Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
Published Papers

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2026) | Viewed by 10950

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francisco Javier García-Delgado

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department History, Geography and Anthropology, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
Interests: local development; sustainable tourism; impacts of tourism; cultural tourism; gastronomic tourism; quality food

Prof. Dr. Antonio Martínez-Puche

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Human Geography, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
Interests: local development; territorial innovation; integrated rural development; participatory territorial diagnostics; sustainable tourism

Prof. Dr. María Hernández-Hernández

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Regional Geographic Analysis and Physical Geography, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
Interests: local development; rural development; agriculture; landscape; water; risks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tourism has been proposed as an instrument for sustainable development in general, and local development in particular. However, the cultural dimension has often been undervalued and under-researched, with greater emphasis placed on the economic and environmental aspects of sustainability and local development. The preservation and restoration of local heritage and traditions, alongside their valorization and promotion through tourism, can represent an opportunity for local development, where a range of actors assume different roles in various processes. Moreover, in the context of tourist saturation, the challenge arises to promote responsible tourism (engaging with the host community and its tangible and intangible cultural heritage), as well as slow and/or proximity tourism, which contributes positively to the valorization of cultural elements. The central objective of this Special Issue is to explore how tourism can contribute, across different geographical and touristic contexts, to the preservation of traditions (customs, traditional markets and events, crafts, local gastronomy, etc.) and heritage (landscapes, built heritage, etc.) through local and regional examples of community-based tourism, participatory experiences, and creative approaches to the revaluation of local resources and cultures to foster sustainable local development, with particular emphasis on the cultural dimension. Contributions are invited for theoretical discussions on sustainable tourism, responsible tourism, and tourism degrowth, as well as methodological approaches to preservation studies from both supply and demand perspectives, and case studies and multiple case studies.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Javier García-Delgado
Prof. Dr. Antonio Martínez-Puche
Prof. Dr. María Hernández-Hernández
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-blind 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.

Keywords

cultural sustainability
cultural impacts of tourism
cultural tourism
responsible tourism
proximity tourism
slow tourism
sustainable local development
preservation of material and intangible heritage
local community
stakeholders
participatory models
responsibility/sustainability debate

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (7 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

28 pages, 5304 KB

Open AccessArticle

Promoting Cultural Heritage in the South of the Valencia Region (Spain): Protection, Conservation and Integrated Management to Maximise Its Socio-Economic Benefits

by Juan López-Jiménez and Antonio Martínez-Puche

Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 5047; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18105047 - 17 May 2026

Viewed by 333

Abstract

The cultural heritage of the Valencian Community constitutes a strategic asset of the highest order for sustainable development and territorial cohesion. This article analyses the enhancement of Sites of Cultural Interest (BICs) in the province of Alicante, examining the interplay between regulatory frameworks for protection, heritage management strategies and their capacity to generate local employment. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was adopted, comprising two complementary phases. In the first, quantitative phase, the geographical distribution of BICs and their relationship with employment indicators were established through statistical and cartographic analysis. In the second phase, which was qualitative in nature, the causal mechanisms identified in the first phase were explored in greater depth through structured surveys and semi-structured interviews with municipal officials. The results show that, beyond the causal factors related to the density of listed buildings and their location, the greatest benefit is derived from incorporating institutional, governance, and local management capacity variables into the analytical models as primary explanatory factors. These factors facilitate the transformation of heritage into an engine of economic and social prosperity, capable of preserving the identity of local communities and promoting a living and accessible heritage that generates well-being. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 773 KB

Open AccessArticle

Museums of the Sea as Educational Spaces for Cultural Sustainability and Responsible Tourism in Coastal Communities

by María de los Ángeles Piñeiro Antelo, Lucrezia Lopez and Ángel Miramontes Carballada

Sustainability 2026, 18(8), 3776; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083776 - 10 Apr 2026

Viewed by 375

Abstract

During the last 15 years, the territorial strategy of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has supported initiatives focused on promoting the sustainable growth of European fishing communities, such as establishing Museums of the Sea. These museums emphasize the preservation, safeguarding, and enhancement of both tangible and intangible maritime cultural heritage, turning territorial and identity resources into valuable assets with significant potential for cultural and educational tourism. They are essential in enhancing local identity and sense of belonging, along with the social appreciation of the fishing profession. This research collects and examines data originating from five Museums of the Sea founded since 2000 in the province of A Coruña (Galicia, Spain) with CFP financing. Findings emphasize the connections between the Museums of the Sea, education and tourism, creating opportunities for local growth in fishing-reliant areas, promoting economic variety, safeguarding maritime heritage, and strengthening maritime identity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

