Search results

This paper aims to focus on managing networks within destinations, or destination network management. The purpose is to provide a conceptual definition of the term.

Destinations are seen as networks, and networks are approached from a strategic perspective. Reviewing and drawing on the literature on destination management, tourism networks, strategic networks and strategic management the paper proposes a concept that could be of use in analyses of network management.

It is suggested that managing is a value‐creating activity embedded within a network, and that there are two approaches to network management: strategic management and the coordination of cooperation among the actors involved.

The paper is conceptual in nature. The authors intend to test the developed hypothesis in empirical case studies in the near future.

The paper contributes to the literature on destination management in proposing a novel concept of destination network management, and introducing a dynamic, activity‐oriented approach as opposed to the actor‐focused destination management organization (DMO) view.

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study elaborates an integrative conceptual framework of tourism destination competitive productivity (TDCP) by blending established destination competitiveness frameworks, the competitive productivity (CP) framework and studies pertaining to big data and big data analytics (BDA) within destination management information systems and smart tourism destinations. Second, this study examines the drivers of TDCP in the context of the ongoing 4th industrial revolution by conceptualizing the destination business intelligence unit (DBIU) as a platform able to create sustained destination business intelligence under the guise of BDA, useful to support destination managers to achieve the tourism destination’s economic objectives.

In this work, the authors leverage both extant literature (under the guise of research on CP, tourism destination competitiveness [TDC] and destination management information systems) and empirical work (in the form of interviews and field work involving destination managers and chief executive officers of destination management organizations and convention bureaus, as well as secondary data) to elaborate, develop and present an integrative conceptual framework of TDCP.

The integrative conceptual framework of TDCP elaborated has been found helpful by a number of destination managers trying to understand how to effectively and efficiently manage and market a tourism destination in today’s fast-paced, digital and hypercompetitive environment. While DBIUs are at different stages of implementation, often as part of broader smart destination initiatives, it appears that they are increasingly fulfilling the purpose of creating sustained destination business intelligence by means of BDA to help tourism destinations achieve their economic goals.

This work bears several practical implications for tourism policymakers, destination managers and marketers, technology developers, as well as tourism and hospitality firms and practitioners. Tourism policymakers could embed TDCP into tourism and economic policies, and destination managers and marketers might build and make use of platforms such as the proposed DBIU. Technology developers need to understand that designing destination management information systems in general and more specifically DBIUs requires an in-depth analysis of the stakeholders that are going to contribute, share, control and use BDA.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study constitutes the first attempt to integrate the CP, TDC and destination management information systems research streams to elaborate an integrative conceptual framework of TDCP. Second, the authors contribute to the Industry 4.0 research stream by examining the drivers of tourism destination CP in the context of the ongoing 4th industrial revolution. Third, the authors contribute to the destination management information systems research stream by introducing and conceptualizing the DBIU and the related sustained destination business intelligence.

The purpose of this paper is to first outline the central thrust of two currently non-convergent but intrinsically related streams of research – urban management and destination management – and explore the links between them. Both require an approach which coordinates and integrates multiple actors and functions in dynamic settings.

The paper then analyses empirical examples from three New Zealand cities to illustrate relationships between destination management and urban management in practice.

These cases show that without being labelled as such, quite a lot of activity takes place which reflects dimensions of both destination management and urban management, especially in terms of integration and coordination. This raises questions of just what constitutes destination management, a series of discrete ad hoc actions or some broader vision and framework.

Empirical evidence from the three New Zealand cities shows that, with the exception of Dunedin, destination management is not a term or a concept that is explicitly used there. Nevertheless, without being labelled as such, in practice there is quite a lot of activity taking place which reflects dimensions of both destination management and urban management, especially in terms of integration and coordination.

Destination management organizations perform a very important role regarding the management of tourism destinations. Destination management systems are a key technological infrastructure for these organizations. However, in the literature, it is not clear what are the factors that promote the implementation of these systems, neither what are the factors that contribute to their success. This study aims to propose and test two research models to overcome these research gaps.

The first model refers to the determinants of the implementation of destination management systems, and the second model refers to the determinants of the success of those systems. The models are tested with data collected through a questionnaire survey from destination management organizations of five European countries, which are among the leaders in international tourism receipts.

Concerning the factors that promote the implementation of destination management systems, this study reveals the importance of the diversity of partnerships that the private sector establishes in the destination, of advantages resulting from governance and of partners' involvement in the functions of destination management organizations. Concerning the factors that promote the success of these systems, this study highlights the importance of a phased implementation, the fact that a high number of functionalities in the system prevents success and the importance of having a revenue model that can support financial and operating costs.

The study provides important theoretical and practical contributions to the successful implementation of destination management systems by destination management organizations.

This paper seeks to reflect on the impacts of the pandemic on the management of tourist destinations, discussing the role of destination-management organizations in the tourism development model, as well as the challenges that these organizations must address to ensure an effective construction of a more sustainable and competitive tourism.

