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The nexus of migration and tourism is well explored, and both phenomena possess push- and pull factors. Their influence and connections can be seen in one of the top tourist destinations in Europe,...

Purpose Due to both the new quality and intensity overtourism discussions have received, it is time to examine the question concerning the consequences this development has on destination level and how destinations can adjust their strategies for future development. This is especially important to consider, since overtourism can be seen as a fundamental issue for tourism development. First measures taken within destinations show that reactions are taking place, e.g. through access restrictions of frequently visited places. The purpose of this paper is to identify future-oriented strategies and to derive concrete measures in order to deal with overtourism on a destination level. Design/methodology/approach In total, 19 qualitative interviews with European destination managers were conducted and evaluated via the qualitative analysis method GABEK® with WinRelan® software. Findings The results show that various stakeholders are involved in overtourism, with the destination management organization being the central actor to deal with issues. It is challenging to choose between different strategies and measures, which always have to be considered in relation to the specific conditions of a destination and the perception level of overtourism. In order to face current developments, the initiation of a stakeholder dialog can be seen as a promising factor, but also as a challenging task. Originality/value Currently, a “wait-and-see-attitude” exists, where well-known destinations are cited as negative examples, but a serious examination related to one’s own destination has not yet been developed. This consideration should be seen as a prerequisite for future-oriented destination development, which takes the local population into account.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss responsibility in tourism destinations. On the basis of a resilience approach, central aspects of leadership and of responsibility in destination networks are introduced and, a contribution to a conceptual analysis of the future viability of tourism destinations is made. This contributes to a better understanding of resilience from a destination management organization (DMO) perspective in the context of shared responsibility.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this goal, a qualitative interview series was conducted with destination managers in urban and rural areas. The interviews were evaluated using the method of GABEK®, in order to reveal and visualize semantic relationships between the specific statements. This method allows the representation of linkages and relationships of keywords from interview transcripts in the form of network graphs.FindingsA major result is the existence of a network of leaders who take responsibility for tourism development within a tourism destination. Within this network, the destination manager once again plays a key role by developing and formulating visions, goals and strategies. In this context, the relevant employees of the DMO have an important role to play, since they are an important resource of tourism development due to their experience and competences.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to a practical view on the development of visions and strategies. It analyzes challenges and possible ways to communicate with the required political and public actors of the destination as well as with the service providers to regard destination development as a collaborative task.

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.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore customers’ emotions during a host–guest interaction at the reception desk of a hotel. Guests’ emotional responses are analyzed in real time to understand their link to behavior and levels of service and relationship quality.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this aim, 225 random customers experience six different types of interactions (scenarios) at a staged reception desk, representing a high/low service or relationship quality. The emotions provoked within guests are (video) recorded and analyzed with the help of SHORETM, a facial recognition software that processes four basic emotions derived from human muscular activity and calculates average emotional scores per scenario.FindingsResults reveal that customers respond more positively to service than to relationship quality. Informal approaches to interacting with guests are mixed; they can both excite or irritate customers. As with existing evidence in service marketing research, the results found out through this study demonstrate that a good service recovery process seems to immediately generate more satisfied customers than do constant high-quality standards.Research limitations/ImplicationsThe main limitations are related to the semi-staged nature of social interactions, which might cause distortions in measuring emotions and limitations in the comparability of cases.Practical ImplicationsPractical implications are directed to service designers and managers in hospitality to improve service design and ensure effective service recoveries.Originality/valueThis paper introduces a novel approach for assessing host–guest interactions in tourism based on a real-time emotional assessment of service and relationship quality in hospitality. Technologically advanced observation techniques enable in-depth analyses of actions and emotional responses between hosts and guests across time. New insights concerning service design and service recovery management are gained for practitioners and for future research.

This paper contributes to the comparative tourism sustainability debate in the context of mountain tourism destinations. It is based on a published three-dimensional Mountain Destination Innovation Model (MDIM) which claims that tourism development depends on a destination's innovation levels, and is subject to different conditions in a variety of important destination environments (using that term in its broadest sense), including sociocultural, natural, political, legal and technological. The authors comparatively analyzed Austrian, Slovenian and Swiss mountain destinations, which are located in small countries in the Alpine region, and that makes their environments, innovation levels and stages of development relatively easy to compare. The analysis used 88 managers’ replies to a 72 element questionnaire employing both objective and subjective measures about performance with regard to MDIM dimensions. The findings confirm differences in the stages of tourism development, in innovation levels, a...

