Sustainable Development and Leisure Services: Changes and Trends
13
population and its culture (Simpson 2001). All natural and anthropogenic resources
which make up the attractive elements of the tourist offerings are exploited, and
the requirement is to regulate tourism, like all other industries that have a negative
impact on the environment. This would make tourism developments sustainable
(Weaver 2005).
In recent years, tourism has been an industry leader in relation to other segments of
the economy, making it the fastest growing industry in the world. It is also an industry
that is quite difficult to control and regulate. Tourism has a significant responsibility
for the economic, social, cultural and natural environment. Therefore, the task of
tourism is to establish sustainable and responsible development in order to preserve
all significant values in the environment, and to achieve a balance in which meeting
the current needs of tourists will not jeopardize the needs of future generations. It is
responsible tourism that is friendly to the natural and cultural heritage. The mistakes
that have led to the degradation of many tourist destinations around the world due to
the uncontrolled development of tourism need to be identified, and new foundations
for tourism development whose environmental impact will be corrected must be laid.
Based on the perceived need to promote and disseminate information on sustainable development in the scope of leisure management within communities and the
reaction of enterprises to their needs, reliable and interdisciplinary research is desirable. Currently, the analysis of leisure behaviors of different people is not a leading
research trend in the field of leisure in general. The essence is, or should be, to
connect these behaviors with other areas of social and economic life and the impact
of certain material, organizational and technical conditions, related, for example, to
the creation of the urban leisure format. According to Roberts (2019), future research
on leisure could focus on its relations with matters like aging, poverty and health.
It seems that linking leisure to social capital or smart services would enrich leisure
studies. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this study contributed to the literature on leisure tourism, business and destination management. In future research,
we intend to show how these valid questions can be answered by introducing causal
modeling, and discuss an approach to it—the structural equation modeling (SEM)—
which is a rigorous technique for building and testing such models (in specific leisure
and tourism contexts in a sustainability perspective). It is an advanced statistical
methodology that provides models and results that are easy to understand and apply.
We intend to confirm that a causal relationship exists. As a next step in the present
research, we also propose interaction in loco with the visitors of the leisure activities
and a more prolonged interaction with them in order to understand the needs that
one intends to meet, the improvement proposals that they present, and the activities
that they would like to undertake with environmental concerns.
References
Aall C, Grimstad KI, Brudvik EA, Skuland SE, Støa E (2011) Leisure and sustainable development
in Norway: part of the solution and the problem. Leisure Stud 30(4):453–476
13
population and its culture (Simpson 2001). All natural and anthropogenic resources
which make up the attractive elements of the tourist offerings are exploited, and
the requirement is to regulate tourism, like all other industries that have a negative
impact on the environment. This would make tourism developments sustainable
(Weaver 2005).
In recent years, tourism has been an industry leader in relation to other segments of
the economy, making it the fastest growing industry in the world. It is also an industry
that is quite difficult to control and regulate. Tourism has a significant responsibility
for the economic, social, cultural and natural environment. Therefore, the task of
tourism is to establish sustainable and responsible development in order to preserve
all significant values in the environment, and to achieve a balance in which meeting
the current needs of tourists will not jeopardize the needs of future generations. It is
responsible tourism that is friendly to the natural and cultural heritage. The mistakes
that have led to the degradation of many tourist destinations around the world due to
the uncontrolled development of tourism need to be identified, and new foundations
for tourism development whose environmental impact will be corrected must be laid.
Based on the perceived need to promote and disseminate information on sustainable development in the scope of leisure management within communities and the
reaction of enterprises to their needs, reliable and interdisciplinary research is desirable. Currently, the analysis of leisure behaviors of different people is not a leading
research trend in the field of leisure in general. The essence is, or should be, to
connect these behaviors with other areas of social and economic life and the impact
of certain material, organizational and technical conditions, related, for example, to
the creation of the urban leisure format. According to Roberts (2019), future research
on leisure could focus on its relations with matters like aging, poverty and health.
It seems that linking leisure to social capital or smart services would enrich leisure
studies. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this study contributed to the literature on leisure tourism, business and destination management. In future research,
we intend to show how these valid questions can be answered by introducing causal
modeling, and discuss an approach to it—the structural equation modeling (SEM)—
which is a rigorous technique for building and testing such models (in specific leisure
and tourism contexts in a sustainability perspective). It is an advanced statistical
methodology that provides models and results that are easy to understand and apply.
We intend to confirm that a causal relationship exists. As a next step in the present
research, we also propose interaction in loco with the visitors of the leisure activities
and a more prolonged interaction with them in order to understand the needs that
one intends to meet, the improvement proposals that they present, and the activities
that they would like to undertake with environmental concerns.
References
Aall C, Grimstad KI, Brudvik EA, Skuland SE, Støa E (2011) Leisure and sustainable development
in Norway: part of the solution and the problem. Leisure Stud 30(4):453–476