Digital Platforms as Institutionally Mediated Operability Layers for Tourism Sustainability: A Triple-Articulation Framework Linking Labour Formalisation, Environmental Certification, and Visitor Decision-Making in the Colombian Caribbean

<jats:p>Coastal tourism in the Colombian Caribbean operates under a structural paradox. It is among the principal engines of territorial economic growth — Cartagena registered 5.5 million visitors in 2025 (Corpoturismo, 2025) — while simultaneously deepening labour precarity and environmental degradation. Sectoral informality approaches 56% across the general tourism industry (ANATO, 2026; DANE, 2023), between 55% and 60% of macroplastics on Colombian Caribbean beaches are directly attributed to tourism activity (Pimienta-Serrano &amp; Pacheco-Bustos, 2022), and a qualitative synthesis of tourism impacts in Colombia between 2008 and 2022 concludes that 72% were net negative (Grisales, 2022). The extant literature on sustainable tourism, digital tourism platforms, and visitor-behaviour interventions tends to address labour formalisation, environmental certification, and consumption-behaviour modification as separate problems, without an integrative framework that couples the three dimensions at the operative point of decision. This article develops and evaluates a conceptual and technical framework for Nativapp, a meso-level digital platform for sustainable coastal tourism that integrates four coupled functionalities: (1) labour-competency certification mediated by Colombia's National Learning Service (SENA) and its SOFIA Plus platform; (2) a curated establishment listing gated on verifiable environmental certification (Colombian Environmental Seal, GSTC, ICONTEC, ISO 14001); (3) geolocated waste-management infrastructure with computer-vision verification at designated disposal points; and (4) a gamified incentive system explicitly calibrated against the behavioural-reversal risks documented in the Design for Sustainable Behaviour literature. The methodology combines exploratory qualitative field research with four purposively selected informants, systematic benchmarking of five comparable national and international solutions, structured evaluation matrices of impact, feasibility, scalability, and adoption ease, and the analytical application of the Design for Sustainable Behaviour typology (Lilley, 2009; Lockton, Harrison, &amp; Stanton, 2010). The article advances three original theoretical contributions. First, it proposes the construct of institutionally mediated operability (IMO) as a structural gap distinct from institutional absence: in emerging-economy contexts with comparatively mature tourism regulatory frameworks — as in Colombia, endowed with Law 2068 of 2020, the Colombian Environmental Seal, and a free public training architecture — the principal barrier to sectoral sustainability is not the non-existence of institutional infrastructure but its invisibility at the visitor's point of decision. Second, it develops a triple-articulation framework coupling labour formalisation, environmental certification, and consumer-behaviour modification within a single digital service layer. Third, it identifies the notion of an interinstitutional articulation threshold as a necessary viability condition for sustainable-tourism digital platforms in emerging destinations. The findings carry implications for Colombian tourism policy, platform design in Global South destinations, and tourism-sustainability governance beyond voluntary self-certification schemes.</jats:p>