Purpose This paper aims to deduce and present an extended hospitality approach. In developed countries, hospitality is increasingly linked to tourism; in times of migration and increased refugee flows, the accompanying social, economic and political determining factors play a more prominent role, necessitating a new view of hospitality. This study aims to extend the domain of tourism in hospitality by including aspects related to asylum seekers and to combine it with topics regarding welcome culture, service quality and relational quality. The paper explores the question concerning whether, and in which ways, the various sectors may learn from each other. Design/methodology/approach To expand this new research area and to take the exploratory nature of the research aim into consideration, a qualitative approach was chosen. Fourteen qualitative interviews with experts from the tourism and industry sectors and organizations linked with asylum seekers were conducted; the interviewees were chosen by purposeful sampling, according to knowledge and diversity criteria. GABEK was used as a qualitative research strategy, which involves theories of a phenomenological and linguistic nature. This method allows for a more holistic approach to the complex nature of the topic through the collection of perceptions resulting from open qualitative interviews and a keyword-based analysis. Findings The paper presents a model for an extended hospitality approach, as hospitality should not be limited to its connection with tourism matters. Refugees as well as tourists rely on the friendliness and the welcoming nature (hereafter: “welcome culture”) of a host country. The tourism industry can stand to improve its unconditional hospitality toward refugees — the comprehension and understanding of different cultures and values is an important aspect of welcoming new arrivals in the local surroundings, be they tourists, migrants or refugees. Research limitations/implications As stated above, a qualitative research approach was chosen with the intent to open the research field toward an extended hospitality approach. Therefore, future research must focus on testing the results for application in a more general context. The study was also limited insofar as the conduction of research took place in Bavaria alone. Practical implications As stated above, a qualitative research approach was chosen with the intent to open the research field toward an extended hospitality approach. Therefore, future research must focus on testing the results for application in a more general context. The study was also limited insofar as the conduction of research took place in Bavaria alone. Originality/value This paper combines different access points to hospitality in a new form.

Sustainable mobility, including public transport and human-powered slow mobility is a priority for the sustainable development of tourism destinations, but it is a complex challenge to devise, implement and manage. This paper explores the mechanisms and conditions governing transition towards sustainable mobility in destinations, using a complexity-based approach. Destinations are understood as complex adaptive systems where social-ecological, socio-technical and socio-political subsystems interact dynamically with the tourism subsystem. These subsystems are interwoven and undergo significant, and inter-related, changes during transition towards more sustainable mobility. Three examples from the tourism intensive Alpine destination of South Tyrol (Italy) illustrate subsystem interactions during the transition process. Key player interview-based qualitative research indicates that the complexity of transition management is rooted particularly in the paired presence of risk aversion among local stak...

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.

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.

Drawing on a main tenet of attraction systems theory, the article describes and explains the importance of cultural activities for tourism development in the context of the urban–rural relationship. The impact of culture on regional and tourism development has been an important research focus in recent years. However, the role of cultural activity in tourism development and its impacts on the urban–rural relationship have received little attention from academics. This article contributes to research by identifying problems associated with tourism development and the potential of cultural activities to overcome such challenges. The study draws upon the theory of the tourist attraction system that was developed by Leiper in 1990. Qualitative inquiry was used to ensure depth and richness in our case analysis. The results show that cultural activities in the small town setting have substantial importance for tourism development in both the city and in surrounding areas. However, it was found that awareness of the offer is limited to the immediate region. It is proposed that tourism service providers should identify more closely with the available cultural activities in order to create a valuable tourist offer that has potential to reach new target groups.

At a board meeting for Association Internationale D'Experts Scientifiques du Tourisme – International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AIEST) as part of the annual AIEST conference in ...

This article presents a study that investigates the organizational transformation of regional tourism in Western Australia in order to make it fit for future. In principle, it explores how the past influences adaptation to upcoming challenges in the Asia-Pacific region (and beyond), such as for example reorganizing territorial dimensions in destination management. Specifically, the article considers how an imposed merger of two previously separate tourism regions affects the established communication and collaboration structures among stakeholders. To analyze the inhibiting force of historically grown destination network structures and the potential for changing these networks, the article combines the concepts of path dependence/path creation and stasis-based/change-based momentum with a quantitative social network analysis. The study provides evidence of remarkable persistence of destination networks. However, the study exhibits also path-creating processes: A transformation of destination networks to meet future challenges in tourism seems to depend largely on an effective governance of informal communication.

