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This paper focuses on Design Thinking as a tool for initiating transformation processes both for the enhancement of company resilience, involving challenges connected to current trends such as digitalization and democratic leadership, as well as for the restructuring of a sustainable socio-ecological company organization. Primary findings of this explorative study show that Design Thinking is a suitable method to promote digital, democratic, and innovative business and leadership transformation, but that it is not primarily operationalized in the context of a further-reaching socio-ecological transformation towards more sustainability.

In order to assess the impact of covid-19 on catholic pastoral care, an exploratory study was conducted in South Tyrol (Italy) by administering an online survey to parish priests and laypeople with an office within the local Diocese. With reference to the lockdown period, the research aimed to investigate: (1) how pastoral care was delivered; (2) changes in the use of ict within religious activities; and (3) the vision of the future for the Church in a mediatized world. Respondents believe that: (1) pastoral activities have slowed down, even though contact with the faithful was kept up through phone or the Internet; (2) the level of digitalization of the parishes has increased; however, the communication was mostly one-way and top-down. Finally, results show that (3) attitudes towards digital media are divergent: they are perceived as having the potential to either strengthen or weaken the relationship between the Church and the faithful.

Digitalization, new work and leisure concepts and global challenges are transforming the way we live. More stakeholders, including residents and entrepreneurs, actively participate in the implementation of alternative socio-economic concepts; as such, entrepreneurial ecosystems are seen as drivers of regional development. The research still lacks holistic approaches to the application of ecosystems in tourism destinations. Hence, the objectives of this article are to capture research on entrepreneurial ecosystems in tourism and, specifically, to derive a holistic model that integrates destination and location management across stakeholders. This research utilizes the method of a systematic literature review, starting with 597 articles on ecosystems. Following four stages of exploring the literature, the results show that most articles have been published in rather isolated fields of smart tourism or quality of life aspects. Based on the rather qualitative review that reveals specific ecosystem components, we propose a model of an “Ecosystem of Hospitality” (EoH). Focusing on stakeholder interaction and encounters, the EoH fosters the adoption of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to destinations in a dynamic approach. The practical implications are, for example, a broader consideration of various stakeholders, including the local population, and a switch in typical destination management tasks from mere tourism service production to regional development and living space management.

Growing numbers of tourist arrivals, in combination with community-centered tourism products, have fueled the recent debate on overtourism and a redefining of local steering processes. This has also called for the participation of residents in governance processes. One tool to utilize residents’ participation and cross-stakeholder involvement is the Living Lab (LL), which also functions as a medium for self-organization. This article tackles the research gap that exists in the combination of the LL mechanisms and destination governance (DG). Therefore, the research questions address the characteristics and mechanisms of LLs and the potential for residents’ participation. These efforts are operationalized through a systematic literature review (SLR) on LLs, which involves 40 articles. The transfer of the LL characteristics towards DG reveals that certain drivers and barriers exist when implementing the LL in the governance process, such as the combination of destination and city planning or the redefining of hierarchical structures. The SLR recommendations for future research are based on the interface of LL and DG.

This book addresses the increasing global competition among both business locations and destinations for attractive businesses and investors, infrastructure, funding and humans in the role of visitors, residents or workers. It focuses on the place management approach – the integration of location and destination management – which has seen a tremendous growth in significance over the past years. The book includes recent developments in the context of digitization or the COVID-19 pandemic. It is organized in seven parts, moving from general definitions to normative, strategic and operative place management and marketing and concluding with seven case studies.

This paper transfers the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) to tourism. First it investigates the characteristic of an EE in tourism by comparing it to an existing model. Second, the sector-specificity of the EE in tourism is discussed by referring to the system’s boundaries, operations and purposes, thus linking research on EEs in tourism more strongly to key concepts of systems theory. This is done by evaluating 19 interviews from South Tyrol in a qualitative approach using GABEK (Holistic Processing of Linguistic Complexity), which includes rule-based coding of interviews and visualisation of results in a network graph. Results show that the evaluated EE in tourism shares features familiar to EEs in other business sectors. This is an elevated role of long-standing entrepreneurs, social networks, governance, shared knowledge and learning. However, there are also tourism-specific features, such as culture and landscape, which directly provide resources for entrepreneurship. Governance does not emerge from the interaction of entrepreneurs, but from public bodies. The system’s output is not ambitious entrepreneurship, but innovative, sustainable and collective entrepreneurship. However, there is the need for further research to clearly determine the system’s sector specificity.

