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This paper aims to find answers to two research questions: What is the perception of the Moravia community on tourism in their neighbourhood? What are the conditions under which they can accept slum tourism?

The foundation of this paper was laid during a field trip to Medellin, Colombia, in March 2018. More than three weeks were spent in the neighbourhood of Moravia, one of Medellin’s “barrios” or slums, where a qualitative study was led. Semi-structured interviews with the local community were done around the neighbourhood.

The main finding of this research is the positive perception of slum tourism within the Moravia community. The researchers found that the locals are proud when outsiders visit to see their neighbourhood. The locals felt that, it breaks the prejudice surrounding their homes, and tourists are seen as spokespeople for the barrio. There are visible improvements made to the barrio owing to tourism. This research drew attention to the conditions under which this type of tourism can be accepted in the neighbourhood: community participation, interaction between hosts and tourists, education and respect of tourists and the visible improvements to the neighbourhood.

Slum tourism is an understudied topic in Colombia, especially in Medellin. By researching on the host perception on slum tourism, this paper contributes to literature on slum tourism from a new angle.

The current tourism model based on luxury hotel resorts in the Gulf of Papagayo (Guanacaste, Costa Rica) is largely affecting the living condition of its nearby communities. This paper aims to discuss the importance of promoting public–private partnerships (PPPs) as innovative forms of governance to increase the sustainability of this tourism model.

Based on the review of institutional documents and the PPP literature, this article critically maps each stage of the process to design PPPs for sustainable tourism, taking into account the case of Guanacaste. In this way, it offers a practical guideline to plan partnerships involving academia, public institutions and private partners in particular tourism sites.

The paper shows that the feasibility of a PPP in Guanacaste strongly depends on the alignment of partners’ local interests, on the adequacy of the partnership to the social and economic conditions of the context wherein it has to be carried out, and on the appropriation of results from partners.

This work combines a theoretical and practical perspective to understand the interactive process to be carried out to design PPPs in developing tourism destinations.

This paper aims to provide answers to the question: “What are the key innovative strategies needed for future tourism in the world?” At the outset, this paper redefines the word “innovation” in the context of the hospitality and tourism industry. It then captures the essence of 13 proceeding papers on innovative initiatives in 17 countries and presents concluding remarks to this Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) theme issue on innovation (v. 11 n. 2, 2019).

This paper draws from a wide spectrum of innovation types, concepts, strategies, suggestions and solutions written by 24 authors, who cumulatively have valuable and diverse experience in managing, operating, teaching, researching and consulting on innovation.

Innovation is relevant to all macro- and micro-level aspects of all industries. In conclusion, to identify common elements in all 13 papers, the author presents a shorter definition: “Innovation is the art of implementing new ideas to improve productivity, products and services, while enhancing customer satisfaction, revenues and profitability”. In addition, he emphasizes that innovation needs vision, mission and passion!

This research contributes to the emerging research theme of innovation in the hospitality and tourism industry and extends/re-defines the word: “innovation”.

There are significant practical implications in terms of industry approaches to use innovative strategies across the world.

Readers who are interested in international best practices of hospitality and tourism would benefit from this paper.

This paper aims to profile the Worldwide hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) issue “What are the key innovative strategies needed for future tourism in the world?”, with reference to the experiences of the theme editor and writing team.

This paper uses structured questions to enable the theme editor to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process.

This paper provides a framework to facilitate discussions between international scholars in hospitality and tourism to re-define a buzzword. For this theme issue, the buzzword was “innovation”. Summaries of 13 papers written on innovative strategies in hospitality and tourism around the world were then analysed to fine-tune the definition.

The theme issue outcomes provide lines of enquiry for others to explore and reinforce the value of WHATT’s approach to collaborative research and writing.

The collaborative work reported in this theme issue offers a unified but contrarian response to the theme’s strategic question. Taken together, the collection of articles provides a detailed picture of the key innovative strategies needed for future tourism.