Purpose – This special issue of Tourism Review provides an original body of work that complements existing research on tourist destinations, and offers an opportunity for tourism research to contribute to broader leadership theorizing. Design/methodology/approach – This editorial introduction embeds the included papers into general reflections about destination leadership. Findings – This introduction summarizes how the papers in this special issue contribute to two streams of research: First, the papers use and advance leadership theories that are particularly suited to inter-organizational contexts, such as distributed and systemic leadership. Second, they illustrate that destination leadership needs to be treated and understood in relationship to governance arrangements, power structures, and social networks among leaders. Originality/value – Sustainable destination competitiveness greatly depends on effective strategies as well as efficient and inclusive processes and structures. Existing research on destination management and destination governance clearly illustrates the relevance of these requirements. However, the human factor in the form of motivation, inspiration, and role modeling – i.e. destination leadership – is also crucial. Yet, so far leadership has not received the necessary attention in both tourist destinations and networked environments in general. This is all the more remarkable since social networks pose particular challenges for leadership.

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse how leisure boat tourism impacts are perceived by local communities in coastal areas. For this purpose, a review of the literature on nautical and leisure boat tourism, together with residents’ attitudes, is presented. On that basis, authors consider economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts, together with general development and future policies of nautical tourism, and cluster the coastal community according to their attitudes towards leisure boat tourism.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data are collected among residents of coastal municipalities in the north part of the Adriatic Sea. Within the theoretical framework of social representation, a cluster analysis is performed on 233 valid questionnaires, collected during winter 2013.FindingsInterviewed residents believe that leisure boating has a long tradition and has offered improvements to the municipalities as tourism destinations. They consider leisure boat tourism as a catalyst for tourism development and international tourists’ attraction. The cluster analysis reveals the existence of three homogeneous groups of residents labelled as supporters (51 per cent), cautious (29 per cent) and sceptics (20 per cent).Practical implicationsPractical implications are derived for destination managers and destination management organizations (DMOs) in addressing internal marketing and larger advertisement of the positive impacts leisure boat tourism has over the local community.Originality/valueThe paper enriches the discussion on residents’ perceptions on nautical tourism and specifically on leisure boat tourism in coastal areas. Limitations are linked to the exploratory nature of the research paper, the sample and the geographical connotation of the study area. Further research will enlarge the data collection to a wider number of coastal communities and integrate results with qualitative analysis.

Destination management organizations (DMOs) play a major role in managing destination networks and in fostering cooperation between destination actors. DMOs are central figures in the governance of tourism destinations. However, being organizations, their operations are also judged according to their organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This paper applies the concept of corporate governance to capture these internal performance indicators, and investigates its relationship to the external performance of DMOs as promoters of cooperation. Very few studies have considered such inter-dependencies between DMO performance and destination performance; and even fewer have explicitly analysed the relationships between the destination governance and the corporate governance of DMOs. Therefore, this research uses an exploratory, theory-generating case study approach to develop testable hypotheses for future generalizing research attempts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several destination act...