Rural tourism may act as an important driver for rural development in peripheral mountain communities that often face numerous economic, social and environmental challenges. In spite of their exceptional natural and cultural resources and heritage, they may have difficulties to take advantage of emerging dynamic processes. The present study strives to identify key success factors, risks and potentials for the development of attractive tourism products and services within rural and mountain areas. It is based on semi-structured, qualitative interviews with representatives of rural tourism best-practice initiatives across the Alps, the Apennines and the Carpathians, including case studies from Germany, Italy, Romania, Ukraine and Poland. With our analysis, we seek to contribute to the understanding of rural tourism development and management in mountain areas. Findings indicate that the integration of agriculture and tourism greatly contributes to deliver authentic tourism experiences. Moreover, lea...

The blockchain technology has witnessed growing interest since cryptocurrencies became popular in 2016. Not only through payment issues, but the tourism sector is also likely to be affected by the blockchain in terms of front- and back-stage processes. As the blockchain could replace traditional intermediaries, the structure of the tourism sector in the future has been discussed widely in the news. This article aims to conceptually examine the implications of blockchain along the value system in the tourism industry in order to identify its potential benefits. To address this, the methodology follows a content analysis of 175 news articles on the topic of blockchain and tourism, which are analysed through a qualitative news analysis and the method of GABEK®. The results imply blockchain applications along with the whole tourism value system, while it became apparent that traveling is streamlined through the transformation of time-intensive back-stage processes and thus offers extra value for travellers. Through its novelty in the academic discourse, the paper makes obstacles and regulations a subject of discussion, too.

Purpose– Networks and networking are ubiquitous concepts in tourism, their importance appreciated by scholars and practitioners. Tourism research has developed elaborate methods and concepts to grasp the numerous variants of tourism networks and to gain insights into their governance. In particular, Association Internationale D’Experts Scientifiques Du Tourisme (AIEST) and its official journal,Tourism Review, have made significant contributions to the achievements in this research area. After approximately two decades of intensive research on tourism networks, it is appropriate to pause for a moment to critically assess the results achieved, to compare them with partly old, partly newly, emerging real-world challenges, and to explore future directions.Design/methodology/approach– This paper provides a selective and critical overview of the state-of-the-art in research on governing networks in tourism. This overview of eight major achievements is combined with an exploratory, comparative analysis of qualitative interviews with tourism practitioners.Findings– Considering the two sources mentioned above, the study derives seven suggestions for future directions in research on network governance in tourism. These relate to the big picture of tourism governance, e-governance, disparities within networks, negative aspects of networking, dynamism of networks, network moderators and means of network steering.Originality/value– Due to its design, the paper is uniquely able to compare real-world issues with up-to-date theoretical achievements, and will contribute to bringing them closer together in future approaches. Hence, it is relevant for both academic readers and practitioners.

Governments are increasingly establishing health regions to deal with current challenges of public health service. These regions are seen as instruments to balance public and private stakeholders, and offer health care to regional citizens as well as to medical/health tourists. However, it is still unclear how the development of such health regions as well as their governance may be conceptualized. We apply Luhmann's system theory approach in the context of a cross-regional case study that compares health region developments in the Autonomous Province of BolzanoSouth Tyrol (Italy) with particular regard to the Eastern Dolomites and in the province of Zeeland (the Netherlands). We suggest that Luhmann's system theory provides a useful set of criteria to evaluate and judge health region development. Fully developed health regions can be understood as auto-poietic systems. By emphasizing programs, personnel, and communication channels, these case studies illustrate the suitability of the system theory toolset to analyze the governance and spatial embeddedness of health regions. Additionally, the study contributes to literature by indicating that health regions are closely related to identity issues and to decision making in regions.

