Bridging the science-policy gap in sustainable tourism: evidence from a multiple case study analysis of UNWTO INSTO sustainable tourism observatories

Abstract

While monitoring sustainable tourism (ST) has become popular in the twenty first century, a clear implementation gap has been acknowledged worldwide. This paper argues that the inadequate implementation might be linked to a knowledge gap on procedures, approaches and instruments to operationalise evidence-informed destination management. Indeed, the routines and procedures to run an inter-institutional adaptive management cycle at the interface between research organisations and the tourism ecosystem are mostly unknown. Based on the identified science-policy gap, this paper addresses the role of the UNWTO INSTO observatories as innovative catalysts to co-create an adaptive transformation of the tourism system, i.e. to bridge indicator-based knowledge production on sustainability performance, knowledge transfer and knowledge use, and to foster concrete actions and a transformation at any level. The catalytic role of INSTO observatories is explored by means of an exploratory and qualitative study. A multiple case study was conducted on selected observatories (Guanajuato in Mexico, Algarve in Portugal, Sleman in Indonesia) to capitalise on the individual experiences and identify strengths and challenges of different approaches to evidence-informed decision-making procedures. Lessons learnt from the case studies shed light on possible strategies to fill the science-policy gap and foster mutual learning at INSTO level and beyond.