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Destination management is a collaborative process requiring DMOs to reconcile the diverging interests of various stakeholders and actively involve them in decision and policy making processes. Web 2.0 tools and e-democracy applications empower DMOs to further enhance the role and participation of tourism stakeholders in such collaborative processes, but the literature has paid limited attention to such issues. This paper synthesizes literature from stakeholder theory, collaborative decision making and e-democracy to develop a framework showing how DMOs can exploit Web 2.0 for developing collaborative decision-making processes. The theoretical and practical implications of this framework are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential of ICTs and its revolution in the contemporary tourism industry, very little academic research has been carried out on the contribution of ICTs to Sustainable Tourism Development (STD). This study aims to explore various different stakeholders΄ perception on the contribution of ICTs to sustainable tourism development in Manchester. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with various different stakeholders who are involved in sustainable tourism development in Manchester area. Findings revealed that ICTs can offer platform to facilitate sustainable tourism development and emerging ICTs can be utilized to maximize tourism΄s positive impacts and minimize negative impacts at tourism destination. The research also identified a number of barriers to the implementation of ICTs in sustainable tourism development. Limitations of the study which should be addressed in future research are discussed and some recommendations for further research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile business applications in tourism have been developed in the last years for various platforms and services. However, most of the applications have been tested in lab-like conditions. The article describes the trial case of St. Moritz, Switzerland. With the help of the Destination-Pilot acceptability, usability, and market potential for mobile information services have been tested in a real environment situation. The trial involves numerous visitors and tourist enterprises. The paper presents opportunities and limitations to so called mobile travel recommender systems. Strong emphasis is put on the methodical and technical challenges in the set up trial phase as well as on potential business models for exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to improve an already existing Tourism benchmarking tool designed and implemented by the Austrian Provincial Government of Tyrol in 1987 (Haemmerle and Lehar 1987, Berktold 1992). After a brief introduction which overviews latest benchmarking approaches within tourism (Morey and Dittman 1995, Kozak and Rimmington 1998, Siguaw and Enz 1999, Dubé et al. 1999, Ritchie and Crouch 2000) and emphasizing its strategic significance of continually monitoring and emulating standards of performance, the principal purpose of an already existing benchmarking tool, the Tyrolean Tourism Barometer, is described in form of a case study. Both, the data gathering process as well as the operational sequences leading to a variety of indicators are thoroughly discussed. The paper concludes by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of this secondary data based benchmarking tool. The final section of the paper critically assesses the neglect of relevant elements within the production process of tourism services. Here, the point will be made that it will not suffice to only describe structural shifts in tourism supply and demand in order to establish a reliable instrument for retrospectively evaluating tourism policy and strategically optimize future destination policies. Thus, the existing approach, initially based on price and capacity data only, is extended by linking it to both quality measures of customer satisfaction as well as resource allocation conditions (Weiermair and Fuchs 1999, Wöber 2000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]