourism forms; the diversity of tourist behavior; and the motivations behind the decisions taken by the creators of the tourist product, its managers, the local authorities caring for a region, and the tourists indicate how many areas the philosophy of sustainable development should be implemented so that a region, as a depository of resources from which tourism benefits, can successfully maintain its tourist potential in an unchanged form for future generations of tourists. Therefore, when examining the sustainability of tourism in a region, no factor should be overlooked. It is worth examining the impact of tourism in a region on the preservation and functioning of the natural environment, starting with an assessment of its condition and the possibility of using it for the purposes of tourism, through active measures at the level of regional authorities, NGOs, associations, and entities that function professionally in tourism. The importance of a region's social and cultural potential for sustainable development should not be underestimated. The protection of cultural resources is equally important for sustainable development, giving the local community a chance to function in their environment.
Hence, an important field of research should be the natural and cultural environment of a region's rural areas and urbanized spaces—wherever the ideas of sustainable development are implemented. It is worth considering how selected forms of tourism operate in a region in this context, such as tourism of an ecological nature through various tourist behaviors in the rural environment, heritage tourism, and active tourism in its broadest sense. Examples include how tourism opportunities are created, how they are offered and presented to tourists by a region, and how accents are distributed so that sustainability in practice is present in a region's tourism, from information to specific products that embody this idea.
We look forward to receiving valuable contributions.
Dr. Krzysztof Widawski
Dr. Federica Burini
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- nature tourism
- rural tourism
- heritage tourism
- tourism management in a region
- protected areas
- active tourism
- sustainable tourism product
- sustainable development
- case studies
- tourist resources
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