New Directions for Cultural and Heritage Sustainability in Hospitality and Tourism

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on new directions for cultural and heritage sustainability in hospitality and tourism. It aims to investigate various aspects of culture and heritage, including their role in hospitality and tourism. Cultural heritage tourism and sustainability are important for conserving and preserving historical, cultural, and social aspects while boosting local economies and supporting local residents. However, challenges such as climate change, pollution, excessive tourism, inadequate cultural heritage tourism management, and lack of conservation efforts threaten these invaluable sites in the long term. Moreover, there is a call for research addressing the adoption of technology that can facilitate responses to these emerging challenges and enhance the understanding of tourist behavior in cultural heritage contexts.

Research on cultural heritage tourism and its sustainable practices and theories can provide valuable guidance for various stakeholders facing these challenges, helping them find solutions for the sustainable management of cultural and heritage sites. Understanding the behaviors of tourists who have experienced cultural and heritage tourism, as well as the role of innovative technologies in cultural and heritage sites, is essential. Cultural heritage sites are protected through various stages, with growing attention toward world heritage sites. These efforts not only contribute to their preservation but also support the achievement of UN sustainable tourism development goals (SDGs) and ensure that they are passed on to future generations. 
This Special Issue invites researchers to contribute by exploring sustainable tourism, with a particular emphasis on emerging approaches and new directions to cultural, heritage, and sustainable travel practices within the field of hospitality and tourism. It also aims to expand our understanding of conserving and preserving valuable cultural and heritage resources at tourism destinations while highlighting stakeholders’ efforts toward sustainable tourism. This Special Issue invites submissions that inspire meaningful practices and propose theory-driven strategies for achieving sustainability in cultural and heritage tourism.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but should not be limited to) the following topics: 

• Cultural and heritage tourism;
• Festival/event tourism;
• Tourist behaviors;
• Innovative technologies in cultural and heritage tourism; 
• Challenges and opportunities of cultural and heritage sites;
• Cultural and heritage sites and sustainable development; 
• World heritage sites (WHSs);
• Sustainable tourism development goals (SDGs);

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Young-joo Ahn
Dr. Xiaoting Chi
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.