Framing the tourism industry into circular economy practices

Tourism is a fast-growing industry. It gives an important contribution to the economic developmentbut, at the same time, it is also a significant contributor to environmental degradation and climatechange. Considering that many of the tourist activities are based on the availability of naturalecosystems in good condition and accessible to tourists, it is crucial for the long-term success of theindustry to develop strategies to mitigate its impact on the environment. Over the last years, CircularEconomy (CE) has arisen as a tool to operationalize sustainable development principles and as a crucialguide of action for national and supranational policies. Considering the need of tourism industry tomove toward a more sustainable approach, the main goal of the paper is to figure out how the CE maysupport the tourism supply chain into this transition. Starting from a literature review aimed to identifyCE operationalization principles, the paper main goal is to evaluate how those principles may be appliedinto the tourism industry. Once identified CE operationalization principles, the paper offers a briefoverview of literature analysing the potential of applying CE into the tourism industry. As circulartourism conceptualization and implementation is still under explored, this paper present a first attemptto frame circular tourism practices into the CE umbrella concept. To build the circular tourismimplementation framework we first employ the 11R framework we have adapted for tourism sector CEimplementation to identify CE practices applicable to this sector. Once the practices had beenestablished, they will be framed to evaluate at which level it is possible to apply it, according to theirpotential implementation at destination level (decision-makers, local authorities, NGOs, industryagencies), and consumers level (travellers). Next, it poses the basis for the development of a circulartourism framework, which goal is to identify for each CE principle its potential implementation into thetouristic supply chain. The recent proliferation of studies inherent in the circular approach has stimulatedacademic research by opening new currents of research and leaving mostly unexplored others. Theapplication of the CE concept in the tourism sector is still unexplored and more efforts should be doneto understand the potentialities of Circular Tourism. The objective of the paper was to create aframework for circular tourism implementation, identifying the interrelations existing between thecircular economy and the development of a more sustainable tourism. CE principles and relatedpractices have a great potential to ensure a balanced development of the industry, actively contributingin the achievement of long-term sustainability goals. The proposed framework may represent a solidbaseline to further investigate the potential impact of CE practices on a touristic destination. As this isa preliminary study, the next step will be to identify for each of the 11 Rs the specific CE practices to beimplemented by the touristic supply chain stakeholders. To give soundness to the project furtherdevelopment will include interviews with relevant tourism stakeholders to test the level of applicationof CE practices in the tourism sector; the categorization of CE practices in the hospitality industry into theframework proposed; and the application of the framework in our pilot project involving tourism firmsin a coastal destination.