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The purpose of this paper is to re-establish the role of Airbnb platform in the contemporary tourism destination management. Given the fact that sharing economy is mega-trend with various impacts at any destination, the paper’s purpose is to underline that sharing economy platforms, such as Airbnb, has a different impact on each stage of destination’s life cycle. Given this, a more effective strategy and policies plan should be deployed and implemented, expanding the benefits of multiplying and accelerating effects on local economy.

The neologisms of “Over-tourism” and “Tourism-phobia” and the growing conflicts between locals and tourist, along with various collateral implications in local economy, were the initial incentive to focus on the subject. The methodology was based on the critical approach of regulatory measures taken in destinations with different characteristics.

Findings indicate that general and nationwide restrictions on Airbnb are often unfounded, mainly based on bias against its impact on traditional hotels and local lifestyle preservation, rather than concrete and objective impact measurements.

A primary qualitative and quantitative research should follow the concept of association between destination’s life cycle and sharing economy applications, for authorities to form the appropriate regulatory framework.

The paper associates the implications of sharing economy with the stages of destinations life cycle, underlying that measures need to be customized to the specific characteristics of each destination.

Free guided walking tours are one of the most successful tourism segments in the digital platform economy. It is beginning to be associated with negative impacts in some of the destinations where it is spreading rapidly. Although the platform economy is generating increasing academic interest, the free tour model remains largely unexplored area in the literature. This study aims to examine how such activity affects cultural destinations.

Focussing on the largest Free Tours platform operating in Spain, GuruWalk, the methodology used analyses its impact in six cultural destinations on two of the sustainability dimensions: the territorial dimension and the governance, through an exploratory study.

The findings help to understand the differences that such activity generates in each destination depending on the phase of its life cycle, and to implement, if necessary, corrective measures. The research confirms that the impacts differ according to the tourist destination’s maturity, concluding that such activity contributes to the increase of tourist agglomerations and the overcrowding of cultural destinations in their middle and mature life cycles. The findings highlighted the importance of the role of local governance on free tour activity.

The main contribution is the association of the impacts they produce (especially in terms of massification) with destination life cycle phases. There were no similar precedents with a spatial or territorial analysis to reliably demonstrate not only that this activity has an impact on the territory but also what type of impact is produced.

A tourist destination represents a dynamically regulated system that evolves in space and time. Therefore, it is necessary to anticipate various system reactions to internal and external influences, so that actions can be directed towards the specific goals of supply and demand for products of tourist destinations. A successful process in the life cycle of tourist destination product planning is based on the anticipation and awareness of all participants of supply and demand, as the sustainability values must be perceived within the framework of an integrated destination product. It is necessary to examine assumptions and features of the market valuation of destination business processes from an economic, social and environmental standpoint in line with the principles of sustainable development. This implies the creation of a methodological basis for the recognition, measurement and tracking of complex processes and synergic effects, important for the development of relevant management information-based structures and functions. Measuring the eco-efficiency of a tourist destination represents the basis for building a system of reporting on changes and impacts individual business subjects deployed in the environment. An integrative information system of tourist destinations should provide information on the eco-efficiency of individual business processes, activities, products or a Strategic Business Unit's (SBU's) entire life cycle. Obtained information allows for the preparation of an information basis for reporting on environmental aspects within the system of tourist destinations sustainable development reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hotel growth model including hotel brand, culture and life cycle phases of the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the fastest growing tourism destination in the United States.

Culture reflecting consuming behaviour of low-context innovators and high-context imitators is measured by the price elasticity of demand (PED). Hotel brand reflecting guests’ hotel class is measured by the income elasticity of demand. Autoregressive distributed lag has been conducted on the Smith Travel Research data in 33 years (1989–2022) to determine the relationship among hotel brand, culture and life cycles.

Skilled labour is the key to make hotels grow. Therefore, increase room rates when hotels possess skilled professionals and decrease room rates when hotels have no skilled professionals. During the rejuvenation in Myrtle Beach (1999–2003), hoteliers increased room rates for innovators due to skilled professionals to increase revenue. Otherwise, a decrease in room rates due to lack of skilled professionals would lead to increase revenue.

(1) Although Myrtle Beach is one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the US, it has a relatively small geographic area relative to the country. (2) Data cover over one tourist life cycle, so the time span is relatively short. Hoteliers can forecast the number of guests in different culture by changing room rates.

To optimize revenue, hoteliers can select skilled labour in professional design hotel brands which could make an increase in demand for leisure transient guests no matter what room rates increase after COVID-19 pandemic.

The study has considered the applied ethical processes regarding revenue management that would maximize both revenue and customer satisfaction when it set up an increase in room rates to compensate for professional hotel room design or it decreases room rates for low-income imitators in exploration and development.

This research highlights that (1) skilled design in the luxury hotel brand is the key for the hotel growth and (2) there is a steady state of the growth model in the destination life cycle.

