Sustainable Tourism in Mountain Regions

Dear Colleagues,

With some 50 million more tourists travelling to international destinations in 2015—an increase of 4% compared to 2014—international tourism marked a new record of 1,184 million tourists (UNWTO, 2015). In this general context, despite some difficulties in evaluating the size of the tourist phenomenon, mountains undoubtedly represent an important tourist destination (UNEP, University of Genève and University of Bern, 2014), accounting for 15–20% of worldwide tourism.

If, on the one hand, these data confirm the importance of tourism in driving the economic development of mountain areas, on the other hand, it is also necessary to underline some critical aspects related to the environmental and social sustainability of tourist activities in mountain regions. Furthermore, mountain tourism itself is “threatened” by changes in the environment, especially as a result of the effects of climate change (CIPRA, 2011).

Based on these considerations, there is an on-going debate among scholars to achieve an in-depth understanding of the relationship between mountain tourism and sustainability, evaluating the environmental and social implications of tourism on local communities, and proposing “sustainable oriented” tools.

This Special Issue invites contributions that provide theoretical and methodological approaches as well as research results, applications and experiences on sustainable tourism in mountain regions, with a special focus on the European mountain areas of the Alps, Pyrenees and the Carpathian.

Papers selected for this Special Issue are subjected to a peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments and applications.

Prof. Riccardo Beltramo
Prof. Pietro Beritelli
Prof. Pierre Torrente
Prof. Gabriela Tigu
Dr. Stefano Duglio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

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References

1. World Tourism Organization - UNWTO (2015). Annual Report, Madrid, Spain: UNWTO,.
2. Debarbieux B.; Oiry Varacca M.; Rudaz G.; Maselli D.; Kohler T.; Jurek M. (eds.). (2014). Tourism in Mountain Regions: Hopes, Fears and Realities. Sustainable Mountain Development Series. Geneva, Switzerland: UNIGE, CDE, SDC.
3. http://www.unep.org, last accessed on 15/06/2016
4. Turismo nel cambiamento climatico. Una relazione specifica della CIPRA. CIPRA: Schaan, Liechtenstein, 2011. Available online: http://www.cipra.org/it/dossiers/20