Managing rural destinations in an evolving society: an empirical research

Due to the current complex socio-economic and ecological challenges, there is an urgent need in tourism literature and practice to rethink destination management models. Thus, this paper draws on the conceptualisation of the tourism destination as an ecosystem and develops a co-evolutionary destination management model that allows grasping the relationships and temporal dynamics between destination key actors. The study investigates the Castelli Romani rural destination comprised of 16 geographically proximate municipalities near Rome. Then, the proposed model is applied to this destination by mainly looking at the dynamic interplay between its key actors and underlying ecosystem evolution towards (un)sustainability. Results show the crucial role of sustainable entrepreneurship in this dynamic and the importance for destination management organisations (DMO) to involve sustainable and innovative entrepreneurs, reinforcing the entrepreneurial vision of destination development. From that, both theoretical and practical implications are derived.