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Received: 20 April 2020 Revised: 11 August 2020 Accepted: 22 August 2020
DOI: 10.1002/sd.2133

REVIEW ARTICLE

Sustainable tourism development and competitiveness:

The systematic literature review

Dalia Streimikiene1 | Biruta Svagzdiene2 | Edmundas Jasinskas2 |

Arturas Simanavicius2

1
Institute for Sport Science and Innovation,
Lithuanian Sports University, Kaunas, Lithuania
2
Department of Sport and Tourism
Management, Lithuanian Sports University,
Kaunas, Lithuania
Correspondence
Dalia Streimikiene, Institute for Sport Science
and Innovation, Lithuanian Sports University,
Kaunas, Lithuania.
Email: dalia.streimikiene@lsu.lt
Abstract
Tourism is one of most perspective and dynamic businesses in the world. It is of great
significance to plan and develop tourism purposefully and sustainably though the sea-
rch for compromises between environmental, economic and social aims of society. The
sustainable tourism development management has to retain high satisfaction degree of
tourists' needs, assure significant experience for consumers, increasing their conscious-
ness under issues of sustainability, and propagating practices of sustainable tourism
among them. The significance of sustainable tourism sector development ambition is
analysed in this paper through the lens of strengthening its competitiveness. The paper
analyses scientific literature and seeks to discover the main forms and factors for the
strengthening of the tourism competitiveness by implementing economic, social and
environmental targets of tourism destination territories development. The broad sys-
tematic literature review provided for some interesting findings: The business partici-
pants are interested in the implementation of new technologies in tourism services
having positive impact on environment and local communities; however, a lot of chal-
lenges exist how to change environment, increase of consumers' motivations for sus-
tainable tourism services and to change their behaviour towards more sustainable one.
The current Covid 19 outbreak and high risks of future pandemics have risen new chal-
lenges for sustainable tourism development. In this paper the main sustainable tourist
development challenges are addressed and new insights for the strengthening of com-
petitiveness of sustainable tourism destination are provided. The future research guide-
lines are set based on analysis performed.

Highlights
• The systematic review of literature on sustainable tourism
• The trade-off between sustainability and competitiveness
• The main challenges of sustainable tourist development
• New insights for the strengthening of competitiveness of sustainable tourism
• The future research guidelines are set based on analysis performed

KEYWORDS
aging society, competitiveness, consumer needs, sustainable development, tourism, tourism
destinations

Sustainable Development. 2021;29:259–271. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sd © 2020 ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd 259

260
1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N
Travels have already become an inseparable part of human lives. Nei-
ther global world problems nor the terrorism threat cannot defeat a
passion to travel. In the year 2019, in the world there travelled about
1.4 billion of the planet population (UNWTO, 2019). However, tour-
ism as any other economic field not does only bring some economic
benefits to states, but it also creates some serious problems as exces-
sive energy consumption and increasing negative environmental
effects including climatic change. Also due to tourism and travel
expansions the nature is being wasted, tourist destinations suffer from
high tourist flows and the life quality of the local people is also nega-
tively affected. In order to decrease negative tourism effects, the
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced
the year 2017 – the year of sustainable tourism and invited all world
population to travel, following the principles of sustainable tourism
and to turn to local communities (UNWTO, 2017).
The topicality of the research is related to the fact that many sci-
entists have noticed the great challenges for sustainable tourism due
to rapid growth of tourism services; however, at the moment there is
a lack in sustainability as a such rapid growth has impact on
unsustainable solutions in tourism sector. In this paper the key chal-
lenges of sustainable tourism development are addressed and some
ideas about possible consolidation of the competitiveness in a tourism
sector and sustainable development of tourism destinations are given.
The research is based on systematic literature review to assess the
current degree of research and to deliver guideline for further
research in sustainable tourism field. The sustainable tourism issues
were researched by UNWTO (2017), UNWTO (2014); Lu and
Nepal (2009); Alvarez and Cooper (2014); Waseema (2017); Pjerotic,
Delibasic, Joksiene, Griesiene, and Georgeta (2017); Pjerotic (2017).
Coenen and Truffer (2012); Butler (1999); Mihalič, Šegota, Kneževic
Cvelbar, and Kuščer (2016); Waligo, Clarke, and Hawkins (2013);
Kangwa (2017); Streimikiene, & Bilan, 2015); Agyeiwaah, McKercher,
and Suntikul (2017) etc. The linkages between tourism and sustainable
development of tourist destinations were also addressed in various
studies (Egresi & Kara, 2018; Jeon et al., 2016; Madhavan &
Rastogi, 2013; Nunkoo & So, 2016; Pesonen & Komppula, 2010;
Woo, Kim, & Uysal, 2015). The competitiveness issues in tourism
development were concentrated in several important studies by
Crouch and Ritchie (1999); Hassan (2000); Mihalič (2000); Croes and
Kubickova (2013).
Despite plenty of research in this area, sustainable development
of tourism is a dynamic process that is constantly experiencing new
challenges as there are changing the applied technologies and con-
sumption aspects of tourism. The scientific problem: what are the cur-
rent prospects of sustainable tourism in consolidation with the
competitiveness of a tourism sector? The main goal of this paper is
based on literature review to indicate the prospects of consolidation
of sustainability and competitiveness in tourism development by tak-
ing into account the recent trends of development.
The rest of the paper of structured in the following way: Section 2
deals with the concept of sustainable tourism and addresses the main
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STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
challenges of sustainable tourism and the main issues of competitive-
ness; Section 3 provides sustainable tourism development prospects
by consolidating the issues competitiveness of tourism industries and
sustainable development priorities of tourism destinations; Section 4
concludes and provides policy implications.
2 | LI T E RA T U R E RE V I E W
2.1 | Sustainable tourism
Sustainable development is the main concept of development and
tourism has enormous economic, environmental and social impact in
the modern world therefore the development of this sector is linked
with all three mentioned dimensions of sustainability. As global econ-
omy, social and technological development processes are still expan-
ding, the analysis of new and specific forms, present in business is
necessary in tourism as well in order to achieve sustainable develop-
ment of tourism. One of them involves the clusters, gaining a greater
significance – to locate in one network geographical companies and
establishments that closely cooperate and that are focused on mutual
business results and ones that complement each other. The innova-
tions are expected to contribute to breakthroughs at the international
level and that may determine companies' operation under new effec-
tive organizational forms that generalize ideas, provide with some
competitive advantage and open new possibilities in tourism as well
(Agyeiwaah et al., 2017). Therefore, sustainable tourism development
issues are closely linked with competitiveness through increasing
innovations in all areas relevant to business operations. In addition,
tourism is described as a business, distinguishing by its great variety,
integrity and multi-planning. Precisely, great interconnection of struc-
tural components, shaping tourism business, allow presumptions for
the companies, providing tourism service, to cooperate in the imple-
mentation of innovations (Madhavan & Rastogi, 2013).
Tourism has been acknowledged as one of the most significant
economic sectors in major countries of the worlds. According to
World Travel and Tourism Council (2020) in 2018, the Travel & Tour-
ism sector experienced 3.9% growth, outpacing that of the global
economy (3.2%) for the eighth consecutive year. Over the past
5 years, one in five jobs were created by the sector, making Travel &
Tourism the best partner for governments to generate employment.
Therefore, tourism as one of the world's largest economic sectors,
supporting one in 10 jobs (319 million) worldwide, and generating
10.4% of global GDP. Although tourism market is dependent on the
health and natural environment; however, simultaneously it often
affects them negatively. Therefore, environmental issues of tourism
development require special attention and were addressed by several
important studies (Butler, 1999; Lu, & Nepal, 2009; Pjerotic
et al., 2017; Waligo et al, 2013).
The term of green tourism is mainly linked tourism addressing
environmental issues of tourism (Lu et al. (2009). The research of the
year 2018 disclosed that tourism contributes to the amount of the
emission of the carbon dioxide in the world by 8% (Lenzen

STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
et al., 2018). Thus, the significance of the sustainable tourism is cur-
rently of the greatest importance. As a result, several future guidelines
for developed for sustainable tourism providing main environmental
indicators for tourism sector including climate change mitigation, pol-
lution reduction, use of renewables, waste disposal etc. (UNEP, 2004;
UNWTO, 2013, 2014, 2017). As was already mentioned before, inno-
vations, research and technological development can provide signifi-
cant solutions for dealing with environmental challenges of tourism
development. The European Economy is recovering after the Great
Crisis however there are new challenges liked to the threats of world
pandemic. In the presence of such a situation, the pace of technologi-
cal development has been slowed and as a result there is a harm not
only for economy, but also for nature as further steps towards
utilisation of renewables are lacking. The use of renewables has direct
impact on climate change mitigation. The outcomes of the previous
economic crisis are still being felt around the world, and as the growth
of other countries' economies slowed; the European economy has just
few chances to turn into a powerful economic force. Investment into
technological development is being observed as well as focus on
social issues of sustainability. It is also significant to mention that in
case of improving life quality – tourism is playing important role. The
quality of life is one of the most important targets of sustainable
development also relevant to tourism sector in terms of providing ser-
vices for tourist as well as taking into account quality of life of resi-
dents in tourist destinations (Crouch, & Ritchie, 1999; Hassan, 2000;
Jeon et al., 2016). Generalizing the expressed statements, the pre-
sumptions can be created, for finding the ways to maximize the qual-
ity of life in the future and accordingly to avoid a new economic crisis
around the world (Kakoudakis, McCabe, & Story, 2017; Morgan,
Pritchard, & Sedgley, 2015).
According to Agyeiwaah (Madhavan & Rastogi, 2013), even
though there have been created unbelievably many indicators, follow-
ing which, it would be possible to identify the advance of sustainable
development in the tourism sector; however, principally it turned out
that the following does not work. The authors (Agyeiwaah
et al., 2017; Coenen & Truffer, 2012; Fayos-Solà et al., 2014;
Jasinskas & Simanavičienė, 2009; Kangwa, 2017; Macdonald &
Jolliffe, 2003; Mihalič et al., 2016; Pjerotic, 2017; Pjerotic et al., 2017;
Waligo, 2013; Waseema, 2017; Smagurauskienė, 2009; Streimikiene &
Bilan, 2015) are trying to answer the question if different theories,
calculations and other mechanisms of sustainable development assure
more successful and sustainable development of tourism sector or to
find more simple ways to achieve sustainability in tourism. There are
distinguished seven key indicators (UNWTO, 2014), following which,
it is possible to measure sustainability issues in tourism: creation of
workplaces, business vitality, quality of life and water, sorting of
waste, energy saving and community spirit. A way to a more sustain-
able tourism sector consists of many small steps; however, the most
important is consistency. Strengthening of sustainability in any sector
is a continuous process; thus, it would not be purposeful to limit the
following process by the certain aspects, and it might be even
hazardous.
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261
The first step seeking sustainability in tourism business is the
identification of problems. One of the most painful problems in tour-
ism are: non-traditional kinds of tourism, sorting of waste and season-
ing (Murava & Korobeinykova, 2016). Having identified problems – it
is necessary to prepare a plan of the key measures and a strategy.
Having commenced the implementation of the actions and having
gained positive activity outcomes, the next stage for the strengthen-
ing of the sustainable tourism are extra actions, which would assure
the stability of the achieved result.
Analysing scientific literature, the following key aspects of sus-
tainable tourism development can be defined: creation of new work-
places including employment opportunities in tourism destinations,
preservation of natural environment, climate change mitigation, pollu-
tion and waste reduction, promotion of green and sustainable con-
sumption practices (UNEP, 2004; UNEP, 2005; UNWTO, 2013, 2014,
2017). These effects manifests through other social factors, such as
resident employment and unemployment, psychological climate, avail-
ability of social service in tourist destinations etc. Currently, in the
tourism sector, it is particularly underlying to ensure socially responsi-
ble tourism or sustainable tourism in order to sort waste, preserve
natural resources and other issues of ethical tourism (Andereck &
Nyaupane, 2011; Andereck, Valentine, Knopf, & Vogt, 2005;
Andereck, Valentine, Vogt, & Knopf, 2007; Luekveerawattana, 2018;
Morgan et al., 2015; Murava & Korobeinykova, 2016).
Currently, the social issues of tourism development attract a lot
of attention of scientists. The term of social tourism was developed to
address concerns about socially disadvantaged people (Kakoudakis
et al., 2017; Morgan et al., 2015). Kakoudakis et al. (2003) analysed
the impact of social tourism economically and how this manifest for
the quality of life in terms of socially disadvantaged people. In the
presence of the impact of such psychological environment, it is signifi-
cant to pay attention to the fact how the unemployed seek to find a
desirable job and how vacations affect employees. It was determined
that in the presence of better psychological environment there is
much stronger residents' health condition and in such a case there are
reduced expenses for the disease treatment, improve interpersonal
relationship and decreases the level of crimes. It is considered that
social tourism – an alternative form of tourism, providing a possibility
to travel for the people, possessing fewer possibilities. Different asso-
ciations created in parallel: movements for family, trade unions, feder-
ations, etc., the key aim of which is to develop social tourism (Morgan
et al., 2015). Social tourism is very well developed in Europe and it
provides service to thousands of people. Tourism is also one of social
integrity measures. Universal right to tourism is based on the criteria
of values, which shape the development basis of social tourism
(Ozdemir & Yolal, 2017). The number of people, who can enjoy vaca-
tion today, has significantly increased due to the boosting popularity
of tourism in the world. However, there are still present groups of
people, to whom vacations are unavailable due to different reasons: a
lack of resources, manifestation of social exclusion, insufficient atten-
tion of the public sector, applying social resources and the actions of
passive communities and non-profit making organizations.