The Mediterranean region is a delicate area of living, exposed to severe trouble that may be caused even by minor influences, e.g. military conflicts. Therefore, it is necessary to search for useful long-term solutions for tourism in the countries of this region. Due to the abundance of cultural assets, cultural tourism becomes ever more important. On the other hand, the weak points of product development and marketing become apparent in spite of great demand. This empirical study determines the needs of people potentially interested in visiting Italy with the example of the source markets in Japan and in Germany, particularly considering cultural tourism with specific consideration of castles and stately homes. Having determined these needs, it will be possible to show the required consequences for product development and marketing at a local, regional, national and international level.

The stronger competition and the necessity of innovating the offer ask for a strategic management of the human resources of a tourism organisation. This kind of management has to take care of the overall development and the constraints in the field of tourism and the situation of the vocational training in the concerned region. Furthermore, the management of the personal is also a function of the development of the tourism organisation which has to adapt itself to the new market situation.

To rejuvenate a destination means to develop growth strategies whilst in a phase of maturation or stagnation. Stagnation tendencies have been prevalent in Alpine tourism since the 1980’s. In recent years, mature destinations in the Alps have attempted to maintain their appeal by defining and inventing new products and promotions rather than by further market penetration. The rapid (spatial) growth of tourism enterprises in the 1960’s and 1970’s in the Alpine destination South Tyrol led to restrictive spatial legislation and as a result, greatly limited the quantitative and qualitative development capacities of hotel businesses in these mature destinations. Consequently, the entrepreneurs in South Tyrol and the surrounding region often perceive spatial planning as a restrictive instrument limiting the growth and strategic planning and development of their enterprises. In 2007, after a period of stagnation, the South Tyrolean legislature opened up possibilities of quantitative growth for tourism enterprises, but connected it with an obligatory spatial planning and strategy concept for the entire municipality. Consequently, the municipality has to justify the declaration of new tourism zones by demonstrating the potential for growth in tourism. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, by way of the three South Tyrolean municipalities, that spatial planning and strategic tourism development are not necessarily conflictive but that spatial planning, in combination with tourism planning and product development, can be a pro-active and creative tool with an important role in developing and implementing growth in mature destinations. As such, the scope of both spatial planning and product development have been jointly defined and tested in a case study.

Dieser Beitrag betrachtet Südtirols Tourismus im Vergleich zu anderen Destinationen, desen Vorteile und negative Auswirkungen. Dabei ist die statistische Datengewinnung und- Verarbeitung als Ausgangspunkt für ein Informationssystem, verstanden. Die Tourismusorganisation ist die wichtigste Voraussetzung für Destinationsmanagement, und dabei für den Destinationsmanagement des Alpenraums. Deswegen wird in diesem Beitrag die strategiegerechte Gestaltung eines Destinationsmanagements und -marketings unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Globalisierung im Tourismus, der Analyse unterstellt., Ovaj rad razmatra turizam Južnog Tirola u usporedbi s drugim destinacijama, njegove prednosti i negativne posljedice. Pri tome je prikupljanje statističkih podataka i njihova obrada, polazišna točka za informacijski sustav. Organizacija u turizmu je najvažniji preduvjet za menadžment destinacije, a time i za menadžment alpskog prostora. Iz tih razloga ovaj rad analizira strategijsko osmišljavanje menadžmenta destinacije s posebnim osvrtom na globalizaciju u turizmu.

Ovaj rad razmatra turizam Južnog Tirola u usporedbi s drugim destinacijama, njegove prednosti i negativne posljedice. Pri tome je prikupljanje statističkih podataka i njihova obrada, polazišna točka za informacijski sustav. Organizacija u turizmu je najvažniji preduvjet za menadžment destinacije, a time i za menadžment alpskog prostora. Iz tih razloga ovaj rad analizira strategijsko osmišljavanje menadžmenta destinacije s posebnim osvrtom na globalizaciju u turizmu., Dieser Beitrag betrachtet Südtirols Tourismus im Vergleich zu anderen Destinationen, desen Vorteile und negative Auswirkungen. Dabei ist die statistische Datengewinnung und verarbeitung als Ausgangspunkt für ein Informationssystem, verstanden. Die Tourismusorganisation ist die wichtigste Voraussetzung für Destinationasmanagement, und dabei für den Destinationsmanagement des Alpenraums. Deswegen wird in diesem Beitrag die strategiegerechte Gestaltung eines Destinationsmanagements und -marketings unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Globalisierung im Tourismus, der Analyse unterstellt.