Nansy Kouroupi (p), Theodoros Metaxas

Hiroyuki Shibusawa

Overtourism has become a critical problem in many popular destinations around the world, leading to negative impacts on the environment, local communities, and the quality of the visitor experience. This article explores the potential of the metaverse, a virtual world that combines elements of augmented reality and virtual reality, and other new digital technologies for addressing the challenges of overtourism. Drawing on a systematic literature review of recent studies, the currently available technologies are listed, and their potential implications for the tourism industry and local communities are portrayed. It was found that while there is some evidence to suggest that the metaverse and its associated digital technologies such as the extended realities/XR (virtual reality/VR, augmented reality/AR, mixed reality/MR), can help mitigate overtourism, further research is necessary to investigate their effectiveness in reducing overtourism and their potential unintended consequences. This article makes an original contribution to overtourism research and adds to existing knowledge by providing a practical list of currently available technologies that could help DMOs and tourism professionals mitigate the negative effects of overtourism. The article concludes with suggestions for future research and practice in the field, highlighting the importance of continued exploration and innovation in this area.



Keywords: overtourism; metaverse; digital transformation; sustainability; destination management; tourism development

Yuri Yegorov (p)

Nansy Kouroupi

This article discusses the role of tourist sector for Spain, the influence of pandemic as a shock for this sector and possibility of full recovery. Spain has high economic dependence on tourism, which is partly seasonal, because it uses its geographical advantage of warm sea. Before the covid19 crisis, the volume of tourist arrivals to Spain resulted in almost 300 million nights spent, being the 1st in EU. Spanish tourism was relatively cheap, and this was one of the reasons for its advantage in number of visitors in comparison to Italy and France. During the first year with covid pandemic measures touristic flows dropped a lot (in Catalonia by above 68%), while in 2021 the recovery was incomplete. The recovery in 2022 is almost complete in nominal revenue, but given inflation is not complete. It is important to consider hysteresis: not all tourists from EU, who were forced not to travel or travel domestically in 2020-21, would return to Spain. The covid shock on lower income group (which formed substantial part of tourist flow to Spain) by inflation and rising unemployment is also important to consider. The article also contains models. The first one studies individual preferences for tourism as well as aggregate demand coming from different income groups. The second model analyses the change of destinations in favour of domestic under covid pandemic restrictions. The third model studies possible equilibria between demand and supply curves and their application to post-covid world of tourism. Suggestions for improvement of Spanish tourist sector are also given.

Desidério Batista (p)

Yuri Yegorov

The historical irrigation system based on hydraulic structures for water catchment (norias), conduction (aqueducts), storage (tanks) and distribution (canals), and the traditional cultivation and irrigation practices and techniques, although in disuse, constitute the brand image of the territory of the Portuguese INCULTUM pilot. This pilot aims to study and inventory the water heritage of the Campina de Faro (Algarve), and to promote its rehabilitation, dissemination, and rediscovery by making it the protagonist of a proposed cultural tourism route. In this sense, the activities and actions developed in the pilot have focused on the key idea of considering the role and importance of the landscape and water heritage as an anchor for community-based cultural tourism.
Cultural tourism implies a new approach to the tourism planning process based on stakeholder and community dialogue and cooperation. Under the participatory-collaborative approach, stakeholders demonstrate capacity to manage tourism in a sustainable way. And local communities take pride and have a sense of responsibility and empowerment for the natural and cultural assets of their territories. In this way, they contribute, on the one hand, to the preservation of these assets and, on the other hand, to the shared management of tourism in these same territories. Community-based cultural tourism is based on this compromise between the conservation of the landscape (of everyday life) and cultural heritage (tangible and intangible), and their enjoyment and delight. Farmers and local producers are part of the tourism product, integrated into their own environment and way of life, with an invaluable contribution to the sustainable management of the Campina as a distinctive tourist destination in the context of the Algarve region.
The Portuguese pilot has promoted the involvement of stakeholders in the definition of a cultural tourism planning and development strategy that follows a Campina destination approach for the conservation of the agricultural landscape and water heritage based on the empowerment of local communities. In this sense, it has carried out different actions and initiatives, and organised different meetings, seminars and workshops aimed at both, stakeholders, and communities.

Hiroyuki Shibusawa (p), Mingji Cui

Desidério Batista

COVID-19 has brought about major changes in travel and stay associated with tourism and business. The decline in consumption by tourists and business travelers in business cities and tourist areas has had a major impact on industries and regional economies related to lodging, eating and drinking services, tourism, and transportation services. Various policies and assistance measures were implemented to support stagnant regional economic activities. The recovery of industries impoverished by the corona disaster and the revitalization of regional economies have become important issues (Financial Policy Research Institute (2022)). In tourist areas, sustainable regional tourism, including disaster resilience, is required (Japan Tourism Agency/UNWTO 2020).
The purpose of this research is to develop a statistical analysis method and assess the effects of the spread of COVID-19 and the introduction of corona-related policies on overnight travel. In this paper, using a multiple regression model, we attempt to evaluate the impact of the introduction of policies such as the declaration of a state of emergency, the GoTo Travel Campaign, vaccinations, and the Tokyo Olympics on the number of overnight guests in each prefecture.