262
Tourism is a contribution into social integrity, the activities of
which can be perceived as a measure of social integration/integrity
that enables the establishment of relations with other cultures, cogni-
tions of places, customs, and conduct of cultural exchange and
pithy spending of spare time (Cloquet, Palomino, Shaw, Stephen, &
Taylor, 2017; Ganglmair-Wooliscroft & Wooliscroft, 2017;
Ozdemir & Yolal, 2017; Ponnapureddy, Priskin, Ohnmacht, Vinzenz, &
Wirth, 2017). Social tourism, more based on social than on economical
presumptions, may aid at the creation or preservation of tourist desti-
nations, taking into consideration economic, social and environmental
criteria of sustainability. It is a significant contribution to the employ-
ment and the growth of economy. In the development of tourism
activities, it is necessary to base not only on economic profit-seeking
criteria, but also on ones of the social welfare increase, which are as
following - stable and high-quality creation of workplaces, solution of
seasoning and employment problems, cooperation of public and pri-
vate partnership. Essentially, it can be stated that even short vacation
provided for the job search motivate particularly positively for a job
search and provide with some essence in terms of the creation of wel-
fare. Thus, social sensitivity together with economic welfare is one of
the most significant elements of sustainable development not only in
the sector of tourism, but also in the other ones.
Though sustainable tourism issues are mainly linked with promo-
tion of green and social tourism there are important issues of compet-
itiveness necessary to address as competitiveness is perceived as one
of the main economic dimensions of sustainability also relevant to
tourism sector. The main problem identified based on systematic sus-
tainable tourism research review is about finding possibilities to
achieve all three sustainability dimensions (economic, social and envi-
ronmental) together, that is, to develop competitive tourism business
by addressing environmental and social challenges of tourism devel-
opment in holistic way. The systematic review of literature of compet-
itiveness issues of tourism might provide relevant answers how to
trade- off between social, economic and environmental dimension of
sustainable tourism development.
2.2 | Competitiveness and sustainability issues in
tourism
According to study (UNWTO, 2017), modern economy is distin-
guished by high competitiveness in any business field including tour-
ism. In order to survive, organizations are forced to increase business
efficiency, implement the most advanced technologies, to seek for the
competitive advantage of products and supplied service, to fight for
the greater market share and to retain the best specialists. The author
(Smagurauskienė, 2009) emphasizes that operating in such conditions,
organizational management necessarily faces a problem, when further
development is impossible with no attraction of investment resources.
Investment provides an organization with extra competitive advan-
tage and a powerful measure for growth. Following Smagurauskienė
(2009), all the EU and major world states support business develop-
ment in one or another form, paying great attention to small and
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STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
medium business of the country that as it is thought forms an eco-
nomic basis and secures its stability. Financial support for the certain
size companies is the key policy instrument of small and medium
business.
It was determined that small and medium enterprises are an
economic engine in the EU. They form the greatest part of econ-
omy and create high income. However, in Lithuania the potential of
small and medium enterprises is not completely exploited due to a
very unfavourable situation in terms of business, assessing it under
a complex approach. The greatest potential of small and medium
business is related to the young generation that is focused on the
creation of business consciously and purposefully (Macdonald &
Jolliffe, 2003).
According to Jasinskas and Simanavičienė (2009), the three key
aspects, verifying the provision of financial support to SMEs are dis-
tinguished: decision, rationality and human motivation:
• Aspects of dependence on the decisions, made by other foreign
states. The authors describe such an aspect as a situation, when
one state, making economic decisions, affects the decision-making
of another country.
• Rationality aspect. It is known that support from the European
Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), makes 75% of the all the
provided amount of the support. Thus, following this indicator,
under the authors' approach, it would be unreasonable to reject it
and not to exploit it, as in another case “financial injections” could
come to other states.
• Human motivation presumption aspect. Plenty of citizens would
lose trust in state authorities if before declaring a willing to enter
the EU, they had spoken about the advantages of the EU support,
and having implemented that, it did not supply it to business.
Having taken into consideration these three discussed aspects,
the presumption can be made, that financial support should not be
rejected in order to establish own business or seeking for relevant ini-
tial funding. It is required to search for and select the most relevant
form of financial support from possible ones. According to
Smagurauskienė (2009), there are two key categories of financial sup-
port: “State to business” and “Business to business” (not trying to ana-
lyse what business gives to the state in such a case) (See Figure 1).
Following Figure 1 it can be seen that both the state and business
take part in the distribution of the financial support. It is significant to
distinguish and comprehend that the state role remains an important
F I G U R E 1 The key categories of financial support [Colour figure
can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
one as without the support provided by the state; the realization of
ideas and establishment of SMEs would not be possible in some cases.
Meanwhile, it should be reasoned that without business that is one of
the most significant moments of the economic added value, there
would be no state. The more business ideas are being implemented;
the greater economic growth of the country is being observed. Con-
sidering financial support to business, it can be imagined that a busi-
nessperson, having invested into the industry of tourism business and
provided he/she has established a new hotel, supplies additional work,
for example, to a local laundry. Following the example, it can be
emphasized that every newly established business creates quite a
great added value to another enterprise, supplying another service or
product, therefore the financial support to business can be acknowl-
edged. However, taking into account the laws of market and effi-
ciency of resource allocation provided by markets state interventions
into the markets should be limited by dealing with market failures
such as pollution, public goods and internalization of external and
internal costs linked to business operations. Therefore, state support
for sustainable tourism should be linked to promotion of innovations,
use of renewables, provision of social integrity for disabled people,
creation of new job places and other benefits for quality of life of local
population which are being treated as public benefits (Streimikiene &
Bilan, 2015).
In addition, it is necessary to stress that sustainable tourism
development is closely linked to payment attention to a consumer as
this allows to attract more consumers, expand business and increase
competitiveness (Luekveerawattana, 2018). Tourism business organi-
zations invest quite a lot in consumer market research and are inter-
ested in their consumer behaviour and motives. In scientific literature,
it is mentioned that not only does motivation, life style or demo-
graphic parameters affect tourist behaviour, but also do the national-
ity and country's culture (Andereck et al., 2005, 2007; Andereck &
Nyaupane, 2011; Morgan et al., 2015). Tourism business is expanding
quite at a high pace, more tourists of different nationalities and cul-
tures are emerging and the following fosters greater interest in cul-
tural differences, cognition of local traditions and habits. Tourism
service suppliers, knowing intercultural differences and cognizing
tourist behaviour, apply this knowledge for the creation of tourist ser-
vice packages and consider the following while forming tourist groups.
This will enable to fulfil consumers' expectations and create more
favourable environment both in groups and in individual service. The
result of that is felt – gained a greater everything involving added
value for consumers and organizations (Ozdemir & Yolal, 2017).
Looking deeper into the market research areas that are being paid
more and more attention under the aspect of sustainable consump-
tion, there is present comprehension and cognition of tourists' con-
sumption significance (See Figure 2).
Following Figure 2, it can be seen that tourism is business, the
impact of that is made on environment and economy and on society.
Analysing the research and the presented outcomes by Ganglmair-
Wooliscroft and Wooliscroft (2017), it can be noticed that although
the society is being more and more responsible in terms of consump-
tion; however, the selection of sustainable tourism service remains
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263
F I G U R E 2 The impact of tourism on environment and economy
and on society [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
relatively low. The results disclosed by these scientists also showed
that there is strong dependence/correlation between consumer's daily
consumption habits and behaviour during holidays. Generalizing there
can be drawn a presumption that in daily activities, society follows the
principles of sustainable consumption and it will apply the same prin-
ciples during holidays.
There is wide penetrated of sustainable consumption aspect of
sustainable tourism. The tourists, who are for sustainable and respon-
sible consumption, usually do not select sustainable tourism service
packages that are proposed by Destination Marketing Organizations
(DMO). According to Ponnapureddy et al. (2017), that can be
explained as distrust in the organization, proposing that service. Some
organizations, willing to attract more tourists, convey themselves as
more sustainable than in reality they are. A contemporary tourism ser-
vice consumer is a sophisticated service consumer and the following
sets some ambiguities and distrust in an organization. Under the basis
of research results, made by these scientists it was proved that
trust in an organization directly impacts tourism service consumer's
intentions to order the certain service. The research results have dis-
closed that higher trust is set for tourists by the hotel advertising that
provides with clear and useful information, at the same time reflects
sustainability, and does not overshadow with some exceeded informa-
tion through very obsessive emphasis (Ganglmair-Wooliscroft &
Wooliscroft, 2017). That is a very significant highlight talking about a
tourism service consumer and analysing his/her decision motives to
purchase service.
Sustainable tourism is not only the nature preservation or socially
responsible business. It is necessary to remind that the theoretical
definition of sustainable tourism involves economic, social and envi-
ronmental protection dimensions. In that context there is noticed that
the issue that receives less attention is social involvement. The follow-
ing can be noticed analysing the communication among organizations
and potential tourism service consumers and especially among those,

