Cultural Sustainability in Tourism: Preserving Local Traditions and Heritage While Encouraging Responsible Travel for Sustainable Local Development
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 2299
Special Issue Editors
Interests: local development; sustainable tourism; impacts of tourism; cultural tourism; gastronomic tourism; quality food
Interests: local development; territorial innovation; integrated rural development; participatory territorial diagnostics; sustainable tourism
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
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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
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