Knowledge Transfer to and within Tourism: Volume 8

This chapter discusses innovation within the tourism small business sector and provides a case study of academic-industry research collaboration and knowledge transfer. Governments of many countries are interested in improving innovation in the tourism industry. Academics have important skills useful for developing innovative new products. However, collaboration between academic and industry partners is complex and difficult to effectively operationalize. A thriving and innovative new experience for Chinese tourists to Australia’s Gold Coast provides evidence of the characteristics of collaboration needed for successful academic-industry innovation.

A number of tourism researchers have suggested that despite the proliferation of research in the field, the exchange of knowledge from academic research to practical application in the industry is poor. The argument made is that academic research seldom influences the real world of practice, and that for knowledge transfer to assist destinations a paradigm shift is required. This chapter takes a look at the challenges of knowledge transfer in tourism and focuses on a unique research center in South Carolina, where private and public sectors have joined together in an effort to support applied and commercially relevant research in order to improve the competitiveness of the state as a destination.

In 2010, as a response to global mega trends, the Best Western International central office requested all of its offices worldwide to implement environmental programs. The Mexico, Central America, and Ecuador offices consulted with Universidad del Caribe about the best way to fulfill this request and as a result a collaborative project began. A few months later, a Best Environmental Practices Manual (according to the Best Western operational practices and international environmental standards) was developed, together with the Best Green (BG) award and the implementation and external evaluation process. The corporate office evaluated the award and selected it together with the eight recognized international ecolabels, including it as part of its operation. They also promoted and sold awarded hotels as green products. After more than three years of working with the program in the regopm, 49 hotels have obtained the award and 13 have revalidated this certification. Unfortunately, for many external reasons, the program was suspended in 2014. However, this experience offers many valuable lessons in the collaboration among sectors and helps close the gap between theory and praxis and to make more effective collaboration process to increase tourism competitiveness.

This chapter investigates the outcome of the ongoing interactions between the Danish University College of Northern Denmark and stakeholder networks in the Italian destination Campi Flegrei. The findings of this study show that the benefits of the interactions among students, lecturers, and destination stakeholders are manifold and show that the challenge resides in strengthening the flux of knowledge sent back to destination stakeholders. Thus, the authors suggest an action- and stakeholder-oriented approach for future knowledge transfer from the educational institution to the destination stakeholders.

Rural subaltern people are generally relegated to the role of passive tourees, allowed to informally glean bits of income not worthwhile to the formal tourism industry. However, under some circumstances, microentrepreneurs find ways to take advantage of opportunities afforded by tourism to improve their livelihoods and gain human agency. The People-First Tourism Lab employs a participatory action research methodology to investigate tourism microentrepreneurship and its effect on participating individuals and communities. In this chapter, the authors provide a background of the project implemented in the State of North Carolina, USA, explain the research methodology, and outline current and forthcoming efforts.

This chapter examines the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem and the knowledge transfer process involved, in the tourist municipality of Lagos, Portugal. Participatory action research is used to identify issues, antagonistic forces, and the system of governance which emerged in the creation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The different roles of both public and private actors were identified. Despite a deficit of entrepreneurial culture and social capital, the main results show that participatory action research encouraged knowledge transfer among political actors, entrepreneurs, and academics, leading to the implementation of the basic conditions for an entrepreneurial ecosystem dynamic.

Brazilian higher education in the field of tourism took off in the 1970s, reaching its course and student peaks in the first years of this century. Recent research shows, however, that many graduates are still occupying hotel reception positions, in most cases with an operational status. The Brazilian government will occasionally hire researchers from companies and institutes not related to the tourism field. Even though the link between these two worlds is crucial, the commercial tourism industry in Brazil does not value academic insights, and the academy does not look beyond its epistemological and theoretical borders. This chapter will discuss the situation in Brazil and offer perspectives on measure needed to close the gap between theory and practice.

Cities by the sea have a strong identity which comes from the historic relationship between an urban community and the ocean and is important in attracting tourists. This chapter analyzes urban regeneration, waterfront redevelopment, touristic valorization, and marketing strategies used by seaside cities that, by sharing their maritime culture, have achieved integrated urban transformations. This is facilitated by developing a “collaborative commons” of producers and consumers for the touristic enhancement of the metropolitan area such as Naples.