The methodology is based on a literature review linking destination management with pandemic and post-pandemic responses.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedent shock to the tourism industry's growth model since World War II, challenging tourism stakeholders (destinations and companies) with several threats and opportunities to their future competitiveness. In addition to the massive impacts in terms of business development, the abrupt reduction of tourism demand and the significative loss of jobs, the pandemic also caused significant disruption in terms of destination-management models. In less than four months, the focus of Governments and Destination Management Organizations shifted from defining development models compatible with improving the quality of life of residents due to the emergence of the so-called overtourism phenomenon, to the urgent need to support the industry's survival, to preserve jobs and ensure conditions of safety for tourists and workers.

Demonstrates the need for a profound change in the paradigm of destination management so that the sector is prepared to face future shocks. It also proposes further discussion on the role of destination management in the recovery process of the tourism sector in global terms, given the challenges that these organizations face. The article also considers the ways in which destination management can be a fundamental tool in the process of building a more inclusive, sustainable and competitive future.

This article aims to provide a critical review of the articles included in this special issue and highlight their findings and contribution to events, festivals and destination management research.

The article critically reviews methodologies, findings, themes and conclusions offered by each article included in this special issue.

The articles in the special issue identify the latest thematic trends in events, festivals and destination management research and propose conceptual frameworks for event and festival life cycle trajectories. They build on previous research confirming how accessible tourism and a balanced event portfolio can increase the sustainability and competitiveness of the destination. Based on sound methodologies, they offer specific theoretical and practical implication for the successful planning, marketing and management of events, festivals and destinations. They provide suggestions on how event innovation, participatory sport events, mega sport events, food and wine festivals and meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) can assist in the marketing and branding of the tourism destination.

The articles in this special issue lay the foundation for future research in events, festivals and destination management. Articles in this special issue apply various research methods and analysis, indicating the growth of event and festival research. Research methods and analysis techniques used in the special issue include content/theme analysis, case studies, qualitative studies and questionnaires. The research articles and methodologies used in this issue should help both researchers and industry practitioners.

This study highlights key findings, theoretical and practical implications and contributions of the articles included in this special issue. It provides a holistic view of events, festivals and destination management research and suggests areas for future research.

This paper aims to demonstrate how customer knowledge management (CKM) can assist destination management organizations (DMOs) in the smart management of the tourist experience to contribute to the creation of smart solutions and the promotion of smart tourism destinations (STDs). To accomplish it, a CKM conceptual framework aligned with smart tourism and composed of eight processes is developed to guide managers in this management.

This research adopts the design science research methodology and applies its steps. It was supported by a systematic integrative literature review on CKM models and frameworks and their main elements, as well as by semi-structured interviews with tourism specialists in the context of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

From the literature it appears that tourist experiences are customer knowledge essential to the improvement and innovation of tourism products and services, and that CKM, still little explored in this scenario, tends to contribute to the management of this crucial knowledge for smart tourism. The analyses and improvements to the structure developed by specialists show its applicability and contributions to the management of STD experiences.

This paper offers an original contribution to the integration of the theoretical constructs of CKM, tourist experience and STDs by showing how the CKM, from tourism experiences, technologies and social networks, can assist DMOs in the management of experiences and promotion of STDs.

Destinations are focal points for tourist activity and thus for the study of tourism. They are, however, notoriously difficult to manage due to their complex systems of stakeholders. Such complexity implies that destinations are driven by a wide range of forces in their internal and external environments. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the diversity and depth of the challenges at play in destination management and, in doing so, review the primary contributions in the field.

This is a "perspective" paper (i.e. critical literature review).

The study of destinations remains an area of active research interest, with the many challenges that arise from within and external to destinations offering much food for thought with respect to their longevity as viable, sustainable and competitive places for tourists to visit. For the future, the need to view destinations as part of a wider system is paramount with them being inescapable from debates on urban planning, economic inequality, transportation and housing and the omnipresence of all things “smart”. Such debates need to incorporate both tourists and resident communities, as the well-being and quality of life of both groups is under threat in many destinations, particularly heritage and culturally rich city destinations around the world, where the term “overtourism” is increasingly heard.

This study has implications for the integrated and more holistic management of tourist destinations.

This is a "perspective" paper, so it does not offer individual practical implications for destinations. Moreover, it offers a concise and precise summary of core studies in the field and provides a platform for a more future-looking critical debate on the sustainable management of tourist destinations.

Looking ahead, destinations need to be considered as part of a wider system, one that is inclusive of urban planning, economic inequality, transportation and housing, and “smart” initiatives among others. Most importantly, the views of tourist and resident communities need to be considered and incorporated into future planning at the destination level with wellbeing and quality of life indicators being used to identify the real benefits of tourism to both communities.

