LITO · Locally Inspired Tourism Orientations

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Project objective

LITO: Locally Inspired Tourism Orientations is an interdisciplinary research project that investigates how island communities perceive and experience the impacts of tourism-related transformations, aiming to translate these insights into actionable planning tools. Conducted across three Mediterranean island contexts - Milos Island (Greece), Malta, and Sardinia - the project introduces a participatory and place-based approach to tourism monitoring. At its core, LITO develops the Community Perception Index of Tourism Transformation (CPITT), a novel qualitative-quantitative tool that captures the emotional, cultural, generational, and gendered dimensions of tourism impacts. Through narrative inquiry, cultural mapping, and co-creation workshops, LITO gathers community-defined values and concerns, which are then structured and weighted via a Delphi process to inform the index. The project addresses a critical gap in tourism governance by offering an alternative to conventional metrics like visitor numbers or GDP contribution. It enhances policy relevance through tools co-developed with local stakeholders and transferable across island contexts. LITO will contribute to scientific advancement, influence policy debates on sustainable tourism, and support the fellow’s career development through high-quality supervision at the Islands and Small States Institute (ISSI), field-based learning, and international dissemination. Its outputs include academic publications, story maps, local events, and policy briefs, helping to shape more inclusive and resilient tourism futures for islands and an improved indicators setting for future destination planners.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• UNIVERSITA TA MALTA · MSIDACoordinatorMalta

Links

• View on CORDIS
• DOI: 10.3030/101278620