Global trends highlight the growing tourist interest in authentic and sustainable holiday experiences. Designing strategies that enable destinations to catch this tourist segment is, therefore, becoming more and more important for competitiveness. A long-term outlook calls into question the "next generation" of actual and potential tourists, i.e., young people: understanding their attitude towards sustainability is paramount to drive tourism development in a direction which is coherent to the forthcoming demand. Drawing from an ad hoc survey of 1156 members of the largest Italian association of student and youth tourism, this contribution (a) discusses youth attitudes towards sustainability, their travel motivations and behavior (b) identifies different profiles of young tourists with reference to sustainability. By using characteristics and dimensions linked with "harder ecotourists" we identify hard path young tourists (HPYT) and soft path young tourists (SPYT). The findings confirm young people's interest in certain dimensions of sustainability and the influence this interest has on their decision-making processes, motivations, and behaviors. HPYT and SPYT are profiles which should be considered in destination strategies: the strong sensitivity of HPYT to sustainability suggests the possibility of creating offers that optimize the unique features of a territory.

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Abstract:The paper analyses value co-creation and social innovation focusing on a new approach to the management of Natura 2000 areas: the Networks of Reserves (NoRs). NoRs have been set up in Trentino (an Italian alpine area) to create an ecological network within the territory, with a particular focus on the socio-economic dimensions of nature conservation and with a bottom-up approach. The research investigates the role of NoRs by using a quali-quantitative approach to analyse the attitudes and awareness of private stakeholders, public actors and local communities. In-depth interviews with NoRs coordinators and key players in tourism organizations were carried out. 167 online questionnaires were sent out to local stakeholders. The research investigates community participation and stakeholder engagement in NoRs' projects and activities, whether and how socio-economic development has occurred, and whether and how innovative sustainable tourism offers have been created. It confirms the role of NoRs in relation to the conservation and valorisation of natural resources through the stimulation of activities such as environmental interpretation and education. The research demonstrates the effectiveness of bottom-up processes for the co-creation of sustainable tourism offers and the fostering of social innovation. NoRs have proved to be successful in overcoming the major impediments to the functioning of the Natura 2000 network highlighted in the literature.

This paper analyzes the investment in environmental management practices (EMPs) adopted by hotels within a community destination. The aim is twofold: (a) to understand whether hotels have changed their EMPs in the last ten years and, if so, how; (b) to analyze the link between hotels’ environmental commitment and propensity of collaboration among local stakeholders. The research, carried out in 2015, involved all the hotels (N = 1.514) of Trentino, a community destination in the Italian Alps, through a CAWI survey (redemption rate 88.9%). The data analysis followed two steps: (1) frequency analysis to identify the EMPs adopted by hotels and to compare the data with the survey conducted in 2005; (2) multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical ascendant cluster analysis to identify hotel profiles with different levels of environmental commitment. The results revealed new and original aspects of the propensities of hotels to invest in EMPs and identified three different environmental hotel profiles: not eco-friendly, proactive, and reactive. Proactive and reactive hotels have a greater propensity to invest in EMPs and to collaborate with the Destination Management Organisation and with other hotels. The research contributes to the scientific debate on EMP adoption and the extent to which stakeholder power and pressure influence the environmental sustainability strategies of hotels.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify primary and secondary stakeholders for the development of community-type destinations and to analyse how the difference in power characterizes them with regards to how they value specific rules and how they estimate trust and control in the destinations. From this analysis it is possible to draw useful indicators for the definition of the destination governance.Design/methodology/approach -The paper takes the form of a literature review and field research. The literature review considers network approach and stakeholder approach in order to analyse the actors involved in the tourist offer (size of the network and characteristics of the nodes) and their influence reputation for identifying primary and secondary stakeholders within the destination. The field research is carried out in two community-type destinations in the Alps. In both destinations, tourism is the main economic activity, as it involves a multiplicity of public and private stakeholders; the two destinations do differ for some important factors, like the kind of DMOs and the path of tourism development.Findings -The research identifies and investigates primary and secondary stakeholders within community-type destinations and their opinions about the involvement of public and private actors for the development of the destinations and their judgements regarding trust and control.Research limitations/implications -Results are limited to two community-type destinations.Originality/value -The research adopts an innovative methodology to identify primary and secondary stakeholder of community-type destinations and highlights some indicators for the definition of the destination governance (e.g. level of community participations, role of private and public actors, influence of trust and control).