The Sustainability between Society and Environment: the European Project “ERNEST” in the Province of Rimini

Abstract

The strong impact over the environment generated by tourism, can produce problems quite difficult to overcome, and which directly involve host communities. These problems have made it necessary reaching a balance between the autonomous development of tourist destinations and the preservation of environment, integrating the attention to sustainability into the tourist activities and into the tourist policies. In this brief work, the main results of the study conducted in the Province of Rimini within the European Project ERNEST will be described, and we will introduce the importance of the “social dialogue” as a tool to boost the participation in decision-making processes of all actors interested on the local touristic project. This can lead to an effective monitoring system of the tourist development, useful to find more sustainable ways to develop the territory, also helping to prevent the destination's decline that occurs when host communities' "limits of acceptance" towards tourism are exceeded, and indentifying new sustainable scenarios for the future of the destination.