Indicators for sustainable touristic destinations: a critical review

Globally, tourism is currently one of the fastest-growing industries, with strong impacts on territories, from an environmental, economic and social point of view. The increase in the number of tourists who flock to destinations requires greater attention to sustainability through tools (indicators) such as strategic destination management support. This paper, through the review of 104 scientific papers, aims to analyze the structure and evolution of the evaluation and monitoring of sustainable tourism through the use of sets of indicators. In particular, the study favors the understanding of the most significant aspects of sustainable tourism that the literature suggests to analyze, evaluating how these vary in relation to the type of destination and the time period of the study. The results contribute to the understanding of the theoretical and operational aspects which, today, are considered representative of the concept of sustainable tourism, improving the sustainable management of territories.