THE SOCIAL LEGITIMACY OF GOLF TOURISM: AN APPLICATION TO THE GOLF COURSES OF ANDALUSIA

Today, respect for the natural environmental is a variable that plays animportant role when it comes to configuring a tourist destination orproduct, particularly since this is an industry for which the location isirrevocably fixed. Andalusia, in particular, has become well-establishedas a major golf tourism destination. It has more golf courses than anyother of the 17 Spanish Autonomous Regions. This has stimulated adebate on the environmental impacts of sporting facilities of this type,with attention consequently focused on the need of these tourismcompanies to achieve and maintain social legitimacy. In the workdescribed here, the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique is applied to analyse the impact of the institutional context on the implementation of environmental practices and the achievement of social legitimacy by these organisations.