Cultivating sustainable cultural tourism: the role of cultural festivals

Cultural festivals have been widely recognised as powerful actors in promoting cultural diversity, facilitating access to culture in areas with limited cultural infrastructure, and contributing to local development through tourism. They have also been increasingly scrutinised in the literature and public opinion for their environmental impact on destinations and cultural and natural resources. The growing awareness of these controversial impacts requires today’s cultural festival organisers to adopt environmentally responsible approaches in the organisation and management of their events, also in connection with the tourism sector. Looking at the Italian context, and in particular at 83 cultural festivals throughout the country, this paper explores the adoption of environmental sustainability practices, examining obstacles and available good practices to identify policy and management implications.