• Energy Research

Tourism is an important activity to achieve territorial sustainability. In fact, a properly planned long-term tourism activity is critical for the regional planning to reach the desired living conditions capable of attracting new residents in the future. Thereby, the present research aims to assess the perceptions of the managers of tourist companies in the Azores on sustainability actors about the sustainability of tourism activity in the archipelago. Contextually, throughout an exploratory methodology, it was possible to assess the Azores Touristic Companies managers’ perceptions. Hence, this paper shows that the sustainable practices most frequently adopted by the surveyed companies are the following: prioritize the purchase of regional goods and services (94.7%); selective waste separation (94.5%); minimize the use of hazardous substances or replace them with less hazardous products (92.3%); ensure the proper final destination of wastewater (public sanitation, septic tank) (88.8%); and adopt purchasing criteria that take into account environmentally friendly products or services (88.6%). This research also recognizes that 67% of the respondents consider that the respective participating companies have their goals aligned with environmental conservation principles, 66.7% aligned with environmental conservation principles, 36.9% aligned with social conservation principles and 26.4% aligned with cultural conservation principle.

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt worldwide, the tourism sector was forced to seek ways of reinventing itself. Two decades prior to this crisis, in varied rural areas and island contexts, small-scale, community-based creative tourism had appeared as a sustainable place-making solution to foster place vitality, competitive distinctiveness, regenerative development and destination resilience. From an island perspective, this article presents the theoretical framework, methodological approaches, and empirical practices of the Creatour Azores project, which was carried out in the North Atlantic archipelago of the Azores from 2019-2022. Given this timeframe, the investigators and pilot projects that implemented this research-practice project were confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, which accentuated the isolation and remoteness that tend to characterize islandscapes, especially peripheral islands such as the Azores. At the same time, however, this devastating global pandemic, which impacted the tourism sector especially, ended up offering unexpected opportunities along with special challenges, seeming to underscore the relevance of studies focused on the isolation and remoteness that characterize islandscapes. After describing the project methodologies and practices, as well as the adjustments adopted due to the pandemic, this article considers future possibilities for creative tourism on islands, in general, and in the Azores.

In the last two decades, creative tourism has evolved as a burgeoning field, encompassing a wide range of concepts and practices, in different places around the world. From the very beginning, however, creative tourism has aimed to contribute to sustainable development and increased community wellbeing, as an alternative to mass cultural tourism. With this review article, our main objective is to identify and analyze a body of literature that specifically addresses creative tourism in islands, contributing to fill a gap in the knowledge since no reviews with this focus have yet been undertaken. Our aim is to provide a critical overview of creative tourism experiences at island destinations worldwide, addressing the plurality of empirical contexts and methodological approaches found in academic research. This review highlights the key trends in creative tourism, pointing out two distinct approaches: creative tourism in urban contexts, based on creative events, “cultural clusters” or Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), versus community-focused small-scale tourism experiences in rural contexts. This paper also provides an opportunity to assess the evolution of sustainable creative tourism approaches in islands.

This research work aims to give an answer to three preliminary research questions: (RQ1) Are the land-use changes the footprint of the regional public policies conducted over a territory? (RQ2) Could rural and creative tourism be the catalyst for the regional sustainable development of island territories? (RQ3) Assessing the land-use changes dynamics and trends, is it possible to use new forms of tourism business to develop regional public policies? Through a multi-method approach, this paper examines the possible relationship between land-use changes and new tourism typologies as a potential catalyst for sustainable regional development in island territories, using the Azores Islands and some creative tourism projects as case studies. As some of the results show, a footprint of the regional public policies conducted over a territory can be observed through the land-use changes analysis. In addition rural and creative tourism could catalyze the regional sustainable development of island territories.

Throughout history, times of crisis have always been preceded by periods of change. In fact, the current moment of health, economic, and social crisis that we are experiencing seems to be no exception. Tourism seems to be one of the most affected activities by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis—due not only the cancelled flights but also to the fear of being infected with the virus. In this sense, the present article intends to identify the Azores Archipelago residents’ tourism expectations during the COVID-19 crisis. Using the Azores Islands as a case study and merging it with the authors’ knowledge about this regional reality, it was possible to collect a substantial quantity of data. Thus, this study provides an in-depth perception of the main issues about how this pandemic crisis affects the tourism expectations of the Azores region residents, and consequently, how this situation will influence regional sustainable development. Through the study, it was possible to verify that the significant part of the Azores Archipelago residents (57.5%) will not be going to travel to spend vacations in 2020. Additionally, 84.2% will have holidays in the region; therefore, they stay in the Azores Archipelago. Besides, this study shows that majority of the respondents (61.6%) would not make a reservation for a 2020 vacation.

Several authors have shown that some tourism typologies—i.e., rural tourism, nature-based tourism, or creative tourism—have a more predominant role in attaining regional sustainability. In this regard, this paper explores the impacts of five pilot projects of creative tourism on the sustainable development of the insular Autonomous Region of the Azores. Through direct exploratory tools, such as interviews and site analyses, the present study enabled us to provide greater insight into creative tourism projects and their relevance to the development of an ultra-peripheral island region. As part of the CREATOUR AZORES Project, this study is based on five creative tourism pilot projects operating in the Azores, Portugal. As such, it is recommended that the regional government, local authorities, and other relevant actors and players in this region actively support and create strategies to strengthen these projects (and similar initiatives) once they not only contribute to regional development and destination promotion but also promote much-desired sustainable development—once these kinds of tourism, in theory, and practice, counteract the dire effects of mass tourism.