The social perception of environmental degradation. Some case studies in tourism

In the traditional critique of tourism development models that do not take into consideration the negative impacts of tourism, the prevailing attitude is to consider as unique, or absolutely central, generators of unsustainable practices, the tourism industry and the behavior of tourists. Much less considered is the conduct and attitude of the host community, of the "owners" of places of tourism, who should be among the most interested in the fact that sustainable tourism development practices are grafted onto their territory. In fact, an obvious deterioration of the natural resource does not always correspond to an equally evident and manifest perception of the same by the local community. And, still, the greater the presence of degradation and, sometimes, the lower is its perception by the local subjects. They are these hypotheses that have guided a significant part of the research work in the field dedicated in recent years to the study of the tourist phenomenon, and in particular to the analysis of the basic conditions that govern sustainable development of tourism.. In this work we will show a part of the activities carried out and that led us to reflect on the reliability of these working hypotheses and on how situations can arise which go in the directions suggested by the starting ideas.