264
who are disabled in one or another way. According to Cloquet
et al. (2017), tourism-advertising measures are not focused on dis-
abled tourists no relevant information in commercials/films are deliv-
ered for them, disabled persons are not shown and the following
creates the feeling of no involvement. Following the research, it was
determined that advertising that a consumer can identify himself/her-
self with, also increases the feeling of involvement, also increases
probability, and in that way strengthens motivation that a consumer
will gain the proposed product or separate tourism service or service
package. Thus, strengthening the remarks, determined by the research
results, it can be stated that tourism organizations, expanding the
development of sustainable tourism, should pay a greater attention to
the involvement of the disabled tourism service consumers (Benur &
Bramwell, 2015).
Therefore, then main competitiveness issues in tourism can be
addressed also by achieving social and environmental targets of sus-
tainable tourism development by developing innovations linked to
sustainable consumption practices in tourism services and attracting
environmentally conscious consumers and training such type of con-
sumers by provision of green or environmentally friendly tourism ser-
vices. Another important input to competitiveness of tourism is
innovating in social area and providing social tourism services for dis-
abled and old people. At the same time green and social tourism can
deliver a lot of benefits to local communities of tourism destinations
by increasing the quality of life etc. Therefore, based on systematic lit-
erature review, the main directions of consolidation of competitive-
ness and sustainable tourism development prospects are analysed
further in Section 3.
3 | T H E C O N S O L I D A TI O N O F
COMPETITIVENESS AND SUSTAINABILITY
I S S U E S I N T O U RI SM D E V E L O P M EN T
For consolidating competitiveness and sustainability issues in tourism
the analysis of tourism services and products and customer's needs is
necessary especially taking into account current demographic trends
around the world as following the statistics, the major part of tourists
are at the age of 30–50 or over 65 and it can be foreseen that the
number of tourists is going to increase every year and most of them
will be at the age over 65 therefore in order to ensure competitive-
ness of this sector development the tourism services and products
necessary to satisfy future tourists needs should be reconsidered
as well.
3.1 | Implications of aging society on tourism
development trends
The aging process started more than 100 years ago in many devel-
oped countries and during XX and XXI centuries, it turned out that in
many developing. Resident aging will soon turn into one of the most
significant social transformations in the 21st century that will affect
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STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
almost all social sectors, including labour and finance markets, prod-
ucts and services, transport and social needs as well as family struc-
ture and relationship of different generations. Following statistic data,
almost in every country there is present a part of people older than
60 years that is growing faster than one of any other group. Especially
this trend is fast in European Union and creates many important chal-
lenges. The following discloses that soon the number of the people at
65 and older will double in accordance with the world resident part. In
accordance with numbers, it can be stated that the number of people
at the age 60+ will double until 2050 in comparison to the year 2016.
Most elderly will be present in Japan and developed countries. Such
rapid increase in the number of the elderly changes all stages of life.
The following reveals that the birth rate is decreasing globally
(UN, 2020). UN (2020). This indicates that there predominant the
elderly in the world. It cannot be stated that the elderly has emerged
suddenly and in an unplanned way. They pass several stages through
their life until they reach the last one - eldership. The comprehension
of the world and activities expands in the process of human develop-
ment. In each stage of development, we choose new alternatives that
will provide us with some possibilities for the achievement of a normal
level in life. The following is determined by the person's biological
age, historical circumstances, under which the personality was for-
ming, his/her economic and family status, and cultural factors
(Peterson & Martin, 2015).
Human aging is determined by many factors that affect a human
from both environment and from inside. Each factor has positive and
negative sides (Batini, 2015; Flatt, 2012; Itrat, Nigar, & Huque, 2013;
Katz & Calasanti, 2015; Lee, Lan, & Yen, 2011; Liang & Luo, 2012;
Nikitina & Vorontsova, 2015; Sedgley, Pritchard, & Morgan, 2011;
Villar, 2012). Aging – a very wide concept, involving different fields of
life: physiological (medical), psychological and many others. According
to Itrat et al. (2013), aging is a gradual and progressive process and in
general a disorder of functions, when it is adapted to stress and the
increased disease risk. However, according to Flatt (2012), the aging –
stabilizing and adapting of powers, based on natural selection, to the
changed environment. There are more broad concepts like - process,
during which, the number of the elderly are increasing in the general
society. Therefore, there is no one term to describe the concept of
aging. However, there can be made a conclusion that aging affects the
whole human organism (both inside and appearance) and that is an
irreversible process. All-natural creatures age and this is natural for
nature. Human is also a natural creature; thus, the same conditions
work for him/her. There are several social indicators, describing aging
- the number of the residents at the older age; residents' senility
degree; the indicator of the doubled period for the resident senility
degree; senility demographic coefficient; resident median age; average
resident life expectancy, so called resident pyramid; gender coefficient
(gender correlation – the number of all men resident in the country
divided from the women in the country); different coefficients of
dependence and the coefficient of supported parents (supportive age
people) (Mendes de Leon, 2005; Noll, 2002, 2005).
According to the United Nations Organization (UNO), human is
assigned to the aging society after having got 60 and according to the
 10991719, 2021, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sd.2133 by Corvinus University Of Budapest, Wiley Online Library on [05/01/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
STREIMIKIENE ET AL. 265