The events and festivals literature relies on theories and models borrowed from tourism studies which may insufficiently account for the unique characteristics of events and festivals. Using four case studies from Australia, United Arab Emirates and the UK, this paper aims to analyse events and festival life cycles using the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) framework (Butler, 1980).

The paper is conceptual in that it theorises the range of event and festival life cycle trajectories; however, four event case studies are also used to illustrate this approach.

Findings facilitate an extension of Butler’s model to include additional trajectories and accompanying underpinning critical factors that better explain and predict the nature of events and festivals.

The paper is based on four case studies from the cultural sector which is ideal for developing theory but limits the contexts examined in this paper. The findings are only applicable to recurring events and festivals.

In the new model, seven different pathways, ranging from continued growth to cancellation, suggest potential opportunities and risks for events and festivals. The results are of particular relevance for event managers, who can use the case studies and trajectories as reference points for event growth and consolidation.

The case studies reveal that successful events are seen to have strong ties to their local communities and are rooted in the destination.

The paper’s originality is in both the context of utilising diverse international cultural festival and events as case studies and the proposal of seven alternative pathways for events and festivals, which extend Butler’s TALC to the unique context of these temporal phenomena.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the different typologies of tourists that appear in cities that are in a different position within the destination life cycle. Barcelona and Lisbon, two urban destinations, with a strong growth of tourists in the last two decades, which are in advanced stages of their life cycle, and Lima, which has also expanded in the last ten years, but is in less advanced phases, have been chosen. The approach of the study is to analyse if urban tourists modify their attitude in some way in the face of the advancement of the life cycle of the city and what attitudes are expressed by them.

For this purpose, an analysis of main components was performed via factor analysis to reduce the number of dimensions of the 11 descriptive variables and the counterpart of tourist attitudes, following Schwartz’s (2006) research. From the four clusters that emerged – authenticity; innovative and cultural hard; relaxation and not innovative – four attitude variables were selected since they were considered relevant to be analysed according to the life cycle of the city: culture and entertainment; authenticity and online social exhibition; and expensive and cheap price.

The results obtained do not allow to straightforwardly conclude that as the life cycle of these three cities advances, the attitude evolves from culture to entertainment, from authenticity towards online social exhibition or from the most expensive to the cheapest. The tourists from Barcelona are mostly associated with entertainment, those from Lisbon are associated with culture and those from Lima are split. However, in the face of authenticity, travellers are prone to it. Regarding the price, those in Barcelona are almost divided equally, whereas those in Lisbon, and especially those in Lima, consider it to be mostly cheap.

From this study, it can be drawn that the attitude of travellers to these three cities is not conditioned by the life cycle. Globalization and digitalisation put pressure on the traveller by configuring a universal model of behaviour before the urban offer that is associated with other factors, but not with the life cycle of the city.

The case of Tisens/Tesimo illustrates the critical role of governance in the course of a destination life cycle. In particular, it exemplifies how improving the effectiveness and efficiency of destination governance has the potential to relaunch stagnating or declining destinations. First, Tisens/Tesimo has managed to improve its effectiveness by developing a common strategy in a participatory manner. Second, improving efficiency in networking through an increase in trust also seems to have supported the process of recovery. However, the challenge is to establish cost-efficient collaboration while maintaining the dynamic and adaptive capacity associated with low levels of centralization. In achieving this balance, the destination raises issues about collaborative efficiency.

Bodenmais has developed from a region into a destination. This progression means that the region has faced different challenges as well as ups and downs caused by external factors such as changing market conditions and customer needs, along with internal factors such as changes in the governance structure. Bodenmais is an example of how a central organization can play a role in the relaunch of a destination. The Bodenmais Tourism & Marketing Board was founded after several years of negotiations among political, economic, and community interests. The association undertakes several tasks, ranging from internal and external marketing to product development and quality control. The organization structure means that all private actors may seek membership, through which they can influence the strategic development of the destination.

An essential requirement for tourism planning and policymaking is to review past strategies. The development of future roadmaps depends on a robust strategy validation process. The research analyses the technology strategies in Goa from 1962–2017 and highlights the impact of technology on tourism in Goa.

The paper presents a unique methodology that integrates tourism area life cycle (TALC) and Mintzberg’s strategy analysis framework to evaluate strategies at a tourism destination.

The findings show that most technological advancements have taken place during the period 1989–2008. Both deliberate and emergent strategies were identified. Development of technology altered the type of tourism practiced in Goa. The use of internet facilitated the growth of tourism.

This study clarifies the styles of public planning for tourism. It provides the foundation for strategic planning process.

Effective and efficient use of policy through technology road mapping can aid in co-creating a sustainable tourism destination for the future.

The strategic evaluation framework can be used in any tourism destinations to identify past strategies and assess its impact on the future.

The paper presents a unique methodology that integrates TALC and Mintzberg’s strategy analysis framework to evaluate strategies at a tourism destination. The research proposes a strategic evaluation process that recognizes past strategies to validate the strategic analysis process.