Integrated and holistic forms of destination management is the way forward, with the exponential growth of technology, as well as the need to manage the exchange of knowledge and data at the destination level, critical to the sustainability of the competitive destination long into the future.

This study aims to develop and validate a scale for the assessment of the quality of the meta-management process that helps urban destinations to identify potential improvement in their strategy and possible paths to enhance destination competitiveness.

In particular, through an empirical analysis of all the Italian cities with tourism certification (138 urban destinations), a model is proposed, linking specific portal functions to the achievement of six meta-management processes (product development, segment selection, customer relation management, promotion, destination image and brand management and management of distribution channels). Through a comparison with a competitive set of excellent international destinations, the study identifies priorities for competitiveness enhancement.

The results of the study contribute to the ongoing debate on destination competitiveness and destination web site evaluation.

From the managerial point of view, the model helps destination managers to control destination strategy and create consensus among all the stakeholders on the actions to achieve them.

This study made an advance over previous work by providing a modified model for measuring the competitiveness of tourism destinations based on competitive performance from a stakeholder perspective. Furthermore, this paper aims to evaluate the sources of relative strengths and weaknesses perceived of a destination.

This study uses a quantitative approach to seek opinions of 135 tourism stakeholders. Univariate and bivariate statistical analyses were used to describe the profile of the respondents, quantify the main findings and test the proposed hypotheses.

The results highlight the importance of safety in determining the attractiveness of a destination and its significance for the competitiveness of a destination. The strongest indicator of competitiveness is “Core resources and attractions,” while the weakest indicator is “Destination management.” Also, employees in public institutions and in the tourism industry in general have different opinions about competitive tourism destinations for most dimensions.

Despite the fact that the findings do not consider the demand side, which has a major impact on the destination, they minimize the research gap and contribute to the existing literature review.

The results are of particular value to stakeholders and destination management responsible for strengthening the competitiveness of tourism destinations.

The research progressed over previous studies by developing and empirically testing a modified conceptual model for measuring destination competitiveness from a supply-side perspective and recommending improvements for the emerging tourism destinations.

利益相关者对竞争性旅游目的地的看法：来自塞尔维亚的经验证据

本研究提供了一个修正模型, 用于从利益相关者的角度基于竞争绩效来衡量旅游目的地的竞争力, 从而比以前的工作有所进展。此外, 它旨在评估目的地感知的相对优势和劣势的来源。

本研究采用定量分析法征求了135 名旅游业利益相关者的意见。采用单变量和双变量统计分析方法对受访者的概况进行描述, 量化主要研究结果并检验所提出的假设。

结果强调了安全在决定目的地吸引力方面及其对目的地竞争力的重要性。竞争力最强的指标是“核心资源和景点”, 最弱的指标是“目的地管理”。 此外, 公共机构和旅游业的从业人员对竞争性旅游目的地在大多数方面的看法普遍不同。

尽管研究结果没有考虑对目的地有重大影响的需求方, 但它们最大限度地缩小了研究差距并对现有的研究综述有所帮助。

研究结果对于利益相关者和旅游目的地管理层加强旅游目的地的竞争力具有特别价值。

相较于以往的研究而言, 该研究的进展在于形成和实证检验一个修正的概念模型, 从供应方的角度衡量目的地竞争力, 并为新兴旅游目的地的竞争地位提出改进建议。

Las percepciones de las partes interesadas del destino turístico competitivo: las pruebas empíricas de Serbia

Este estudio avanzó sobre el anterior con proporcionar un modelo modificado para medir la competitividad de los destinos turísticos desde la perspectiva de las partes interesadas.  Además, el objetivo es evaluar los fuentes de las fuerzas y debilidades relativas, percibidas de un destino. 

Este estudio usa el enfoque cuantitativo para buscar opiniones de 135 actores del turísmo. Se utilizaron análisis estadísticos univariados y bivariados para describir el perfíl de encuestados, para cuantificar los resultados principales y para comprobar la hipótesis propuesta. 

Los resultados destacan la importancia de la seguridad para determinar el atractivo de un destino y su importancia para la competitividad de un destino. El indicador de competitividad más fuerte es “Recursos y atracciones principales”, mientras el indicador más débil es “Gestión de destinos”. Empleados en las instituciones públicas y en turismo en general, tienen opiniones diferentes sobre el destino turístico competitivo en la mayoría da las dimensiones.

A pesar de que los resultados no consideran el lado de la demanda, que tienen un mayor impacto en el destino, minimizan la brecha de la investigación y contribuyen a la revisión de literatura existente. 

Los resultados tienen un valor práctico para las partes interesadas y para la gestión del destino responsable de fortalecer la competitividad del destino turístico. 

Esta investigación progresó sobre los estudios anteriores desarrollando y empíricamente probando un modelo conceptual modificado para medir la competitividad de los destinos desde la perspectiva de la oferta, y las recomendaciones para los progresos competitivos de los destinos turísticos  emergentes.