World Health Organization (WHO) – after 65. Currently, people at travellers can be grouped in groups as passive visitors, enthusiasts,
the age of 65 and senior make 8–10%. Their number exceeds the culture hounds, active learners, careful participants, ordinary holiday-
number of children under 5 (Figure 3). makers, world investigators, independent adventure seekers and rest-
In accordance with the Figure 3 it can be seen that the child birth less travellers. All these groups of people look for the service, present
rate started decreasing from 1970s and in the same year, the number in the tourism industry that they need in order to fulfil their wishes
of the elderly increased. Following the presented data, it can be seen (Table 1).
that until 2050, there will be by 10% more people at the older age According to the Table 1, we can see that it is complicated to
than children, younger than 5. It is obvious that aging is a “problem” implement the elderly needs, as it is a diverse system and it cannot be
that affects everybody's life, including social, cultural and religious. named as “the cheapest product”. Considering the elderly income,
Undoubtedly, gradual resident aging is one of challenges that the soci- health condition and employment, their needs become individual.
ety is facing in this century (Batini, 2015; Flatt, 2012; Itrat Applying the presented model, the elderly consumer needs enable the
et al., 2013; Nikitina & Vorontsova, 2015; Sedgley et al., 2011). increase of the tourism supply effectiveness for this group of tourists.
During several upcoming years or even decades, there is intended Having found of senior needs, there arises a possibility to propose a
a rapid world resident aging, as result of that the part of the popula- relevant tourism product for them, what they expect or demand, that
tion of the working age will be significantly decreasing. Longer is, that it complied with the value and their needs.
lifespan is a great winning in the field of health as a person can enjoy In order to implement needs of seniors, a search for innovative
a good quality of life longer and remain employable longer. However, solutions is necessary. According to Van Vuuren and Slabbet (2011),
due to the resident aging there appear quite many economic and there are key travellers' factors, determining their behaviour during
social problems. Demographic changes are considered one of the travels. The most significant is the travel aim; the type of travel (cul-
greatest difficulties, emerged for the European Union and the whole tural travels, business meetings, holidays, etc.). Taking into account
world. According to UN data (UN, 2020), the number of the elderly at these factors, it is possible to ensure the quality of tourism product
the age of 65 and older will increase by 16% in terms of the resident and service, to attract more customers and increase competitiveness.
part until 2050. In the world, there will be present more older people
than children (0–14 years old). This will happen for the first time
through the history of mankind. Such a dramatic change in age is
already affecting the world economy and, in the time, it will be more
and more obvious. In the case of the elderly number increase, there TABLE 1 Model of the elderly behaviour in the tourism sector
are put efforts to make their lifespan longer. A lot of attention is paid Field Possible consequences of Needs and changes for
to health care and physical activity. If the elderly remains healthy lon- of life aging and retirement consumer behaviour
ger, they will be able to enjoy the better quality of life, be indepen- Health General worsening of Medicines and equipment.
dent and active. health (loss of hearing, Prophylaxis (supplements,
Seniors – is non-homogenous group of persons, the members of weakening of vision, pharmacy, cosmetics).
bad sleep). Medical service
which have different needs, different motivation and different expec-
Flare-up of chronic (housekeeping,
tations. Seniors experience a greater social isolation and the tourism diseases, dimensions, hospitals, specialized
adapted to the elderly aids them to restore social relations. It has been related to age, disability. health centres, home,
proved that the tourism, adapted to the elderly, aids at the reduction Malfunction of self- nursing home, etc.).
service ability. Comfortable clothes,
of a health care need. Travelling, they widen their attitude and com-
Tiredness decreased footwear and
municate with alter ego. Sedgley et al. (2011) presents the groups of physical powers, equipment, etc.
the elderly, who travel, considering their approach and wishes. Such decreased coordination. domestic and social
service.
Social Changed usual circle of Rest: Sports clubs (health),
field friends (due to cultural and educational
Age < 5 retirement, funerals), a events, tourism and
lack of communication, voluntary activities.
loneliness. Hobbies, pleasures,
Free time, related to creativity, leisure time
retirement. (gardening, handicrafts,
fishing).
Financial Decrease of income. Price sensitivity, saving,
Age + 65
field rational purchase
behaviour.
Extra livelihood sources
(room rent, real-estate
mortgage, etc.).
F I G U R E 3 Number of people at the age of 65 and senior and
children under 5 [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] Source: Completed following Nikitina and Vorontsova (2015).

