Itinerarios Culturales Transnacionales: Nuevos instrumentos para medir su sostenibilidad y mejorar su gobernanza

The COVID-19 pandemic was set to mark a turning point, with drastic changes in the tourism development model on the supply side, as well as a shift in demand towards local tourism and less crowded destinations. However, the latest figures from the World Tourism Organisation show that in 2023 international tourism mobility reached almost 90% of pre-pandemic levels, while the report Tourism and Climate Change Stocktake 2023 concludes that tourism is responsible for 8-10% of the global carbon footprint, showing that the changes that were on the horizon have not yet materialised. In this context, cultural routes and itineraries are gaining increasing attention as models of sustainable tourism management, able to connect natural and cultural heritage mainly in nearby rural areas, generating socio-economic opportunities for local communities and causing almost zero emissions in the case of hiking and cycling routes. However, most of these routes do not yet measure their impact, due to a lack of tools, insufficient technical knowledge, and time and funding constraints. To this end, this contribution will present a sustainability measurement model as a tool to measure the impacts of cultural routes in four dimensions: sustainable management, economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability. The main targets of the model are those routes that are certified by the Council of Europe as ‘European Cultural Routes’ and was designed within the framework of the Interreg Med BEST MED project. The methodological proposal consists of an analysis of the limitations of the model and its revision, involving stakeholders, refining the original model so that it can be transformed into a useful tool for managers of cultural routes.