Aligning stakeholders’ perceptions, policy and practice towards sustainability: Evidence from the EU Transition Pathway for Tourism

This paper examines how the perceptions of tourism experts are reflected in the discourse and implementation of European sustainable tourism policy—an aspect that has received limited attention in tourism policy research. To bridge the gap between stakeholder perspectives, policy discourse, and practice, the study develops and applies an exploratory methodological framework based on a dual alignment analysis. Using three data sources, it examines the alignment among (1) the challenges identified by a Mediterranean community of sustainable tourism experts, (2) the issue salience articulated in the EU Transition Pathway for Tourism (TPT), and (3) the pledges reported through the TPT implementation platform. The findings reveal both convergence and structural deviations across these dimensions. While some challenges demonstrate strong continuity from stakeholder perceptions to policy discourse and practical implementation, several issues considered highly significant by Mediterranean experts—particularly climate-change impacts and tourism seasonality—show weaker alignment and lower responsiveness in implementation efforts. These findings suggest persistent implementation barriers and capacity constraints, while also highlighting areas where policy discourse may not fully reflect emerging stakeholder concerns. By distinguishing between what is articulated in policy documents and what is translated into practice, the study offers a replicable analytical framework that can function as a diagnostic tool for assessing policy discourse and responsiveness and supporting the development of more realistic and context-sensitive sustainable tourism strategies.