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Upon the changes that have taken place in the tourist sector since the 7 990s, the SMTEs and the destinations where they operate are called to reflect on the opportunity to redefine the strategic and organizational assets that have distinguished them until now in order to respond to new needs and desires coming from a more segmented demand side. This paper presents the results of a research project conducted in the Dolomites, the most important alpine area in terms of numbers of tourists, representative of a community tourist destination and where the tourists do not defer to intermediaries to organize the vacation (do‐it‐yourself tourists). The Dolomites are now in the “mature” phase of the development life cycle and as such need a new approach to the market in order to maintain loyalty among current visitors and to gain loyalty in new tourist segments. The research was done in the summer 2001 and winter 2001–2002 by administering 5,000 online questionnaires to a representative sampling of “do‐it‐yourself” tourists. The objective was to study the decision‐making and behavioural models of do‐it‐yourself tourists and to build profiles of tourists who choose this destination. From these profiles it is possible to identify strategies that the SMTEs and the alpine destination as a whole could undertake to achieve the goals described above. The research highlights the importance for SMTEs to overcome the entrepreneurial spontaneity and to adopt an informed and planned business strategy. In this scenario the Regional Tourist Boards emerge as important actors that can play a key role in meta‐management.

The purpose of this paper is to identify primary and secondary stakeholders for the development of community‐type destinations and to analyse how the difference in power characterizes them with regards to how they value specific rules and how they estimate trust and control in the destinations. From this analysis it is possible to draw useful indicators for the definition of the destination governance.

The paper takes the form of a literature review and field research. The literature review considers network approach and stakeholder approach in order to analyse the actors involved in the tourist offer (size of the network and characteristics of the nodes) and their influence reputation for identifying primary and secondary stakeholders within the destination. The field research is carried out in two community‐type destinations in the Alps. In both destinations, tourism is the main economic activity, as it involves a multiplicity of public and private stakeholders; the two destinations do differ for some important factors, like the kind of DMOs and the path of tourism development.

The research identifies and investigates primary and secondary stakeholders within community‐type destinations and their opinions about the involvement of public and private actors for the development of the destinations and their judgements regarding trust and control.

Results are limited to two community‐type destinations.

The research adopts an innovative methodology to identify primary and secondary stakeholder of community‐type destinations and highlights some indicators for the definition of the destination governance (e.g. level of community participations, role of private and public actors, influence of trust and control).

Most Alpine destinations are currently in the mature phase of the development life cycle, placing them near the precipice that leads toward a period of irreversible decline. After describing the principal reasons for this phenomenon, the paper aims to set forth a strategic response, within the logic of destination re‐engineering, that is based on recent changes in the motivations and behaviors of tourists. A new market segment has emerged that shows a heightened sensitivity to environmental protection, local cultural preservation and to the overall authenticity of the vacation experience. This segment, defined with several terms (eco‐tourism, nature‐based tourism, responsible tourism …), is potentially a very important market in terms of both quantity and quality, on the condition that the destinations should be able to compete by maintaining originally and authentically attractions.

The study is based on field research with the administration of about 1,000 questionnaires to tourists in one of the main valleys in the Dolomites.

The paper presents a definition (including the diverse approaches emerging thus far) and a set of descriptive variables of the tourist segment identified as “4L tourism” (landscape, leisure, learning and limit), which could provide the mature destinations to innovate the offering in a sustainable way.

The results make it possible to identify some elements of a behavioral and motivational profile of a new segment of tourist, and to identify new offerings.

The paper presents identification and analysis in the logic of destination marketing of an emerging segment of tourist.

In this session, chaired by Prof. Egon Smeral, four papers have been presented, all concentrating on new instruments for improving marketing in tourism.