PurposeIn South Tyrol, Italy, and in other alpine destinations, the role of publicly financed tourism destination management has traditionally a strong focus on image promotion. In South Tyrol, three further regional public management organisations have recently been founded with the aim of developing the location by expanding its innovation and export capabilities, especially for small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). All four public organisations aim to increase the competitiveness of local companies through creating a more efficient management of destination and location. The cooperation between the four organisations and further public and private regional stakeholders might be regarded as a regional innovation system (RIS). This paper aims to analyse and discuss within the frame of a case study, the structure of the cooperation between the four public organisations and if it can be regarded as a developing South Tyrolean regional innovation system. The paper aims to focus on the roles of the four organisations, possible synergies and implications for regional governance.Design/methodology/approachFour qualitative interviews were conducted with the directors of the four organisations, based on four open questions. The interviews were analysed using the GABEK technique and WinRelan software. These combined techniques helped to visualise the processes within and between social organisations. Further, they helped to show, structure and organise respondents' experiences and opinions, and enabled the researchers to identify opportunities and difficulties, even in such complex structures.FindingsThe results of the study show there exists a cooperation of semi‐private organisations in South Tyrol, which shows characteristics of being a central part of a developing regional innovation system. The four analysed organisations work on different tasks and positions in the promotion and management of the region under a set of common goals. The destination management organisation takes a central and important part in the regional innovation system. Its umbrella brand is an integrating element for the entire cooperation. Nevertheless, the analysed organisations have unrealised potential for further cooperation. The realisation of synergies, and a clearer definition of responsibilities by the regional government, are seen as the bases for better regional governance and for the implementation of an effective regional innovation system in South Tyrol.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations, including that further research on this approach is needed in order to characterize the whole regional innovation system. Furthermore a comparative study with other regions should be conducted.Originality/valueThe processes behind the development of an integrated regional management and marketing can be observed in several alpine regions (such as Graubünden, Tyrol) and major cities (for example, Zürich, Bern). South Tyrol underwent a long process of umbrella brand development – the basis for the integration of economic and tourist promotion. Through the integration and development of the product, other facets were enhanced, including marketing, innovation, the establishment of new enterprises and exports, which together can be regarded as regional innovation systems. This case study shows the synergies of the different regional actors, as well as implications for the governance of such regional innovation systems. In this way, the paper adds value to the discussion, how regional innovation processes can be initiated and governed, considering the role of the destination management organisation.

PurposeDestinations are embedded in a competitive environment, in which quality and service alone do not satisfy the customer, and are no longer useful for differentiation. Thus experiences, as a source of customer value, are gaining importance in destination management. Experiences are provided at isolated attraction points, rather than as networks within spaces. Thus, destinations are forced to provide emotional experiences along the entire tourist service chain within the destination space. The challenge is to transform the space of the tourist's movements into one of experiences. The main purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for the mobility offer in the destination, the realised mobility and the relative experience.Design/methodology/approachThe construct was empirically tested on the culture event MANIFESTA 7, one of Europe's biggest events for contemporary art, which took place on four different, spatially unconnected locations in the northern Italian region of Trentino‐South Tyrol. In total 1,394 quantitative face‐to‐face interviews were conducted.FindingsThe results of the study show that the concept of different spaces can be elaborated and measured. Further, a causal relationship between the spaces was found. Thus, the spaces build on one another. It was also found that the experience space has a strong influence on overall satisfaction of the visitors and likelihood of recommendation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations, including that further research on this approach is needed in order to find ways to measure individual experiences and spatial behaviour simultaneously.Originality/valueThe findings from this study constitute an attempt to determine a structured approach to this interdisciplinary field of research. They should also help managers and planners to improve the attractiveness and competitiveness of destinations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors that make tourism a particularly attractive industry for new minority entrepreneurs. Moreover, the paper aims to consider the interrelationships of this occupational strategy with the establishment of relations of new minorities with the rest of society.Design/methodology/approachA theory building qualitative approach was followed. Data were gathered by conducting five semi‐structured interviews in the Alpine tourism regions of Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino. A GABEK analysis was performed.FindingsThe findings suggest that the tourism sector is suitable for new minority entrepreneurship because of the relatively low entry barriers and because it values the competitive strengths of new minority members (international ties and trans‐cultural skills).Originality/valueThe value of this paper lies in its contribution to understanding better the reasons for new minority members to become entrepreneurs in tourism, considering also the socio‐cultural implications of this professional development. Particularly, the paper adds to the existing literature by showing that tourism is not only attractive because of a relatively easy entry but also because its key success factors suit the human capital of new minorities well.

