This paper makes a new contribution to the understanding of challenges for the transition toward the circular economy (CE) by identifying the main CE challenge patterns (CECPs) and analyzing their relevance for the tourism sector. Our work is based on a previous systematic literature review of 42 articles on CE through open coding following grounded theory. This allowed us to identify 68 CECPs and classify them into three levels of abstraction: microenvironmental, macroenvironmental, and organizational. To make this general research relevant to the tourism industry we conducted semi-structured interviews with 33 experts in CE and tourism, ensuring that theoretical saturation was reached. The data was analyzed in two coding phases, identifying which general CECPs are applicable to the tourism industry and which of them need further specification. The result shows that 34 of the 68 CECPs are applicable to tourism, of which 41% need to be specified to be relevant to the sector. Especially at the microenvironmental level, 53% of the general CECPs needed to be specified for the case of tourism. The analysis allowed to identify the 10 most crucial CECPs for the tourism industry and which of them have been most affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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There is a growing need for instruments to control and reduce the impacts of the increasing number of tourists visiting protected natural areas. Among these economic instruments, the use of access fees can have positive effects on enhancing environmental sustainability by reducing the number of visitors. Access fees are also a source of financing the management costs of a protected area. Among the negative impacts of tourism, users of beaches perceive congestion as a factor in reducing the final value of the touristic experience. This article analyses the perception of locals of an access fee to enter the small Canary island of Lobos, a protected natural area with high quality beaches, whose quietness is endangered by an increasing number of visitors, clearly exceeding the current carrying capacity. We approached the problem using different tools: firstly, we looked at visitors’ opinions on the website TripAdvisor to identify whether congestion is perceived as a problem; secondly, we carried out an opinion survey using Likert-type scale questions to capture opinions about crowding and pricing; and finally, we used a discrete choice experiment to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for accessing the island and reducing congestion. The results reveal a high degree of perception of congestion and the potential of an entrance fee as an effective tool in reducing that congestion and thus generating resources to cover the maintenance costs of the protected area.