34 pages, 904 KB

Open AccessArticle

Optimizing Sustainable Resource Integration in Cultural and Tourism Communities Considering Community Influence on Spatial Quality

by Zixuan Sun and Jianming Yao

Sustainability 2026, 18(4), 1714; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18041714 - 7 Feb 2026

Viewed by 447

Abstract

Achieving sustainable development in emerging cultural and tourism communities requires not only economic efficiency, but also the long-term revaluation and adaptive integration of cultural and tourism resources. A key challenge lies in integrating diverse and interdependent resources in ways that enhance cultural value, satisfy heterogeneous visitor demands, and maintain resilience under uncertainty. As many emerging cultural tourism communities rely on newly constructed, place-based cultural scenes rather than historically rooted heritage, conventional resource evaluation approaches often fail to capture the cultural and social dimensions essential for sustainability. To address this gap, this study proposes a sustainability-oriented resource integration framework for emerging cultural tourism communities. Drawing on scene theory and customer value theory, a quantitative evaluation system is developed to measure tourists’ perceived spatial quality while explicitly incorporating community interaction and social influence. Based on this evaluation, a multi-objective optimization model is constructed to balance perceived spatial quality, system dynamic adaptability, and tourism suppliers’ cost expectation fulfillment. The model is solved using an ant colony aggregation-inspired dynamic allocation algorithm and validated through a case study in China. The results show that integrating spatial quality and community influence into resource selection enhances cultural sustainability and system resilience, while avoiding short-term, efficiency-driven development. This study provides a decision-support approach for responsible, community-oriented local development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

28 pages, 28190 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Spatio-Temporal Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Jiang-Zhe-Hu Region, China

by Yan Gu, Yaowen Zhang, Yifei Hou, Shengyang Yu, Guoliang Li, Harrison Huang and Dan Su

Sustainability 2026, 18(1), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010035 - 19 Dec 2025

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 860

Abstract

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is deeply embedded in everyday social life, yet its officially recognized spatial distribution reflects both the independent influences of cultural traditions, development trajectories, and governance practices, and the complex interactions among them. Focusing on 494 national-level ICH items across ten categories in Jiangsu(J), Zhejiang(Z), and Shanghai(H), this study adopts a social-geographical perspective to examine both the spatio-temporal evolution and the driving mechanisms of ICH recognition in one of China’s most developed regions. After rigorous verification of point-based ICH locations, we combine kernel density estimation and the average nearest neighbor index to trace changes across five batches of national designation, and then employ the univariate and interaction detectors of the Geodetector model to assess the effects of 28 natural, socioeconomic, and cultural-institutional variables. The results show, first, that ICH exhibits significant clustering along river corridors and historical cultural belts, with a persistent high-density core in the Shanghai–southern Jiangsu–northern Zhejiang zone and a clear shift over time from highly concentrated to more dispersed and territorially balanced recognition. Second, human-environment factors—especially factors such as urban and rural income and consumption; residents’ education and cultural expenditures; and public education and cultural facilities—have far greater explanatory power than natural conditions, while different ICH categories embed distinctively in urban and rural socio-economic contexts. Third, bivariate interactions reveal that natural and macroeconomic “background” variables are strongly amplified when combined with demographic and cultural factors, whereas interactions among strong human variables show bivariate enhancement with diminishing marginal returns. In summary, these findings enrich international debates on the geography of ICH by clarifying how recognition processes align with regional development and social equity agendas, and they provide a quantitative basis for category-sensitive, place-based strategies that coordinate income policies, public cultural services, and the joint safeguarding of tangible and intangible heritage in both urban renewal and rural revitalization planning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 6182 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Spatiotemporal Pattern Evolution Characteristics and Affecting Factors for Collaborative Agglomeration of the Yellow River Basin’s Tourism and Cultural Industries

by Yihan Chi and Yongheng Fang

Sustainability 2025, 17(16), 7193; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17167193 - 8 Aug 2025