PurposeMinority areas, with their cultural distinctiveness and a strong tendency to cultivate and preserve cultural identities, can offer guests special added value as tourist destinations. This study seeks to address whether and to what extent locals and guests of tourist areas populated by minority populations perceive and are aware of the uniqueness, variety and potential of the minority in a region.Design/methodology/approachResearch has already been developed that analyses the inter‐relations between the local population and tourism, but is scarce regarding national minorities and tourism. This paper pursues a new research field focusing on the potential of tourist destinations that offer specialised characteristics due to their cultural, ethnic or minority populations. The authors carried out an empirical study using quantitative, standardised questionnaires in 2008 in two minority areas: South Tyrol, Italy (which has a Ladin minority population) as well as Transylvania, Romania (which has a German and Hungarian minority population). The South Tyrol situation is doubly unusual, because the Ladin minority population is a minority within the German minority region in Italy.FindingsThe study shows that ethnic minority populations can definitely offer added value for holidaymakers in tourist destinations. The special interest and attraction of these types of holiday stay for guests is explained, above all, by the varied cuisine and the locals' proficiency in languages (South Tyrol) as well as the specific architecture and the more extensive cultural offerings (Transylvania). In Transylvania no significant differences and in South Tyrol significant differences in the perception of the special cultural situation by locals and guests have been observed.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was confined to 250 interviewees per group and study region, due to budget restrictions. Compared to the volume of research on native population and tourism, research on minorities and tourist activities is quite new. Therefore this research paper provides only an exploratory study and could be developed further.Originality/valueThe paper shows that ethnic minorities, with their customs and traditions, languages and architectural styles, can definitely offer added value for holidaymakers.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of cross‐sectoral co‐operations and the potential role of tourism organizations in an integrated location management system, using the regional governance approach. The coordination between participants and the development of economic dynamics by coordinated networks are important factors determining the competitiveness of locations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper undertook a qualitative and quantitative survey in Bavaria, which analyzed the role of a tourism organization in the location, using the example of cross‐sectoral interaction with the brewing industry. First, a qualitative explorative study was conducted analyzing the potential cross‐sectoral activities of the tourism organization with the brewery industry in Bavaria, and examined the indicators of power and legitimacy. A further quantitative survey was then carried out to assess the current situation of the cross‐sectoral interaction of the Bavarian tourism organization with the brewery industry and the position of the tourism organization in the location.FindingsThe results show that the role of the tourism organization in cross‐sectoral interactions with other parties in a region where tourism does not play a major role is not strong. It lacks the power to take a leading part in determining a region's attractiveness, and needs to develop its expertise as a cross‐sector intermediary for an integrative location management process. The results indicate potential for improvements in the field of communication and interaction to strengthen the position of the tourism organization.Practical implicationsThe study results reveal that the philosophy of cross‐sectoral thinking is not yet strongly developed in the Bavarian tourism organization. It should develop a stronger network‐oriented perspective if it wants to become an intermediary between the local sectors and industries.Originality/valueApplying the findings of the regional governance theory, the paper demonstrates the potential contribution of tourism organizations as cross‐sector intermediaries for location management processes, so that the various attractions at a location can all profit by working towards a more competitive and attractive location.

Purpose – This paper aims to show the economic impact of congress tourism and the sectors involved. In South Tyrol congress tourism may be considered niche tourism. It does not concern the South Tyrolean valleys, where tourist impact is high, but only the main towns.Design/methodology/approach – The study consists of a quantitative analysis. A questionnaire has been drawn up and handed over to conference attendees during the last day of their presence at the event. The questionnaire is structured in three main parts: characteristics of the conference delegates and their stay, expenses related to the conference, and other expenses. The second and third sections aim at detailing expenditure and subdividing it into the following items: registration fees, transport, accommodation, food and drink, goods and services, cultural activities, sports and entertainment.Findings – In South Tyrol the average total expenditure of congress delegates per day is higher than that of a traditional tourist. It must be conside...

Among other industries, tourism has been confronted with recent changes due to globalization, modern information and communication technologies, changing consumption patterns of customers, tertiarization of the economy, the development of holistic tourism products etc. This results in new requirements demanded by people employed in the tourism industry and asks future decision-makers to adapt the content of the education programmes (Hofstetter, 2004). Training and education courses must reflect the industry’s needs. Several studies have been conducted in terms of job requirements in tourism-related jobs, and a number of qualifications have been elaborated (cp. Weiermair, 1999): communication abilities, empathy, motivation, decision-making abilities, planning abilities, improvisation abilities, etc. Today, the themes most often dealt with in tourism education courses for employees in tourism organizations are: personal skills (communication), marketing skills, organizational aspects of a tourism organization, etc. The paper reports a study conducted in August 2005. Employees of tourism organizations were asked to fill in a standardized questionnaire on the training offer provided for employees of tourism organizations with regard to the importance and the satisfaction with the single offers in order to derive consequences and trends for future tourism curricula of tourism organizations. The conducted survey revealed that the majority of the employees working at South Tyrolean tourism organizations are quite satisfied with the training program offered by the provincial assembly. Course manuals, the topicality of the courses, the personal increase in knowledge, the content of the courses in general and the quality and professionalism of lectors are the key issues on which the course organizers has to focus, as these attributes revealed to be excitement factors in the calculated importance grid. These latent attributes are often needs of which persons are currently unaware, but may result in high levels of customer satisfaction. Despite the outcomes of the survey on the satisfaction with current offers in the training program for employees in tourism organizations, tourism education and training will change considerably in the future due to external changes influencing the structure and planning of tourism curricula. Emerging technologies for instance will change the educational planning in the field of tourism with programs and services via the internet etc. Information technology has a pivotal role to play in enabling companies offered maximize profitability through more precise targeting of market segments and the micro segments within them.

