Human Circular Tourism as the Tourism of Tomorrow: The Role of Travellers in Achieving a More Sustainable and Circular Tourism

Nowadays, the challenge of sustainability is increasingly played out in cities, which represent the favoured field of action to implement strategies and actions for supporting the transition towards a more human and ecological development paradigm. The problems caused by the current economic model (linear model) are even more stressed today due to the effects produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism sector (one of the world’s major economic sectors and, thus, one of the main players in the development dynamics) is one of the economic sectors that has been the most negatively impacted by the pandemic. In this study, Human Circular Tourism (HCT) is proposed as a strategy to move towards a more sustainable future and, thus, reduce the negative impacts produced by the tourism sector. In particular, the objective of this paper is to understand the awareness of travellers (one of the categories of actors involved in the tourism experience) regarding sustainable and circular tourism in order to support local governments in the elaboration and implementation of strategies and actions towards more sustainable and circular tourism. To this end, a survey was conducted. In particular, a questionnaire was developed and submitted to a sample of tourists from all over the world to understand their behaviours and perceptions in their tourist experiences. From a critical analysis of the results, it emerges that there is a growing awareness of issues related to the concept of sustainability, especially in relation to the major issues of climate change and people’s health. This perception has certainly been influenced by the health emergency from COVID-19, but the sample of interviewees reveals that much still needs to be invested in increasing their awareness of the complexity of the factors involved in more sustainable, circular, and human-centred tourism. Therefore, starting from this, possible future prospects for the tourism sector from the circular economy perspective are here identified.