The conflict between tourism expansion and sustainability: The case of Least Developed Countries

Dr. Flora M.ª Díaz-Pérez is a Senior Lecturer at La Laguna University (ULL). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Management and a Ph.D. from ULL. She is the head of the research group “Tourism, Competitiveness, and Sustainability,” which has an extensive track record in tourism, environmental policy, and employment research, and has twice been highlighted by the media as a successful R+D+i group. She has served as an expert for the European Commission"s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy and has several international publications. Her recent research includes collaborations with researchers at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management (UCF). She was also awarded the Prize for Socioeconomic Research in Applied Economics by the World Biosphere Reserve of La Palma.

Of Angolan nationality. Post-Doctorate in Sociology: "Society-Tourism and Environment". PhD in Economic and Business Sciences. Master in Management of Hotel and Tourism Companies. Master in Environmental Management. Degree in Educational Sciences in the specialty of Geography. Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior Politécnico do Moxico. He has published five (5) books of scientific literature in Tourism and several articles in scientific journals on Sustainable Tourism. Representative of Angola in the International Association of Tourism Cooperation (ASICOTUR).

Dr. Carlos Gustavo García González holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematical Sciences (1997) and a Bachelor's degree in Statistical Sciences and Techniques (1999) from the University of La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain), where he also obtained his Ph.D in Mathematical Sciences in 2009. Since 2001, he has been a professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods. His research focuses on Quantitative Methods Applied to Economics, Business, and Tourism, with particular emphasis on tourist segmentation in national parks, using CHAID algorithms. Additionally, he researches on Heuristics for solving optimization problems, notably Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) applications. His publications are found in journals such as Heliyon, Anatolia, and Service Business, on one hand and in the European Journal of Operational Research and Computers and Operations Research, on the other.

Hugo Pinto is an economist and Professor of Regional and Urban Economics at the Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve. PhD in Governance, Knowledge and Innovation by the University of Coimbra (2012). He is a member of CinTurs—Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability, and Well-being—where he leads the Tourism and Hospitality Management research line. He is also affiliated with the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra since 2007. With two decades of collaboration with R&D organizations in Portugal and internationally, Hugo’s research focuses on geography of innovation, regional development and resilience, the political economy of tourism, smart specialization, and the blue economy, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. He is actively involved in the Portuguese Association for Regional Development (APDR) and the Portuguese Association for Political Economy (EcPol), contributing to the advancement of regional studies and policy.

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