Stakeholder Profiles and Visions for Sustainable Tourism in Apulia: A Two-Step Cluster Analysis

This study examines the role of sustainability across different tourism sectors in Apulia (coastal/nautical, religious, hospitality, food and wine, tour operators, and major events) with the aim of identifying homogeneous stakeholder profiles and exploring their visions regarding the future of regional tourism. Based on a set of variables concerning stakeholders’ perceptions, practices, and strategic orientations, a Two-Step Cluster Analysis was applied, a technique suitable for handling heterogeneous data and automatically determining the optimal number of clusters using statistical quality and interpretability criteria. The analysis reveals differentiated configurations of actors reflecting varying levels of maturity, approaches to sustainability, and capacities to anticipate future scenarios, distinguishing stakeholders already advanced in adopting responsible practices, those in a transitional phase, and others still anchored to traditional models. The resulting profiles provide valuable insights into current dynamics within Apulia’s tourism sectors as well as into the future trajectories perceived by operators, offering operational guidance for policy-makers and destination managers in designing forward-looking, evidence-based sustainable development strategies tailored to the territorial specificities of the Apulia region.