266
Due to the fact that motives and needs are individual, the tourism
market can be segmented in order to find and present the best result
easier and more simply (Figure 4).
In Figure 4, we can see that the tourism market is divided into
geographical, psychographic and consumer behaviour. This figure
enables the highlight of age, as it is one of the most significant criteria
of the segment. According to the categories, the age can be divided
into children, teenagers, youth, middle-aged and the retired (seniors).
From all people's categories, the elderly most frequently has a com-
mand of free time. The most relevant place for the elderly activities,
complying with their abilities and needs is their usual place of resi-
dence. A lot of depends in the person and his/her ability to find some
activities for himself/herself. The elderly stays most frequently alone
and are condemned to loneliness (Murava & Korobeinykova, 2016).
Talking about leisure, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact
that the forms and ways of spending leisure is determined by a com-
plex and closely interacted blend of different factors. However, the
selection of the certain leisure activities and participation in it highly
depends on the person and in particular on his/her age, gender and
education (Araña, León, Carballo, & Moreno-Gi, 2015; Dhiman, 2013;
Liu, Yang, & Pu, 2015; Ok Luy & Lee, 2015). There are many ways of
leisure spending, relevant to the people of different age and different
character (Delespaul, Reis, & DeVries, 2004; Lanzendorf, 2002;
Mokhtarian, Salomon, & Handy, 2004; Schlich, Schonfelder, Hanson, &
Axhausen, 2004; Tschan, Semmer, & Inversin, 2004). As it was men-
tioned earlier, the most popular way of leisure spending among the
elderly is travels and physical activity. Many other elements comple-
ment these two fields. They are as following: transport, accommoda-
tion, catering, attractions, etc. Travels turn to be one of the primary
leisure spending ways for the elderly. It does not matter if they travel
in their country, their city or beyond the boundaries of their home-
land. Such a way of time spending turns into the seniors' basis of
physical activity.
Both travels and physical activity may be divided into forms, that
is, places where all the presented activities may be taken. Seniors
most frequently select such destinations, where there is calmness,
silence and little noise. They find these things in a natural environ-
ment and in holiday and amusement parks. Therefore, the Seniors are
a target market in the tourism business. Every year the number of
seniors is increasing annually and at the same time there is increasing
a number of travels and the following reveals that they are more and
more willing to change their residential environment, experience and
feel something new (Cerina, Markandya, & McAller, 2011). However,
Geographic Demographic
Psychological
Continent Age Lifestyle
Country Gender Social class
Country’s region Family size Attitude
City Education Personal
Climate Religion values
Population Race
City size Citizenship
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STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
not all seniors are able and can implement their travel aims. There are
quite many reasons disturbing that, for example, finance, health prob-
lems, etc. All reasons are solved invoking the certain ways of solu-
tions. Many seniors cannot go abroad and they select travels in their
country or even city. It is not necessary to go far away in order to see
something new. It is sometimes to discover what we have never seen
in the environment surrounding us. Those seniors are using this princi-
ple, who are not willing to go far away from their home.
Other seniors – have set some aims and motives for themselves
concerning travels. They are trying to implement that through the
application to tourism agencies or planning their trips on their own.
Such a type of seniors, wants to get everything from a trip what is
possible: nature and culture, sports and leisure, trial of new entertain-
ment, discovery of new places, etc. Their motives and aims are indi-
vidual (Carey, Kang, & Zea, 2012; Kim & Yoon, 2012;
Westcott, 2012). It is not that easy to make a trip in accordance with
their requests; thus, many seniors plan their trips themselves. Some of
them pay attention to their hobbies (communication and finding of fri-
ends, search for romance, interest in historical places and events, etc.);
rest and calmness is significant for ones and religion, safety and health
is significant for others (Jang & Wu, 2006; Losada, Alén, Domínguez, &
Nicolau, 2016; Moal-Ulvoas, 2017; Patterson et al., 2018). Therefore,
taking into account the trends of ageing population, especially in
developed world countries, the main issues of competitiveness of sus-
tainable tourism development are linked with innovations in providing
tourism services for seniors and disabled people at the same time
addressing social tourism challenges.
3.2 | Sustainable development of tourism
destinations
Tourism has become the main economic business field and survival
possibility for many countries. Therefore, the competitiveness issues
of tourism are closely linked with addressing sustainable development
targets of tourist destinations and providing green tourism services
which do not have negative impact on environment, ensure resources
savings, protection of natural environment and is based on innova-
tions in green services development, In case of the tourist flow
increase, there are being established new companies that supply
accommodation catering, transportation, entertainment or other ser-
vices that they travellers need. Žilinskas (2011) states that “strength-
ening public economic and cultural integration determine the
Behavior
Responsibility
Use seeking
Consumption
Consumer
status
F I G U R E 4 Segmentation of tourism market
[Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
development of regional tourism that unavoidably is related to the
impact on the economy, socio-cultural environment and nature.” “Due
to the increasing tourism demand, municipalities foster tourism,
expecting to receive income from tourism, to create new workplaces
and encourage the development of business service.”
