Overtourism problems, anti-tourist movements and negative externalities of tourism are popular research approaches and are key concepts to better understand the sustainable development of tourism destinations. In many of the overtourism narratives, Venice is considered to be one of the most relevant cases of overtourism and therefore has become a laboratory for studying the different conflicts that emerge when tourism numbers continue to grow and the quality of the tourism flow continues to decline. This article is therefore focusing on Venice and on one of the possible solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of tourism represented by the concept of a tourist carrying capacity (TCC) in an urban destination. The aim of this paper is to discuss alternative methodologies regarding the calculation of the TCC, and to apply a fuzzy instead of a ‘crisp’ linear programming model to determine the scenarios of a sustainable number of tourists in the cultural destination of Venice, looking for the optimal compromise between, on the one hand, the wish of maximizing the monetary gain by the local tourism sectors and, on the other, the desire to control the undesirable effects that tourism exerts on a destination by the local population. To solve the problems related to tourism statistics and data availability, some uncertainty in the parameters has been included using fuzzy numbers. The fuzziness in the model was introduced on the basis of questionnaires distributed among both tourists and residents. By applying the fuzzy linear programming model to the emblematic case of Venice, it was shown that this approach can indeed help destinations to understand the challenges of sustainable tourism development better, to evaluate the impact of alternative policies of overtourism on the sustainability of tourism, and hence, to help design a strategy to manage tourist flows more adequately

In order to design effective responses to the complex phenomenon of overtourism, the tourism carrying capacity (TCC) of a destination is an essential reference point. This paper provides in-depth analysis of this correlation through the case study of Dubrovnik. The study applies a TCC calculation model that is able to quantitatively include the main effects of overtourism. The paper illustrates how these results can be used to automate specific decongestion policies by conceptualising a digital response system for real-time intervention to mitigate the undesirable effects of overtourism.

In the tourism sector, sustainability has become a principal goal in destination management to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of destinations. However, when it comes to sustainability, there is no absolute scale to conduct spatial analysis. In this article, we propose regions as a unit of analysis for sustainability assessments. Our empirical approach aims to assign regional variability to national indicators, which would make it possible to achieve a good compromise between data availability and comparability and the value of scaling down to consider local details. This approach would enable combining rich information sets based on existing indicators with the wide availability of quantitative regional indicators freely obtainable from official statistics sources, such as Eurostat. Using the Tourism & Travel Competitiveness Index framework as a starting point, we develop regional sustainability indicators for the 281 NUTS-2 European regions. Therefore, this article contributes to the regionalisation of national indicators, which enables monitoring not only the individual level of destination sustainability but also its standing among all other European regions. Moreover, we develop a practical tool for continuously monitoring and benchmarking EU regions’ sustainable development, which can assist stakeholders in their decision-making processes.

Cultural events are endorsed in urban cultural policy for their economic role in supporting the tourism industry and their social role in strengthening community cohesion. Nevertheless, conflicts can arise between these two objectives, especially in cities already experiencing massive tourism regardless of the staging of major events. Taking Venice as a case study, we investigate the effects that different types of cultural events have on the relationship between residents and tourists in a crowding-in/temporary crowding-out dynamic. We implement a structural equation model using a unique dataset that records the daily number of residents, tourists, day visitors and commuters in the city. Results show evidence of both a crowding-in and temporary crowding-out effect during major cultural events, whereas such effects are not present for cultural events associated with local traditions. The paper highlights how these dynamics can impact the economy and the management of tourism destinations during cultural events.

This paper addresses the fundamental role that cultural heritage can play in local development processes to guarantee community wellbeing, quality of life, and quality of society. The enhancement of cultural heritage’s tangible and intangible values may result in sustainable and resilient territory, but a number of issues emerge when dealing with the reuse of specific inherited assets, such as former military barracks. This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of these assets, especially those released from the military after the end of the Cold War. We thus explore the Italian case through the comparison of before-1900 and 1900-to-1950 former military barracks. The objectives are the following. First, to discover how these two types of military sites are approached (or no) as proper heritage. Second, to understand how the reuse management is carrying out and how it deals with conservative and profit-driven approaches towards the achievement of cultural, economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Third, to compare the Italian case with similar international good practices to discover common/different trends and innovative solutions to be applied in Italy.