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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.

Christmas markets as annual cultural events are constantly changing and have become a mass phenomenon of our day. Even though they represent a promising strategy to extend low seasons in tourism, the growing number of visitors can negatively impact residents' perceptions of the event and its authenticity. The central purpose of this study is to gain a new perspective on Christmas markets as cultural events focusing on residents by considering them as important actors within a tourism destination. Qualitative interviews with residents of Meran, a Christmas market destination in Northern Italy, explored their meaning for the locals and the impact of increasing numbers of visitors on their loyalty to the event, by implementing the GABEK qualitative research strategy. The results give insights into central aspects of the events' authenticity, show a shift to less commercial settings in rural areas, and highlight some negative impacts.

The present study investigates the relevance of inter-organizational and cross-sectoral relations for innovation activities in tourism, analyzing whether networked innovation in tourism differs from other sectors. The aim is to highlight the special characteristics of tourism in the context of a Regional Innovation System (RIS) by means of a Social Network Analysis (SNA) carried out on small and medium sized enterprises in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen (South Tyrol) in Italy. The analysis indicates that enterprises in the hospitality and tourism industry are strongly embedded in their regional context, showing a distinct tendency to prefer collaboration across sectors for innovation. The conclusions of this study highlight that the characteristics identified with regard to tourism innovation networks, territorially embedded but highly influenced by other sectors, may provide a possible explanation for some of the traits of tourism innovation identified (e.g. a high degree of imitation in destinations).

In recent times, the ability of a region to attract and retain high-skilled personnel has become an important factor in enhancing its economic benefit and well-being. Therefore, regional benchmarking concerning talent attraction has become a powerful instrument to identify the position of each region in comparison to others and to determine strengths and weaknesses. This chapter presents new findings revealing the strongest European regions in the competition for the highly qualified and aims to gain a better understanding of the regional capability to attract and retain high-skilled workers in the European context. Therefore, every region within the European Union and Schengen was included in our study, as each entity at the sub-national level (be it a city or a region) can be innovative and compete for talents.

The present chapter outlines the future organization of the work and life of highly skilled workers, covering the importance of a work-life balance, the organization of work and the concept of democratic organization. The central questions pursued in this chapter are why a work-life balance is becoming an increasingly important factor for highly skilled workers, how work is organized in modern-day organizations and how a work-life balance, the flexibility of work and the idea of democratic organizations are related to each other. The results show that a work-life balance and work flexibility are increasingly valued by future talents when evaluating job opportunities. While workplace flexibility can negatively impact the work-life balance, these negative impacts can largely be absorbed in democratically structured organizations. Based on this analysis, we conclude that the topics analyzed in this chapter should be taken into account by companies competing for highly qualified workers.

The present chapter outlines current views and perspective on the New Silk Road project. In order to give a broad overview media reports as well as academic literature on the topics are presented and discussed. Several aspects such as economic, environmental, political and social impacts reveal different impacts and consequences on regions. While many European media are quite sceptical regarding consequences of the BRI on regional development of countries, Chinese newspapers highlight mostly positive effects, especially in developing countries. Similar trends are found in the academic literature. The second part of the chapter tries to find a theoretical frame with the goal of studying the New Silk Road with an interdisciplinary focus. Several disciplines and approaches should be included in a holistic representation and analysis of China New Silk Road.

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.

The landscape of research outputs in tourism planning is fragmented and multi-disciplinary. Design as a meta-discipline has the power to integrate sectoral thought and inject creativity, non-linear thought and transdisciplinarity into planning processes, particularly when tackling sustainability challenges. This paper defines Destination Design as a novel framework capable of evolving the concepts of spatial and participatory planning using the design thinking cognitive style to address sustainability paradoxes. The features of Destination Design are explored through the unique case study of sustainability-oriented innovation in the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site. Results show that design thinking can be invaluable for pioneering pro-sustainability initiatives. Further, creative forms of engagement might encourage the acceptance and support of local transformations, but are difficult to implement.

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.

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 ...

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.