However, in order to develop business, it is necessary to master
the principles of tourism management and implement innovations in
this field as well. Paulauskienė (2013) notices that “tourism manage-
ment is a complicated process – it is directly and indirectly related to
many fields (accommodation, catering, transport, connections, insur-
ance, etc.), which are intended not only to tourists, but for satisfaction
of the local residents' needs. So far there have not been identified
how to assure effective management of a tourism sector at national,
regional or local municipal levels.” Following the author's statement “it
is one of the most difficult issues, solved in practice that tourism pol-
icy formers face in the countries of different economic development
level.”
The tourists have contact with both the producer and the prod-
uct, leading to three important and unique aspects between tourism
and sustainable development of tourist destinations. Tourists consti-
tute touch points with the local environment, host communities and
employees. The relationship between the host areas (including both
social and natural environment) and have impact on local environ-
ment, host communities and employment opportunities development
(Lee, 2001). Therefore, tourists and the tourism industry has impor-
tant implications for sustainable development of tourism destinations.
The sustainable consumption practices should be promoted by tour-
ism sector in order to contribute to sustainable development of tour-
ism destinations (Sharpley, 2000; Singh & Singh, 1999; Zmyslony,
ska, 2020).
Kowalczyk-Anioł, & Dembin
Currently, scientists are discussing about communities and their
centres and increase possibilities of public administrative effective-
ska-Wójcik,-
ness (Szromek, Kruczek, & Walas, 2020; Widz & Brzezin
2020; Zmyslony, Leszczyn
ski, Waligóra, & Alejziak, 2020; Zucco,
et al. 2020). The involvement of a local community into the participa-
tion in the development process of self-government may be different:
political, social, satisfaction of personal needs, business development
in a rural area.
Many authors agree (Aldebert, Dang, & Longhi, 2011; Bilgihan &
Nejad, 2015; Peters & Pikkemaat, 2006; Szromek & Naramski, 2019;
Zarębski, Kwiatkowski, Malchrowicz-Mosko, & Oklevik, 2019) that
the most important factor, fostering competiveness in tourism busi-
ness is implementation of various kind of innovations. Creation of a
new service and development of an old – an innovative process that
enables the introduction of original services to the market. Creation
of green tourism services – an innovation process that attracts envi-
ronmentally responsible tourists. The main aim – satisfaction of con-
sumers' needs. Creation and development of new services is the main
condition for the company's growth and functioning, empowering the
increase of the market share, seeking for aims of the growth of sales
volume and profit and to limit the entrance of new competitors into
the market (Aldebert et al., 2011). Innovative activities are a criterion
of success for economic growth and social welfare, grounding on
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267
advance that fosters the development of business companies. It
involves social change processes, fostering innovations. Therefore,
one of the key sources of competitive advantage – application of
innovations, creation of innovative products and services as innova-
tions are more frequently seen as the key source of competitive
advantage. Under the conditions of contemporary market, business-
people are forced to search for the ways how to implement innovative
activities in order to be able to expand their possibilities, constantly
develop and change and through the satisfaction of consumers' needs
to achieve excellent results.
Developing tourism business, the most significant element is
employees that communicate with a client directly and also to address
the local communities needs. For tourism agencies and their specialist,
in order to meet leisure, recreational or creative interests and needs
of customers it is necessary to have necessary theoretical and meth-
odological knowledge, an ability to find out the interests and needs of
resident community in different fields of leisure activities, an ability to
involve children, teenagers, the disabled and the elderly to active cul-
tural activities (Bilgihan & Nejad, 2015).
The corporate social responsibility initiatives, corporate gover-
nance and business excellence which can also provide valuable inputs
to sustainable tourism development if properly addressed by compa-
nies operating in tourism and other related business sectors
(Popescu, 2019; Popescu & Popescu, 2019).
3.3 | Research findings
Sustainable tourism development can be achieved without damage to
competitiveness of this sector development if such important issues
like ageing human population and disable people needs, sustainable
consumption and sustainable development of tourism destinations
will be addressed by providing tourism services.
Therefore, in order to address the main economic sustainability
issues or to strengthen the competitiveness of sustainable tourism
sector, it is necessary to tackle with many social and environmental
issues linked to sustainable tourism development in tourist destina-
tions. All these economic, social and environmental issues need to be
addressed together: welfare and need of local communities, sustain-
able development priorities of tourism destinations to changing demo-
graphic profile of tourists and their changing needs for tourism
services and products. Sustainable consumption issues should be
taken as priority by developing tourism products and services in order
to address environmental sustainability issues. Social issues of sustain-
ability in tourism development are linked with contribution to local
communities development and addressing the needs for tourism prod-
ucts and services of aging society and disabled people.
In Figure 5 the main dimensions of sustainable tourism develop-
ment are interlinked with drivers of behavioural changes and their
implications to sustainable consumption. At the same time this figure
summarizes the main research finding and provides future research
guidelines for investigation of sustainable tourism development paths
and challenges.

