Tourism Sustainability Model for a World Heritage Destination: The Case of Residents’ Perception of Ohrid

World Heritage (WH) status is anticipated to promote sustainable development by protecting the destination’s outstanding natural and cultural resources, generating economic advantages, attracting visitors, and improving the quality of life for its residents. Putting the economic advantages and values first has a critical effect on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), which negatively impacts the destination’s sustainability, such as quality of life. This study proposes a sustainability model based on UNESCO OUV to evaluate tourism’s role in a WH destination’s residents’ perception of quality of life. The model was tested on a WH destination Ohrid (North Macedonia). The findings revealed that tourism has a beneficial economic impact while also having a negative influence on the OUV ecological environment and residents’ perception of quality of life. The discussion takes place in UNESCO’s considerations to add Ohrid to the list of WH in Danger due to unsustainable tourism development. The findings encourage destination managers to take responsibility for the OUV resources and to take the necessary actions to improve tourism sustainability. The model can be easily adapted and applied to any WH destination

Back to the future: challenges of European tourism of tomorrow

Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the most recent (or emerging) trendslikely to have a major impact in shaping the future of tourism in Europe. Design/methodology/approach–The methodology of this paper involved in-depth literature review ofEuropean Union policies, initiatives and programs. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted withkey individuals/organisations, mainly at a European level, but also including pertinent global and nationaltourism organisations. Moreover, an online survey was also conducted and circulated to a wide range oforganisations from all 28 EU Member States. Nvivo was used to analyse the documents as well as toconduct a content and thematic analysis of the interviews. Findings–This paper identifies five trends associated with the future of tourism in Europe. Those maintrends are: evolving visitor demand; marketing; stakeholders and tourism governance; new technologies;and sustainable and responsible tourism. Originality/value–This trends paper provides five useful recommendations for the future of tourism inEurope, including: sustainable tourism development, investment in technology, effective tourismgovernance, enhance Europe’s overall destination brand and marketing strategy, and the need for newskills and training

(Un)sustainable and (ir)responsible tourism in Ohrid: Residents’ perception

The aim of the paper is to identify the main factors that affect tourism development of Ohrid (North Macedonia) from the three-pillar sustainability dimension (socio-cultural, environmental and economic). Based on 630 questionnaires collected from residents in January 2020, exploratory factor analysis is conducted to assess residents’ satisfaction with given impacts of tourism. The research revealed positive socio-cultural and economic factors and negative environmental impacts, indicating that Ohrid is practicing neither sustainable, nor responsible tourism development. Despite having legislation and an institutional framework to safeguard Ohrid’s World Heritage property, many serious concerns were noted with regards to the sustainability values. The findings may assist policy makers in establishing tourism planning process and developing sustainable development strategies

Sustainable Tourism and UNESCO Status Benefits: Perceptions of Residents of Ohrid

The study analyses and discusses differences of residents’ perceptions of Ohrid (North Macedonia) when investigating personal attributes like age, category of employment and tourism dependence, in two directions: (1) Socio-cultural, natural and economic sustainability dimensions of tourism; and (2) Benefits that world heritage status brings, as prestige, environmental protection, and economic benefits. The research is based on face-to-face surveys conducted among 630 locals during January 2020. Cross tabulations were calculated at a level 0.1%. It was found a very slight difference in age and category concerning the socio-cultural aspect of sustainability. Age strongly matters when creating residents’ perception on the natural aspect of sustainability, while tourism dependence matters when perceiving economic aspect of tourism sustainability. Along, the study found no difference in residents’ perception on the positive effects of UNESCO designation. The findings have practical significance indicating many suggestions valuable when creating new strategic approaches for boosting local tourism development

Resident's Perception on Tourism Impact Factors: A Study of Ohrid, North Macedonia

Rapid tourism growth may negatively affect the sustainability of the destination and disrupt the life of local residents. This paper explores the direct and indirect connections among tourism impact factors in the area of sustainability. Exploratory factor analysis is conducted in order to assess the underlying dimension of residents’ satisfaction with given impacts of tourism development. The authors use the three-pillar sustainability concept (socio-cultural, environmental and economic) and suggest a model that measures residents’ attitudes on tourism impacts. The model is empirically tested by elaborating the case of Ohrid (North Macedonia). The study informs tourism policy makers how to manage tourism impacts and to improve sustainability perspective. The proposed model can be adopted and applied to any tourism destination facing unsustainable development