Viewed by 883

Abstract

Seeking to advance mutual clustering of the tourism economy and cultural industries while safeguarding cultural sustainability in tourism, this paper delves into the patterns of co-development and the contributing forces across spatial and temporal dimensions in the Yellow River Basin. Using a combined spatial and temporal analytical lens, along with spatial autocorrelation testing and a spatial Durbin model embedded in a synergetic systems approach, the present study analyzes the evolutionary characteristics of the spatiotemporal pattern of the collaborative agglomeration of the Yellow River Basin’s tourism and cultural industries in 2011 and 2021 and the internal mechanism of its influencing factors. We then propose countermeasures and suggestions to boost the quality–efficiency synergy agglomeration of the basin’s tourism and cultural industries. The results showed the following: ① From 2011 to 2021, a positive overall spatial autocorrelation was noted in the basin’s tourism and cultural industries. Temporally, it presented a variation trend of “rise–fall–rise”, and spatially, it presented a distribution characteristic of “higher in the central and eastern regions versus in its western parts”. ② From 2011 to 2021, the local spatial autocorrelation (LSA) of the basin’s tourism and cultural industries remained at a low level. Moreover, significant differences were noted in the LSA among different regions. In spatial terms, the clustering intensity of tourism and cultural industries was stronger in the central and eastern parts of the basin versus in its western parts. ③ Influencing variables for tourism–culture collaborative agglomeration across the basin involve both temporal superposition effects and spatial radiation driving effects. The industrial economy, policies, and innovation exert enduring effects on the development and cross-regional spillover outcomes of the two collaborative agglomerations. Serving as a theoretical reference and policy resource, this study addresses how to promote the quality–efficiency synergy in the Yellow River Basin’s tourism and cultural industries while enhancing cultural sustainability in the tourism industry. Moreover, it can also provide experiences and references for other similar regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 985 KB

Open AccessArticle

Residents’ Perceptions and Behaviors Regarding the Policy of Integrating Intangible Cultural Heritages into the Tourism Industry: Evidence from Dali, China

by Qimin He, Guoxin Tan and Wenyuan Zhang

Sustainability 2025, 17(2), 795; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17020795 - 20 Jan 2025

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4423

Abstract

A policy of integrating China’s intangible cultural heritage into its tourism industry has been proposed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Intangible cultural heritage assets offer unique opportunities in tourism development, yet during the integration process, residents’ perspectives are often overlooked. From the perspective of social exchange, this study examines the relationships among residents’ perceptions of, and their behaviors toward, local intangible cultural heritage and tourism. Survey data were collected from residents (N = 440) in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, China. This study showed that residents’ positive perceptions of tourism impacts have a significant effect on residents’ supportive behaviors. Residents’ place attachment indirectly influences their behaviors. The results suggest that intergroup contact strengthens the relationship between residents’ perceptions of the positive impacts of tourism and behavior but weakens the relationship between place attachment and behavior. The findings provide a theoretical basis for exploring intangible cultural heritage tourism from the perspectives of residents, as well as offering insights for local authorities to use to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on residents and balance tourism development with residents’ normal life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

23 pages, 1465 KB

Open AccessReview

Unlocking Rural Innovation Through Cultural Decoding and Creative Transformation: Evidence from Jiande, China

by Qian Zhu, Yanxiong Wu and Yihang Hu

Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1647; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031647 - 5 Feb 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 894

Abstract

This study explores, through the lens of rural revitalization, how local cultural heritage can be activated and turned into an endogenous driver for rural cultural and creative industries. Focusing on Jiande City in Zhejiang Province, China, it draws on longitudinal fieldwork conducted between 2021 and 2024. Methodologically, the research employed participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with key stakeholders from local government bodies—such as the Organization Department and the Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau—as well as village communities, including Meicheng Town. Based on this empirical work, the study advances a theoretical framework centered on “cultural gene decoding,” structured around three core phases: cultural decoding, creative transformation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. This process involves excavating fragmented local cultural memories and transforming them into culturally resonant narratives and creative products with contemporary appeal. Cases such as “Strawberry Town” and “Qianhe Women’s Culture” in Jiande illustrate the emergence of an integrated “culture + industry + technology + academia” ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, the international journal Agricultural & Rural Studies plays a pivotal role by translating local practices into academic discourse, thereby connecting grassroots experiences with global dialog and enhancing international visibility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Published Papers (7 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI