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While the importance of interorganizational learning (IOL) as a resource for strategic renewal has been acknowledged in research, limited attention has been placed on exploring IOL in complex networks or ecosystems. This paper aims to bridge this gap in literature through conceptualizing IOL in the tourism industry at the micro, meso and macro levels of the ecosystem.

This paper applies a narrative literature review to explore the tourism industry and IOL. Through insights which evolved from literature, exploratory typologies and propositions were developed forming the basis of the multi-level typology of interorganizational learning in the tourism industry.

Based on the multi-level typology of interorganizational learning in the tourism industry, market actors may develop in isolation, in clusters or networks, with the aggregate output of these formations constituting the basis of the tourism ecosystem. Within the multi-layers of the tourism ecosystem, IOL may be subdivided into seven distinct typologies, with learning ranging from active, passive, interactive to asymmetric. Each typology of IOL is subsequently influenced by relational ties, which may range from collaborative to competitive, and power distribution, which may lead to symmetric or asymmetric relationships.

The novelty of this paper lies in an ecosystem perspective of IOL in the tourism industry, outlining the multi-level nature of IOL in a destination.

Given the growing attention on service ecosystem and the role played by technology and institutions in shaping of actors’ relations and interactions, the purpose of this paper is to examine a tourism environment with the lens of service ecosystem in order to derive a deeper understanding on the underlying mechanisms.

A mixed methodology was used. First, literature review based on service ecosystems framework was conducted to critically analyze the roles of technology and institutions to shape a tourism service ecosystem. Then a case study was conducted.

Two main findings are described: the role and the characteristics of physical and virtual engagement touchpoints in the emergence of a tourism service ecosystems; and the relationship between technology and institutions in the resource integration. In particular, the authors conclude that institutions can shape the usage of technology which, in turn, can enable and imply the emergence of new institutions, continually adjusting the system of the tourism service ecosystem.

The analysis contributes to deepening the knowledge about value co-creation processes and engagement expedients in tourism destination, explaining the role of institutions and technology in helping actors to integrate resources and exchange services. The study can also be useful for practitioners in search for powerful tool to increase the competitiveness of a tourism destination.

The study is one of the first attempts to conceptualize and operationalize a tourism destination in a service ecosystem framework. In this way it contribute to enhance scientific knowledge in a tourism management literature.

Despite a growing interest in accessible tourism, delivering high-quality tourism experiences to people with disabilities (PwD) remains a major challenge. Beyond a number of acknowledged barriers (e.g. cultural, architectural, relational), the main issue is the lack of coordination amongst the many actors participating in the co-creation of tourism experiences. This paper intends to advance available knowledge on this issue by conceptually suggesting a solution that draws on the concepts of the tourism experience and digital ecosystems.

This paper is developed as a conceptual contribution, drawing also on an illustrative example that considers a tourist with mobility disability as the focal actor.

The results indicate that a digital ecosystem could contribute to making tourism locations more accessible by enabling information sharing and coordination amongst all actors that co-create the tourism experiences. Moreover, the analysis underlines that tourism locations should be designed to be useable by all people, drawing on the principles of the universal design.

This paper describes a path to fostering accessible tourism, drawing on local authorities, particularly municipalities and universities. The suggested solution would benefit from future empirical analyses to assess its strengths and weaknesses.

By drawing on the concept of digital ecosystems, this paper is amongst the first studies to suggest a path to making tourism locations more accessible to all tourists (with or without disabilities) based on technology.

Drawing on the service-dominant logic and the institutional theory, this paper aims to explore the value-creating mechanisms of branding in the destination context and the brand co-creation process at and between different levels of a service ecosystem.

An exploratory research design was used to generate qualitative data from 18 in-depth interviews with important stakeholders and investigate how and why brand co-creation is fostered in the service ecosystem.

The study proposes a stepwise process of strategic imperatives for brand co-creation in the destination context. It presents the multi-directional flows of the brand meaning across levels of the tourism ecosystem and thereby interprets stakeholders’ efforts to co-create sustainable brands that gain prominence in the global tourism arena.

Future research might validate the framework in a quantitative research setting. The extended analysis of the value-creating ecosystem could investigate the role of institutions and brand value propositions across levels.

Acknowledging their limited control over the brand co-creation process, tourism practitioners are offered step-by-step guidance to help shape a destination brand that may retain relevance in the tourists’ minds. Critical insights are provided into resource sharing between actors and subsequent responsibilities for a sustainable destination branding strategy.

The paper considers the significance of the various levels in the ecosystem and the underlying mechanisms of brand co-creation in a somewhat neglected branding domain.

Building on recent smart hospitality systematic reviews and extensive literature analyses, this paper aims to explore recent developments, themes and issues within smart hospitality. It synthesises existing knowledge, extrapolating forward and contributes to the future development of smart hospitality by serving as a reference to enrich academic/industry discussions and stimulate future research.

The research examined 8 recent review articles on smart hospitality and tourism and extracted 145 articles in peer-reviewed sources from Web of Science focussed on smart hospitality. These publications supported in-depth analysis to explore the body of knowledge and develop foresight for the future of smart hospitality within business ecosystems at tourism destinations. It synthesises knowledge and provides the basis for the development of a comprehensive in-depth research agenda in smart hospitality innovations as well as the formulation of agile hospitality ecosystems.

This paper illustrates that smart hospitality introduces disruptive innovations that affect the entire hospitality ecosystem. Smart hospitality takes advantage of smart cities and smart tourism towards establishing agile business ecosystems in networked destinations. Having reviewed the existing literature, the study developed a conceptual framework and introduced a comprehensive future research agenda. This includes the drivers of smart hospitality, namely, customer-centricity, personalisation, individualisation and contextualisation; marketing-driven hospitality excellence and metaverse; as well as operation agility, asset strategy, talent management and supplier interoperation. It also identified the foundations that provide the infostructure for smart hospitality, including ambient intelligence, big data, processes and sustainability, providing the capability blocks to co-create value for all stakeholders in the hospitality ecosystem.

This study conceptualises smart hospitality as a disruptive and innovative power that will affect the competitiveness of hospitality and tourism organisations as part of a comprehensive ecosystem. It identifies the key stakeholders and explores how they can take advantage of emerging developments. This paper proposes the drivers and foundation for future research on smart hospitality. The research provides a conceptual synthesis of the literature and the concepts that have been elaborated. The foundations are effectively the infostructure that enables the drivers to add value to different stakeholders. Key issues are identified to stimulate further research on the area to support smart hospitality development and adoption.

This paper aims to offer a conceptual model for the development of a teaching–learning experiential ecosystem which favors university entrepreneurship in the area of sustainable tourism and innovation acceleration.

The methodology is carried out in two phases. First, participatory action research in the context of the “Protocol and Event Organization” subject, included in the Tourism degree taught at the University of Alicante, analyzing a didactic experience as a case study. Second, primary qualitative and quantitative research.

Although at a small scale, it is shown that the relational approach for university management fosters entrepreneurship and generates social awareness regarding the sustainable tourism business.

This is a local simulatory case on relational university and is based on only one subject. However, as a starting point, it has the following implications.

The authors contribute in a practical manner to model a learning and entrepreneurship ecosystem for configuring an education innovation agenda in the field of tourism, with the cooperation of all agents involved in this sector to accelerate novel entrepreneurships, as well as transitions, toward sustainability.

The model is useful to accelerate new entrepreneurship and transitions toward sustainable regional development.

Students have led the process and have become quintessential relationatory agents, creating their own career opportunities on sustainable tourism, in addition to creating society–university links.

This study aims to describe the concept of smart tourism, placing emphasis on the smart tourism ecosystem and value co-creation concept within the system at a destination level. The work also summarizes the key challenges associated with smart tourism implementation and development.

The study was conducted as a critical literature review, discussing the outcomes of a wide range and scope of relevant academic literature on the chosen concepts.

Smart tourism can be described as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) technologies to facilitate and enrich tourism products, services and experiences. Within the smart tourism ecosystem, all stakeholders – customers, suppliers, intermediates, the public sector, service providers, destination management organizations and others –participate in the synergies and value co-creation, also share the benefits from it. The ultimate aim of a smart tourism ecosystem is to create sustainable economic, social and environmental benefits for all and promote destination competitiveness. Smart tourism implementation is also associated with several challenges, of which the most important are participation, an overwhelming amount of data, data privacy and technology adoption.

The paper provides a critical review of the recent and relevant literature in order to define and discuss the mechanisms of value co-creation in a smart tourism ecosystem and the challenges associated with it.

The technological and digital revolution has introduced important changes in the tourism industry. However, capturing the extent of the new tourism 4.0 paradigm is still difficult. This study aims to assess the dimensions related to the concepts of industry 4.0 in tourism and hospitality, tourism innovation and tourism ecosystem when considered simultaneously, and their role in promoting a new wave of competitiveness in the tourism industry.

A bibliometric study was conducted based on tourism 4.0, hotel 4.0, tourism innovation and tourism ecosystem using 120 eligible articles published between 2008 and 2021 from the Web of Science database.

This study demonstrated the advances in industry 4.0 in tourism and hospitality publications over 13 years and identified five interconnected dimensions: (1) knowledge transfer in tourism; (2) networking tourism innovation; (3) sources of tourism innovation; (4) smart tourism ecosystem and (5) innovation research in tourism. It was also concluded that tourism development should be a regional competence based on strategic networking and externalisation of regional knowledge flows.

This bibliometric review provides important implications and recommendations for several players of industry 4.0 in tourism and hospitality and policymakers. Not only did it make it possible to create a state of art, but also to categorise the existing interconnections between the dimensions of Tourism 4.0, Hotel 4.0, Tourism innovation and Tourism ecosystem to optimise its implementation and generate greater value. In addition, practical implications were inferred that improve the tourism sector’s competitiveness, helping strategic decision-making at the level of policymakers and actors in this sector.

Apart from state of the art, this bibliometric review made it possible to categorise the existing interconnections between the dimensions of tourism 4.0, hotel 4.0, tourism innovation and tourism ecosystem to optimise its implementation and generate greater value. Practical implications were inferred that improve the tourism sector’s competitiveness, helping strategic decision-making at the level of policymakers and several players in this sector.

This study addresses the existing literature gap in the interconnection of industry 4.0 with tourism and hospitality by describing the most relevant conceptual interconnections and setting practical implications for improving the competitiveness of the tourism industry. Furthermore, it integrates previous studies and outlines future lines of investigation.

Digitalization accelerates the need of tourism and hospitality ecosystems to reframe business models in line with a data-driven orientation that can foster value creation and innovation. Since the question of data-driven business models (DDBMs) in hospitality remains underexplored, this paper aims at (1) revealing the key dimensions of the data-driven redefinition of business models in smart hospitality ecosystems and (2) conceptualizing the key drivers underlying the emergence of innovation in these ecosystems.

The empirical research is based on semi-structured interviews collected from a sample of hospitality managers, employed in three different accommodation services, i.e. hotels, bed and breakfast (B&Bs) and guesthouses, to explore data-driven strategies and practices employed on site.

The findings allow to devise a conceptual framework that classifies the enabling dimensions of DDBMs in smart hospitality ecosystems. Here, the centrality of strategy conducive to the development of data-driven innovation is stressed.

The study thus developed a conceptual framework that will serve as a tool to examine the impact of digitalization in other service industries. This study will also be useful for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) managers, who seek to understand the possibilities data-driven management strategies offer in view of stimulating innovation in the managers' companies.

The paper reinterprets value creation practices in business models through the lens of data-driven approaches. In this way, this paper offers a new (conceptual and empirical) perspective to investigate how the hospitality sector at large can use the massive amounts of data available to foster innovation in the sector.

Innovation in rural tourism and hospitality (RT) is a complex process that involves the exchange of knowledge and resources between many actors and the interrelationships between those actors in the business environment. The purpose of this paper is to provide structure to this “knowledge and resource ecosystem” through a thorough systematic review of the extant literature.

The current study uses a time-tested and reproducible systematic literature review process to identify and analyse 79 research papers that have discussed innovation in RT.

Through content analyses, this review identifies critical stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, as well as the enabling and hindering roles these stakeholders play in innovation. The thematic analysis uncovers three key research foci: stakeholders and their roles, outcomes of innovation and business model innovation. The review also identifies types of innovation and critically analyses the bibliographical research profile. The authors summarise the findings in an RT innovation ecosystem model, which includes the various actors and their knowledge and resource sharing roles within the business environment.

This is one of the first systematic reviews to concentrate on RT innovation and, within that focus, on knowledge and resource networks in particular rather than on innovation in tourism in general, which was the focus of prior reviews. The authors encourage cross-pollination of ideas by introducing theories from the strategic management, innovation, knowledge management and business model innovation literature wherever appropriate. To consolidate and present the findings on the innovation process’s antecedents and outcomes, the authors present an ecosystem of innovation within the RT framework.