- Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
- A cura di Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
Measuring sustainable tourism in Italy: Developing a composite indicator
- Maria Gabriella Grassia
- Marina Marino
- Rosanna Cataldo
- Rocco Mazza
- Agostino Stavolo
- Simone Paesano
- Dario Sacco
- © 2026 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.40
Tourism is one of the most dynamic and strategic sectors of the global economy, playing a vital role in the sustainable development of regions. It offers significant opportunities for inclusive growth, particularly in peripheral and rural areas. However, the multifaceted nature of tourism—spanning economic, environmental, and social dimensions—demands integrated and robust tools to assess its sustainability and inform evidence-based policymaking. Despite increasing attention from both academic and institutional stakeholders, there remains a lack of standardized, scalable frameworks capable of capturing the full complexity of tourism sustainability. This study seeks to fill this gap by developing a composite indicator specifically designed to monitor sustainable tourism across Italian regions. Grounded in international guidelines and recent academic literature, the study conceptualizes sustainable tourism as a multidimensional construct encompassing three core dimensions: economic, environmental, and social. The indicator is constructed and validated within a longitudinal framework, enabling the assessment of sustainability dynamics over time. To model the interrelationships among these dimensions, the study adopts a Higher-Order Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM) approach, which supports the integration of hierarchical structures and their temporal evolution. The resulting indicator provides a practical and theoretically grounded tool to support policymakers, institutions, and stakeholders in tracking sustainable tourism and guiding strategic interventions. This research represents a foundational step toward the systematic and comparable measurement of tourism sustainability in Italian regions, contributing to the broader development of sustainability assessment tools.
- Keywords:
- tourism,
- composite indicators,
- italian regions,
University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-7128-7323
University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-0742-5912
University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-6324-8252
University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-4901-5225
University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-5890-2195
University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0009-0003-8097-8411
University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0009-0002-0989-6678
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
Measuring sustainable tourism in Italy: Developing a composite indicator
Autori
Maria Gabriella Grassia, Marina Marino, Rosanna Cataldo, Rocco Mazza, Agostino Stavolo, Simone Paesano, Dario Sacco
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.40
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
Curatori
Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
420
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1061-4
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1062-1
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-1063-8
Collana
Applied Statistics Series