Title: Sustainable tourist development in Italian holiday destinations

Authors: Maria Francesca Cracolici, Miranda Cuffaro, Peter Nijkamp

Addresses: Department of National Accounting and Analysis of Social Processes, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 2, Palermo 90128, Italy; Department of Spatial Economics, Free University Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands. ' Department of National Accounting and Analysis of Social Processes, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 2, Palermo 90128, Italy. ' Department of Spatial Economics, Free University Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands

Abstract: This paper argues that tourism will become a major activity in a modern welfare state, which will have serious consequences for environmental sustainability. This issue calls for an assessment of the pros and cons of the ecological efficiency of tourism. We propose an overall efficiency indicator that comprises both a sustainable tourism index and an economic efficiency index. Based on a data set for Italian provinces and using Activity Analysis, a quantitative assessment of the relative position of Italian tourist destination areas is made from the perspective of sustainable tourism.

Keywords: activity analysis; data envelopment analysis; DEA; sustainable tourism destinations; tourist performance; sustainable tourist development; Italy; holiday destinations; sustainable development; sustainability; ecological efficiency; efficiency indicators; economic efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2008.020345

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.10 No.1, pp.39 - 47

Published online: 18 Sep 2008 *

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