Circular City Tourism: Defining Local Policies for Sustainable Tourism in Cities

Circular Economy is gaining momentum as a new economic paradigm able to couple economic development and environmental preservation. It reconceptualises the traditional take-make-waste production chain closing the loop to reduce a consumption of virgin raw materials and waste production and pollution. At the territorial level, cities are especially involved in the shifting from the linear to the circular paradigm, supporting the transition towards a circular economy. In defining their circular strategies, cities should consider the tourism sector and define ad hoc policies and tools to facilitate the transition towards circular tourism. Circular tourism is an emerging topic; at present, few scientific papers are available addressing this topic. Even fewer papers are available in the scientific literature about the circular city tourism, that is, the implementation of circular tourism in cities as part of a larger circular urban strategy. The present paper investigates the evolution of the circular tourism topic, considering the implementation of circular tourism local strategies at the urban level. Crossing scientific papers from three research fields – circular economy, circular city, and circular tourism –, the paper defines a framework for analysing urban policies for circular tourism integrated in larger circular city strategies.