Europe as tourist destination. Governance of spatial competitive units of international tourism. For international tourists Europe is growing together because of advanced information and transport technology. The answer to such tendencies in internationalization is transnational cooperation to respond better to customer needs and expectations. The traditional destination management has to be broadened and should include cross-border interaction and collaboration between different levels and actors.The paper deals with the governance of international competitive units. Governance is defined as combination and interaction between different governance forms whose basis is a cooperative approach combined with institutional structures to avoid market failure. The discussion between different actor constellations and structure levels completes the approach.

Today, it is essential for destinations to support their unique positioning by offering specialized, differentiated products within the global wellness market. Here, ‘Alpine Wellness’ is presented as a concept, bundling the wellness offers with special Alpine character, developed by hotels and wellness providers of four countries of the European Alps to strengthen their common positioning in the global market. The participating countries were challenged to define their unique profile and to develop a wellness-specific core competence in order to develop competitive products for ‘Alpine Wellness’ based on the roots of their own region that are not easy to imitate. Therefore, the following questions have to be answered: What are the resources and competences of the region to develop competitive products that are highly valued by guests? Who possesses these competences that could be drawn into a network in order to develop core competence? In 2003, the authors conducted a study in the Italian Alpine region o...

Recent changes in modern information and communication technologies have resulted in a big challenge to create new interfaces among service providers and tourism organizations like a Destination Management System (DMS). The information revolution has reduced the transaction costs of communication and further democratized access to information and knowledge. DMO management generally requires a certain amount of cooperation and networking among the actors involved, which is highly complex and often results in high transaction costs. These costs may be decreased by means of a well-structured DMS. In South Tyrol, the northern-most province of Italy, a project was carried out by the European Academy of Bozen-Bolzano (EURAC) from 2001 to 2004, to develop a DMS for the thirteen DMOs of the province. After the project was successfully piloted by the destination ‘Eisacktal valley’ in the year 2001, it was extended to all regional tourism organizations of South Tyrol with the Upper Pusteria Valley presente...

Attempts to assess the quality of academic publications have been increasing lately. Due to the number of existing journals, it is hard to make a representative selection and to find criteria for determining quality. Hence, questions arise, including what sort of journals are more important in terms of reputation, readership frequency, and relevance to scientific research and practice. Recent studies on journal rankings have been carried out on the basis of both objective data (citation counts) and the quality perceptions of experts. This study attempts a rating of tourism and hospitality journals among the scientific community according to the journals’ readership frequency, scientific and practical relevance, overall reputation, and the importance of being published in the journals to the academic career of the respondents.

Globalization and internationalization tendencies imply new challenges for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), which are either facing the pressure to achieve short‐term profits, or have to attract new market segments by means of long‐term strategies. This trend raises the question of growth perspectives of SMEs and their future development. The paper gives an insight into selected growth theories, entrepreneurship and SMEs, firm competencies, core competencies and the wellbeing of entrepreneurs as a growth indicator. The majority of SMEs are run by the family and characterized by low growth rates or even stagnation, and relatively low market entry and qualification barriers. An exploratory study was carried out among 3‐ and 4‐star hotels in South Tyrol (Italy) in 2004 for a better understanding of the driving forces, growth barriers, entrepreneur's satisfaction, and prerequisites and incentives of growth.

