Abstract
As the global tourism industry continues to grow, concerns about its impact on the environment and local communities have increased. In response to these concerns, many destinations have implemented tourist taxes as a policy tool to manage the negative impacts of tourism on destinations and promote sustainable tourism. This chapter presents a systematic literature review on the relationship between tourist taxes and sustainability, using the Bibliometrix R software and a content analysis. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing research, identifying gaps in the literature and suggesting areas for future research. The results demonstrate two main categories, concerning demand and supply dimensions. The issue of sustainability is transversal to the articles analyzed, highlighting its evolution in a holistic way and encompassing the economic, social, and environmental pillars.
TopIntroduction
The literature on tourist taxes and sustainability is multidisciplinary and diverse, including perspectives from economics, tourism studies, environmental sciences, and public policy. The key concepts and debates in this field include the definition and classification of tourist taxes (Cetin et al., 2017; Durán-Román et al., 2021a; Soares et al., 2022), the rationale and objectives of tourist taxes (Cárdenas-García et al., 2022), the impacts of tourist taxes on stakeholders and destinations (Adedoyin et al., 2023; Pulido-Fernández & Cárdenas-García, 2012; Durán-Román et al., 2020, 2021b; Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2017; Pulido-Fernández & López-Sánchez, 2016; Song et al., 2019), the distributional effects of tourist taxes (Adedoyin et al., 2023; Durán-Román et al., 2020, 2021a; Pulido-Fernández et al., 2022), and the policy design and implementation of tourist taxes (Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2017; Pulido-Fernández & Cárdenas-García, 2012). These studies have addressed these themes from different perspectives, namely through case studies, surveys, experiments, and modeling.
This chapter presents a systematic literature review on the relationship between tourist taxes and sustainability, using the Bibliometrix R software, which discloses a range of indicators and visualizations for bibliographic data, and also a content analysis. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing research, identifying gaps in the literature and suggesting areas for future research.
The systematic literature review process followed the PRISMA guidelines and included a comprehensive search of the electronic database Web of Science for articles published until 2023. The search terms included combinations of keywords related to tourist taxes and sustainability. The selection criteria included the relevance and quality of the articles, based on their titles, abstracts, and keywords.
After the introduction, this chapter is structured in two sections. The first section describes the research methodology used, followed by the second section in which the study results of the bibliometric and content analysis are presented. The chapter ends with the main conclusions.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Cluster Analysis: Multivariate statistical method used to group cases or variables into clusters based on their common characteristics. This technique allows the creation of homogeneous groups in which the cases of a cluster are similar to each other and different from the cases of other clusters.
Willingness to pay: Used to assess the value of non-marketable goods, based on the idea of rational decision-making and utility maximization.
Content Analysis: Qualitative research method that can be used to analyze data from various discourses and communication types, regardless of their format. Through this approach, researchers aim to identify the underlying characteristics, structures, or patterns present within the fragments of messages being analyzed.
Tourism Taxes: Charges levied on tourists used to address environmental impacts of tourism and to finance the provision of public goods and services whose demand is increased by tourists.
Tax Compliance: Willingness of individuals and other taxable entities to act in accordance with tax laws and regulations.
Systematic Literature Review: Research methodology that examines the data and results of other authors, using a comprehensive and rigorous method to address a specific research question.
Overtourism: The impact of tourism on destinations, influencing excessively and/or negatively the alleged quality of citizens’ life and/or the quality of visitors’ experience.
Sustainability: Encompasses current and future generations by meeting the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of the future ones, ensuring a balance between economic development, environmental care and social well-being.