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The below-average innovative capacity of the tourism sector raises the question on the potentials of digital business ecosystems (DBEs) to overcome these shortages at a destination level – especially within a smart city environment. Using the example of the German Capital Berlin, this article aims to discuss both the possibilities and inhibitors of innovative knowledge-creation by building scenarios on one specific design option: the integration of digital deep learning (DL) functionalities and traditional organizational learning (OL) processes.

Using the qualitative GABEK-method, major characteristics of a DBE as resource-, platform- and innovation systems are analyzed toward their interactions with the construction of basic action models (as the basic building blocks of knowledge).

Against the background of the research findings, two scenarios are discussed for future evolution of the Berlin DBE, one building on cultural emulation as a trigger for optimized DL functionalities and one following the idea of cultural engineering supported by DL functionalities. Both scenarios focus specifically on the identified systemic inhibitors of innovative capabilities.

While this study highlights the potential of the GABEK method to analyze mental models, separation of explicit and latent models still remains challenging – so does the reconstruction of higher order mental models which require a combined take on interview techniques in the future.

The resulting scenarios innovatively combine concepts from OL theory with the concept of DBE, thus indicating possible pathways into a tourism future where the limitations of human learning capacities could be compensated through the targeted support of general artificial intelligence (AI).

The functionalities of tourist destinations as regional innovation systems (RIS) still show substantial deficits. Especially for destinations in developing countries (DC), this incurs a wicked problem when it comes to unfolding the potentials of tourism for social innovation and sustainable regional development. Determining factors for these weaknesses are manifold, complex, multi-causal and prone to inherent system-dynamics making it difficult for destination management organisations to proactively monitor and control them in the long term. Backed by empirical comparative findings from rural destinations in Azerbaijan and Ecuador, this chapter tracks down selected major drivers of this wicked problem both from a monocausal-linear and multi-causal-dynamic analytical perspective. As a primary outcome, a set of suitable indicators will be presented to serve as a monitoring framework for a social innovation governance of DC destinations.

It is widely agreed that transformation processes that are triggered by crisis events can challenge conventional behavioural norms and stimulate new ideas and innovations that can assist in the preparations for future challenges. This impetus for transformation processes not only applies to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has also been seen in many other instances, such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 or the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which have sparked significant socio-political change processes often with a global reach. The multitude of wicked tourism policy problems discussed in our book often occur in parallel, are of growing complexities, are often not well understood and indistinguishable from one another and exert pressure on the resilience of vulnerable political, economic and community-based systems. These circumstances often present as tipping points which can trigger necessary long-term transformations. However, this process of long-term change must be well planned and strategically implemented. Thus, future transformative destination management should be built on a holistic approach, underpinned by adaptive political leadership in which tourism is not only seen as a driver for economic growth and employment, but as a strategy which successfully integrates social, cultural and ecological goals.

According to Head (2008), wicked problems are not just wicked problems in the sense of complex challenges, but situations that are confusing, unique, diffuse, without clear responsibilities or accountabilities, and difficult to resolve. These problems stand out for their uncertain nature, lack of clear solutions and possible irreversible consequences of attempted interventions. Recognising the pertinence of wicked problems in contemporary public policy discourse, this chapter aims to explore and better understand political decision-makers’ handling of these issues, in a tourism-specific context. The discourse on wicked problems, in accordance with 10 characteristics outlined by Rittel and Webber (1973), remains relevant when examining policy responses to mega trends, such as indigenous disparities, sustainability, digital transformation and demographic change. Against this backdrop and positioned within current academic discourse, this introductory chapter briefly foreshadows the volume’s various contributions by academics from around the world who present a wide range of wicked problems in tourism from their respective perspectives and contexts.