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As underlined by OECD and United Nations, as cities are growing in size, they will face challenges in becoming climate neutral, reducing their environmental footprint, and meeting the growing needs of their populations. In cities, the main challenges of sustainable development are concentrated. So, there is a need to identify a new development model in order to make cities more sustainable. This necessity concerns all sectors, including the tourism one, which represents the third largest socio-economic activity in Europe. The tourism sector puts pressure on the city, increasing waste generation, noise and air pollution, and congestion in infrastructure and public areas. In addition, it is organized according to the linear economy model. This linearity is particularly visible in cities as people here tend to choose comfort over sustainability. In this framework, new approaches, strategies, and tools are required in order to make the tourism sector more sustainable, thus reducing its negative impacts on cities. In this perspective, the Human Circular Tourism (HCT) model is proposed. The aim of this study is to provide an operational framework consisting of recommendations, actions, and indicators to effectively operationalize the Human Circular Tourism model and to support public authorities (and other tourism stakeholders) in the identification of efficient policies in the tourism sector. Full article

Nowadays, the challenge of sustainability is increasingly played out in cities, which represent the favoured field of action to implement strategies and actions for supporting the transition towards a more human and ecological development paradigm. The problems caused by the current economic model (linear model) are even more stressed today due to the effects produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism sector (one of the world’s major economic sectors and, thus, one of the main players in the development dynamics) is one of the economic sectors that has been the most negatively impacted by the pandemic. In this study, Human Circular Tourism (HCT) is proposed as a strategy to move towards a more sustainable future and, thus, reduce the negative impacts produced by the tourism sector. In particular, the objective of this paper is to understand the awareness of travellers (one of the categories of actors involved in the tourism experience) regarding sustainable and circular tourism in order to support local governments in the elaboration and implementation of strategies and actions towards more sustainable and circular tourism. To this end, a survey was conducted. In particular, a questionnaire was developed and submitted to a sample of tourists from all over the world to understand their behaviours and perceptions in their tourist experiences. From a critical analysis of the results, it emerges that there is a growing awareness of issues related to the concept of sustainability, especially in relation to the major issues of climate change and people’s health. This perception has certainly been influenced by the health emergency from COVID-19, but the sample of interviewees reveals that much still needs to be invested in increasing their awareness of the complexity of the factors involved in more sustainable, circular, and human-centred tourism. Therefore, starting from this, possible future prospects for the tourism sector from the circular economy perspective are here identified. Full article