Sustainability of Tourism Development in the Mediterranean-Interregional Similarities and Differences

This study adjusts the Driving forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Response framework (DPSIR) to analyze the interregional similarities and differences with regard to sustainable tourism development in selected Mediterranean (MED) regions. The study involved three steps. The first step was a critical reflection on sustainable tourism indicators and DPSIR as a grouping approach. The analysis yielded 29 sustainability indicators distributed within four components of the DPSR framework. The data were collected for 54 NUTS 2 level MED regions. In the second step, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by a cluster analysis (CA) were performed to group homogenous regions and generate the Med Regions Cluster Matrix (MRCM). The investigation revealed that although countries in the Mediterranean share many characteristics in terms of tourism development and impacts, universal policies in mitigating the pressures are not appropriate. The main contributions of the study are (1) the application of the DPSIR model in the sustainable tourism context (2) and the analysis of the similarities and differences regarding the sustainability of tourism development in the selected MED regions. The conclusions of the analysis may stimulate the debate on mutual responses and sustainable tourism policy responses in the MED region.