Comparisons of Stakeholder Perceptions of Sustainable Tourism in Naples

Abstract

Sustainable tourism is a controversial issue in tourism literature. There are numerous definitions and many researches and analyses about sustainable tourism, but still there is no consensus and fully understanding of this term and its practical implementation. Sustainable tourism is characterized very often by its bottom-up approach and stakeholders’ involvement in its realization is essential. Sustainable development of tourism depends on a set of policies and actions (labels and certifications like: ISO, Emas, Ecolabel) shared by all stakeholders. Eco-labels and certification schemes have been used to encourage the development of less-damaging and environmentally friendly hotels as well as to educate the customer. Against the background of the numerous academic literatures, this research aims to understand the perspectives of sustainable tourism development from stakeholders’ point of view. To this end an empirical research was carried out on the stakeholders of the tourism industry in Naples in order to: a. detect the level of general understanding of the sustainable tourism; b. analyze the operators’ sustainable behavior; c. measure the knowledge of quality labels and tourist certification.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism, Stakeholders’ perceptions and behavior, Quality label and certification

JEL Classification: L83