Tourism is of great economic importance and significance for the European East Alpine regions. But to an increasing degree, low productivity resulting from the small-business structure of the Alpine region weakens the economic and social leadership of tourism. In the last few decades overcoming these difficulties often included substantial supporting of institutionalised tourism organisations by tourism policy, with the intention to bundle forces and to achieve growing global competition. Change in international tourist markets demands the pursuance of completely new strategies, particularly because the small-business structure of Alpine tourism in the past has always been the basis for its many positive effects for the local and regional population alike. By keeping its function of balancing regional economic growth, tourism policy's main responsibility for the future in the East Alpine region will be to create the prerequisites required for an adaptation to the new situation in the tourist markets. In a...

Destinations are strategic marketing units which consist of territorially delimited, consolidated areas of co‐operation. Options to improve a destination's competitive edge depend on the determinants of competitiveness. A destination's competitive position can be explained by factor conditions and conditions of demand, quality and structure of sectors involved, strategies as well as market and organizational structures. The competitive system depicted above forms the basis for the creation of “customer value” and therefore is a source of future competitive advantages. Customer value is the gap perceived by the customer between the perceived (multidimensional) benefit and the perceived (multidimensional) costs/prices of a destination compared to its competitors. The aim of the article is the explanation of “Customer Value Management” as a key strategy to affect a destination's competitive position by means of supply‐side measures as well as the communicated and achievable relative consumption/cost position.

The destination as the area of movement of guests during their stay often leads to a cooperation among different tourism organizations and destinations: on the one hand, the co‐operation is necessary to be able to offer the products demanded by different guests, on the other hand, it is necessary to be able to guarantee a sensible appearance to the market. With an empirical research carried out in 1999 and 2000, the European Academy Bolzano took the Italian regional and sub‐regional tourism organizations into consideration to evaluate the progress in managing the destination Italy. Rigidity of the organizational structures, little cooperation and integration as well as insufficient market resources are some of the main results. Further developments in change management, stakeholder management, branding, and the setting of clear and measurable goals are some of the issues analyzed. In consideration of an analysis of the Italian regions with regard to their actual politics of destination development the paper concludes with the proposal of a new model of tourism organizational structure based on networks and on the distinction between territorializable basic tasks and deterritorializable product/market tasks. This paper is a conceptional work relevant for traditional destinations and valid as a case study.

Purpose This paper aims to provide an original body of work that presents and discusses the theory that destination leadership is about proactively shaping the future development of destinations and territories. This is the second part of the special issue of Tourism Review on destination leadership. Design/methodology/approach This editorial introduces the papers included and highlights a few general thoughts about the interplay between destination leadership and territorial development. Findings This introduction summarizes how the papers in this special issue contribute to two streams of research: first, the papers reflect on the necessity of adapting the specific form and style of destination leadership to the development status of a destination. Second, papers highlight that local stakeholders, local knowledge and the local context, in general, have a high impact on destination leadership. Originality/value By summarizing and condensing the various contributions to this special issue, the editorial introduction highlights that destination leadership is about proactively shaping the future of tourist destinations. Furthermore, it argues that this development needs to respect local networks, territorial characteristics, histories and contexts. Therefore, tailoring destination leadership to their own territories seems to be an essential success factor, and in the future, we may want to define Alpine destination leadership, island destination leadership, city destination leadership, etc.

The challenge for destination management and marketing based on cultural tourism becomes obvious with the example of the Mediterranean region. This area especially is abounding with different expressions of cultural heritage, with special consideration of architectural heritage. Nevertheless, it is difficult to open this cultural heritage in a way to satisfy the customers' expectations on the one hand, and on the other hand to facilitate cooperation between individual countries of the Mediterranean region, which are hindered by broad variations and strong local or regional identities. The article shows the necessity for professional integration of culture-touristic products and services in the framework of destination management, taking into consideration the various levels of responsibility and identity on a national, regional, and local level, in order to create a basis for cooperation in the Mediterranean region. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Destination image can be considered as the tourists' and sellers' perceptions of the attributes or attractions available within a destination area and plays a crucial role in the description, promotion, amalgamation and delivery of the destinations' product distribution. A number of recent studies have used the term “image” in relation to a tourist destination. Most studies of destination brand images have been conducted from the perspective of the leisure tourist or from the perspective of the host population. This study identifies the image of the Alps as it is perceived in the minds of the accommodation providers of the region. The authors chose the destination of the European Alps as it is a complex image system and an excellent example for unveiling image values associated with the destination. The paper aims to find out how and by which sources—attributes, factors and associations—the brand image is obtained by accommodation providers of Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino and the consequences ...