This article presents an analysis of the state of the art on the relationship between tourism, sustainability and competitiveness (TSC); moreover, the analysis also includes a focus on tourism destination (TSCD). To that end, information on the publications in these fields from recent years was sourced from the Web of Science database. In addition, the VOSviewer software program was used to enable a more in-depth bibliometric study, allowing the results to be clustered by authors, institutions, countries, and journals. The study carried out revealed that 808 articles have been published on aspects relating to TCS and 409 regarding TSCD. The results obtained underscore the greater scientific output on aspects related to sustainability than on aspects related to competitiveness and also that there has been a significant and exponential increase in both cases in recent years. These three fields of study (tourism, sustainability and competitiveness) are rarely combined in the literature, highlighting the lack of a comprehensive overview of this trinity. The evidence reported here suggest that the trend identified represents a future line of work for the coming years.

This article analyzes state-of the art studies that focus on the economic aspects (EA) of municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems, including an analysis of articles that have developed methodologies for economic analysis (MEA), as well as those which study the economic analysis of the externalities or external impacts related to these systems. The aim of this study was to determine the trends in research and critical points based on the literature available in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2019. First, we present the statistics and general trends, then perform an in-depth bibliometric study using the VOSviewer software, which allows the results to be grouped according to references, authors, institutions, countries, and journals. The study showed that 563 articles about the economic aspects have been published, 229 about methodology development, and only 21 considered the methodologies for analyzing externalities generated by the MSW management systems. In general, there is great interest in the economic analysis of the systems and technologies that deal with transforming waste into energy.

Background: The waste sorting and treatment facilities play an important role in the management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), as they permit the materials to be prepared for their later reuse and recycling. The aim of this work is to carry out a technical–economic analysis of a sorting and treatment facility (STF) of light packaging and bulky waste in Gavà-Viladecans, Barcelona, Spain, by means of a methodology based on a social Cost–Benefit Analysis (sCBA), as it studies the private impacts and externalities (impacts related with environmental and social aspects) to determine the Total Benefit (the difference between revenues and costs) generated by the facility to decide whether it is operationally and economically profitable. Results: The key point of the case study is the identification, frequency, quantification and monetary valuation of the impacts generated by the facility, as well as the sale of materials, the CO₂ emissions and the increase in the availability of materials, among others. By applying the methodology, it has been possible to show that this facility is operationally (B_P = 7.06 €/ton) as well as economically (B_T = 55.72 €/ton) profitable. Conclusions: The plant is highly profitable from a social and environmental perspective, as can be seen from the monetary valuation of the externalities. The STF fulfils a primordial function for the city of Barcelona and its environs, as it treats waste for later reuse and recycling, preventing waste from being sent to landfills and reducing the CO₂ emissions from the extraction of virgin raw materials, thereby helping to reach the objectives set by the European Commission. Finally, this paper provides a guide for future researchers and decision makers interested in the economic analysis of MSW management systems.