The rise of sustainability in the realm of cultural tourism: Evolution and future trends

Cultural tourism represents an important opportunity for the implementation of sustainable development strategies, focused on cultural and natural heritage. Cultural tourism emerged decisively around the end of the last century, also because of the growing impact of demand and supply of culture in the economy and, consequently, in the tourism sector. The cornerstone of cultural tourism is the relationship between cultural heritage management and tourism management. The development of effective cultural tourism strategies cannot ignore, on the one hand, the presence of factors enhancing cultural heritage, and, on the other hand, the ability to promote the tourism system around this heritage. Concerning the development of cultural tourism, an important aspect is a role played by the communities, which cannot be considered as passive receptors of the tourism policies but must be involved and made protagonists in consistent engagement actions. The subject of sustainability in cultural tourism emerges quite early in this field of studies. Tourism can represent one of the best possibilities for a local area, which intends to convert its industrial processes and activities or identify new paths of sustainable development. Museums and heritage sites can get economic benefits from the development of cultural tourism. Moreover, several studies have recognized a relevant connection between cultural tourism and event production. In any case, the implementation of tourism strategies must consider the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental implications, which can cause more harm than benefit, even more, when we analyze the impact of cultural events. The economic effects can be non-lasting or insignificant, an unbalanced development of tourism can increase social inequalities and finally the cultural and natural resources, that are at the origin of tourism, can be damaged in a long-term perspective, and sometimes also in a short-term perspective. Therefore, it is essential to consider all these elements in the implementation of local development policies based on cultural tourism. The analysis of this framework shows that the topic of cultural tourism can be further developed, especially if analyzed considering the role of the concept of sustainability. Therefore, this work aims to deepen the evolution of the concept of sustainability in the cultural tourism study field, through a systematic literature review. Consequently, this analysis will highlight what has already emerged from the studies so far and what can be the future directions of development of cultural tourism considering the evolution of the tourism context on a global scale, especially from the perspective of sustainability. The expected result of this paper is to broaden the ongoing discussion on possible future trends in cultural tourism studies, policies, and practices, highlighting the role of sustainability within them, also considering the changes introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the key factors on which we intend to focus the discussion concern the awareness of tourists, the development of new areas of application of cultural tourism, the role of tourism organizations in promoting sustainable cultural tourism and the impact of new technologies.