The chapter aims at advancing existing knowledge on innovation-oriented public-private partnerships for developing smart tourism services at destination level. Recent research has emphasized to the importance of collaborative arrangements involving public sector organizations and private companies for the development of new or improved ICT-enabled tourism services towards the smart transformation of destinations. However, knowledge on public-private partnerships specifically set up for realizing smart innovations is still scarce. This chapter develops a framework for understanding the nature and functioning of this type of partnerships at destination level by integrating literature on tourism partnerships, smart tourism, and innovation in services with a case study of a successful partnership in the Italian destination of Siracusa.

Destinations are highly dynamic and complex systems requiring a responsive and relational governance system. Recent tourism literature proposes a network approach to destination management, but empirical evidence shows interactions in destinations remains low. Dominant stakeholders tend to control destination governance systems; less powerful ones are not actively included. This chapter schematizes the network of relations as a destination triangle made up of governance, supply side, and tourists. A quantitative study of tourists and a qualitative study of supply-side stakeholders show that the destination triangle is inappropriately adjusted. The supply side is not actively involved in destination management. The findings show that the absence of a relational management approach can impede initiatives.

Tourism planning is an important issue for destination management organizations to satisfy both local community and tourists. This chapter attempts to explain the process and outcomes of a strategic and participative tourism planning project through a case study in Patagonia, Argentina. The general framework of the study, principles of cooperation throughout the project, the geographical information, stages of planning and implementation strategies will be discussed.

One of the main challenges of “good tourism intelligence governance” is to balance and manage the interests of private enterprises, public administrations, and civil society, and to find the right mix between strategic and operational governance. An innovative governance model was introduced in 2011 in emerging rural destinations within the three years’ European project “Listen to the Voice of Villages.” By means of in-depth interviews carried out in summer 2014 in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia, this chapter investigates how this model of governance was deployed and performed. Findings suggest that this model is effective and sustainable, promotes and supports knowledge transfer and as such it can be recommended for implementation in other emerging rural destinations.

Research on the quality of destinations has been developed from the tourists’ perspective, and a more holistic view is necessary for integrated destination planning. This implies cooperation among multiple stakeholders and the sustainable use of resources. The purpose of this study is to establish a conceptual model to measure the quality of destinations, considering the concepts of governance, sustainability, and tourist experience. According to the index, that used data from Algarve region, the performance of a destination depends on these three main dimensions, each one measured by a set of subdimensions that were weighted by an international expert panel. The result provides guidelines for transfer of knowledge to the main destination stakeholders.

An essential part of the transfer of knowledge in the tourism and hospitality industry, destination image is defined as the expression of objective knowledge, imagination, and the subjective emotions of the tourist. Social media is profoundly changing the way the tourist images and interacts with the destination environment. In turn, firms in the industry are seeking to leverage the power of social media to gain insights into tourist cognition and behavior. In this chapter, we analyze various social media to investigate knowledge transfer relating to two groups of hotels in Philadelphia, and we propose a methodology to predict future lodging demand from empirical data in line with the objectives of the t-Forum.

Conserving, creating, and communicating effectively the complex image of a particular touristic area represents an important challenge that global market imposes on planners. Art and architecture can contribute to this challenge as they provide significant interactions and transactions among different sectors. Planning able to valorize patrimony and to read and to interpret cultural heritage is needed. New ways of collaboration need to be established among different fields of science, in order to develop, communicate, and experiment with a new language aimed at people from different backgrounds. The main theme in the “Archaeology and Synesthesy” project is to devise new method for the bringing to life of cultural heritage through participants’ senses.

In order to facilitate transfer of knowledge to and within tourism, it is necessary to understand research trends and to critically analyze their contributions to knowledge formation. This chapter examine articles published in Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, and Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, between 2000 and 2010, using STATIS to explore the main changes and trends that occurred in terms of research themes. Study findings indicate similarities and differences between the four journals under analysis, providing clues for a better understanding of the objectives, limitations, and trends in tourism research as well as the positioning of each academic journal.

This chapter presents a summary of the presentations and the discussions concerning electronic distribution channels in tourism and hospitality held at the 2015 t-Forum. Both academics and practitioners examined the present situation and elaborated on the problems and possible ways to overcome them. The main topics that emerged were distribution channels and their best use and optimization, interoperability between the many different technological systems, the need for a standardized representation of data and transactions, and the role of the Internet and Web as source of information useful for market analysis and product planning. Finally, the importance and the necessity of a more intense collaboration among all the stakeholders and between academic researchers and the industry was emphasized.