PurposeWhile it is possible to classify the previously suggested conditions to the promotion of interorganizational cooperation as either referring to strategic interdependence or to structural and procedural conditions, it is unclear which approach is more critical to the promotion of local and regional cooperation in the hospitality industry at the network level. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold: to inductively develop propositions regarding the promotion of such cooperation in order to evaluate the relative importance of the two conflicting positions, and to demonstrate the suitability of GABEK to the development of these propositions.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a qualitative case study design, data were gathered by conducting 15 open interviews in a South Tyrolean destination and analyzed with the aid of the GABEK technique.FindingsThe results suggest that the structural and procedural conditions are relatively more critical to the promotion of interorganizational cooperation in the hospitality industry: first, the balancing of the efficiency and legitimacy dimensions via the organizational and procedural design of the cooperation seems crucial; second, intermediary organizations, if characterized by good corporate governance, may have a positive influence on cooperation; and third, the application of GABEK‐like tools may facilitate the finding of commonly shared solutions in cooperative configurations.Practical implicationsThe research reveals actionable insights regarding the improvement of interfirm cooperation by offering managers tangible measures and a tool for implementing the theoretical concepts.Originality/valueThe paper is original because it contributes to evaluating the two main approaches to the promotion of cooperation and because it proposes an innovative methodology (GABEK) for practice‐oriented qualitative research.

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.

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.

SUMMARY The growing world-wide competition of tourism regions, changing demand patterns, the claim for better products and offers, the decreasing attractiveness and increasing uniformity of offers consistently lead to new challenges for the quality assurance of destinations. High service quality enables tourism entrepreneurs to achieve decisive competitive advantages. Quality within a destination comprises all services which the guest is engaged in and is not limited by time or location of the stay. A crucial point is the first contact of a guest with the destination, which happens by e-mail inquiries in the majority of cases. The development of information technology has lead to more and more guests gathering pieces of information via the internet and has induced researchers to study this phenomenon (Buhalis and Licata, 2002; Raman-Bacchus and Molina, 2001). Therefore, response behavior becomes a key factor for the success of tourism organizations (Pechlaner et al. 2002). From the guest's point of view, ...

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.

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.

An increasing number of companies use customer satisfaction data for improvement programs, strategic decision making, and compensation schemes. Typically, single companies carry out satisfaction measurement for their own purposes. As a consequence, results are not comparable with other companies. Thus, valuable information on competition is not available and benchmarking is not possible. Moreover, in order to use satisfaction data for decision-making, it should be measured continuously and systematically. In practice, however, many firms do not have the required resources or competencies to carry out these research activities on their own. As a result, there is a lack of reliable data. The implementation of a customer satisfaction barometer seems to be a promising approach. It facilitates competitive benchmarking and delivers valuable information for quality improvement. provide participating hotels with information on overall satisfaction, attribute satisfaction, price satisfaction, complaining ...

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.

This study inquires the social impact of entrepreneurial behaviour from a regional development perspective. A special focus is laid on the reciprocity of public and private leaders' regional responsibility. From a social capital perspective, the relevance of shared values among actors within regional structures is elaborated and identified as a decisive component for establishing regional economic prosperity in dynamic structural conditions. Qualitative data is analysed by mapping semantic relations within network structures. Results emphasise the role of shared values among entrepreneurs and public managers as a critical precondition for the application of entrepreneurial patterns to approaching social challenges.

This paper deals with the assumption that creativity is a necessary catalyst for the development of innovation and competitiveness, as well as the quality of life in urban areas. The hitch here is also the problem: how is it possible to measure or ascertain all of the variables which help to determine the term ‘creativity’? Within this study the authors have created two case studies, both of which have been heavily influenced by the automotive industry. One of the cities, Graz, was recently awarded the title ‘City of Design’ while the other, Ingolstadt, is still attempting to implement an atmosphere of creative thinking. These two extreme cases were analysed by a qualitative survey with the help of GABEK®. This method is used to gain new insights into situations and processes. In summary, it can be said that industry can act as an incubator, but the location must assume the notion of ‘being creative’ and implement it within their policies.

Tourism governance comprises different levels and has been tackled from diverse perspectives, including regional governance, destination governance and corporate governance. However, this piecemeal approach risks overlooking interdependencies. Therefore, this paper integrates the literature on the relationships between the various levels of tourism governance into a comprehensive framework and highlights a lacuna of tourism governance research on tourism service firms. To close this gap and to integrate the service firm into the overall framework of tourism governance, this paper empirically investigates the linkages between the governance of tourism service firms and the governance of destination management organisations (DMOs) in a qualitative, GABEK-supported case study. The findings suggest that destination governance influences the strength of these linkages: weak links between the governance of firms and that of DMOs may be due to specific deficiencies in destination governance. In particular, institutional incongruence is proposed to induce such weak links.

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 ...