268
F I G U R E 5 The main dimensions of sustainable tourism
development and their implications to sustainable consumption
[Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
The current COVID-19 outbreak is affecting tourism industry and
rising new challenges for sustainable tourism development. According
to Lew (2020), companies that survive the pandemic will need to
make their products more resilient to future pandemics—which health
experts warn will continue to occur—and be able to adapt to the
predicted change in consumer interests, which will include greater
demand for sustainable products. The challenge for global sustainable
tourism will be to strike a balance between maintaining activity in rich
countries, while avoiding overcrowding, and bringing activity to poor
countries, some of which are overly dependent on the sector and mar-
kets that will need a lot of incentives to recover (Romagosa, 2020). In
a post-Covid world, changes to travel and tourism are inevitable and
will likely be driven by a combination of consumer choice, destination
availability and regulatory change (Spalding, Burke, & Fyall, 2020).
Therefore, these issues are also need to be addressed in future
research shaping sustainable tourism development trends at the risks
of pandemics which can arise also in future as well.
4 | C O N CL U S I O N S
Summarizing it can be stated that although sustainable development
and sustainable tourism are gaining more and more attention; how-
ever, the following are not implemented completely neither by tour-
ism service suppliers, providers nor by the very tourists. In order that
sustainable and responsible tourism turned into a social norm, it is
needed to educate both organizations and consumers as well inter-
ested parties systematically.
There are new perspectives of sustainable tourism development
in terms of products and services, focusing on new tourism kinds and
separate consumers' segments, focusing on elderly and disabled as
well as green tourism services. During the last two decades, due to
globalization, tourism has turned to be available to many people, espe-
cially of the middle-class, and as a result, tourism industry has become
one of the greatest industry fields in the world. Although, tourism has
become available to a majority, and was is easier to travel, some social
groups, for example, disabled people and seniors usually were under-
estimated and forgotten in the tourism market, as they represented
the minority that have low economic power. However, due to the low
rate of birth in the whole world and the high number of the elderly,
10991719, 2021, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sd.2133 by Corvinus University Of Budapest, Wiley Online Library on [05/01/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
this situation has got a new trend and currently, seniors have become
a wide and important group that provides with greater use of tourism
services than other groups.
As tourism services have impact on host areas including impacts
on local environment, host communities and employment opportuni-
ties development, the tourism industry has important implications for
sustainable development of tourism destinations. The sustainable con-
sumption practices should be promoted by tourism sector in order to
contribute to sustainable development of tourism destinations.
There is wide penetration of sustainable consumption aspect of
sustainable tourism. The tourists, are currently looking for sustainable
tourism services and enjoy responsible consumption practices there-
fore they are keen to select sustainable tourism service packages that
are proposed by various tourism organizations.
Competitiveness and environmental and social issues of sustain-
able tourism development can be addressed together by
implementing innovations and fostering sustainable consumption prin-
ciples, providing new tourism services for disabled and old people and
achieving completive advantage together by contributing to welfare
and needs of local communities and dealing with sustainable develop-
ment priorities of tourism destinations.
The demographic profile of tourists and their changing needs for
tourism services and products should be also addressed. Therefore,
the sustainable consumption and social tourism functions should be
taken as priority by developing tourism products and services in order
to address environmental and social sustainability issues.
The current COVID-19 outbreak will have significant effect on
tourism industry and provides new challenges for sustainable tourism
development. Companies in tourism sector that survive the pandemic
will need to make their products more resilient to future pandemics—
which health experts warn will continue to occur—and be able to
adapt to the predicted change in consumer interests, which will
include greater demand for sustainable products. In a post-Covid
world, changes to travel and tourism are inevitable and will likely be
driven by a combination of consumer choice, destination availability
and regulatory change, therefore, these issues are also need to be
addressed in future including the sustainable consumption practices
which should be further promoted and fully integrated in tourism sec-
tor by including also international agreements on carbon footprint or
other limitations etc.
Another important issues for future research are linked with cor-
porate social responsibility, corporate governance and excellence
models of business performance which can provide valuable inputs to
sustainable tourism development if properly addressed by business
sectors (Popescu, 2019; Popescu & Popescu, 2019).
The further studies how to ensure social tourism development are
necessary to ensure innovations in this field as well as provision of tour-
ism services for disabled and old people should be also put as priority
for policy agenda in European Union taking into account current trends
of ageing population in all EU Member States and risks of pandemics.
OR CID
Dalia Streimikiene https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3247-9912

STREIMIKIENE ET AL.
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How to cite this article: Streimikiene D, Svagzdiene B,
Jasinskas E, Simanavicius A. Sustainable tourism development
and competitiveness: The systematic literature review.
Sustainable Development. 2021;29:259–271. https://doi.org/
10.1002/sd.2133