Abstract

Macro-regional Strategies serve as pivotal political tools, lacking designated funds but drawing substantial investments from national, regional, and European Structural and Investment funds. Despite their recognized significance, Macro-regional Strategies’ policies lack a defined monitoring and evaluation system. Among these, the European Union Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region stands out, boasting a sustainable tourism Pillar within the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-Region. Even though there are developed indicators systems for measuring sustainable indicators, these systems do not include governance indicators, multi-sectoral collaboration and effects of European Union funds and joint tourism projects, products and services. Therefore, the main aim of this paper was to develop the set of indicators suitable for monitoring and evaluation of sustainable tourism in the Adriatic-Ionian Region. The set of indicators is divided into seven groups – socio-economic, context, output, result, impact, governance and cross-pillar indicators. Data collected shows that Adriatic-Ionian Region is tourism-dependent region, describing improvement in development of sustainable tourism. The 2014-2020 financial period brought significant improvements in sustainable tourism through innovative projects, joint tourism products, and transnational networks. In the 2021-2027 period, a key goal is to develop more resilient tourism in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current set of indicators effectively tracks sustainable tourism development and should continue to be used, with improvements made as needed.