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Innovation and Strategic Management for the Development of Tourist Destinations

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 18883

Special Issue Editors

Faculty of Food and Tourism, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania
Interests: tourism; tourist destinations; DMO; management; sustainability; hospitality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Polytechnic of Leiria - School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, Portugal.
Interests: tourist destinations; innovation; sustainability; customer's experience; hospitality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries of this century, becoming a major area of interest for the world’s economy. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in 2018 there were 1.4 billion international arrivals worldwide (UNWTO, 2019), with an average growth rate of 5%. The impact of tourism on economy is considerable. Revenues from visitors’ spending have grown faster than the world’s economy, and the direct contribution of tourism to the world GDP was 3.6% in 2018 (UNWTO, 2019). In this context, it is necessary to innovate and manage correctly travel and tourism, in order to increase the competitiveness and performance of tourist destinations.

Innovation and a strategic management approach are the key aspects for a sustainable development of a tourist destination, due to the fact that they guarantee, on the one hand, the optimal integration of tourism into the economy, environment, and culture of that location—through the capacity to coagulate synergies—and on the other hand, they allow an adequate satisfaction of tourists’ demands and expectations.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present and discuss the importance of innovation and strategic management to ensure the sustainable development of tourist destinations, so to improve their offers in relation to visitors’ expectations as well as their competitiveness in tourism, while preserving the environment.

We invite scholars interested in the sustainable development of tourist destinations to critically reflect on issues concerning the intersections between tourist destination, innovation, strategic management, development, and sustainability.

Contributions on the following themes are of particular interest, though papers on other relevant topics will also be considered:

-Destinations management

-Tourist destinations strategy

-Development of tourist destinations

-DMO’s

-Competitiveness of tourist destinations

-Performanceof tourist destinations

-Sustainability of tourist destinations

-Marketing and branding of tourist destinations

-Sustainable methods and tools for tourist destinations development

-Customers’ experience

-Strategic management

Dr. Diana Foris
Dr. Anabela Elias-Almeida
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • tourism
  • sustainability
  • destination management
  • innovation
  • development of tourist destinations
  • DMO

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1566 KiB  
Article
Innovation and Strategic Management for the Development of Tourist Destinations: Development of Nightlife and Residents’ Attitudes in Punta del Este (Uruguay)
by José Ramón-Cardona and María Dolores Sánchez-Fernández
Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4667; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14084667 - 13 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1690
Abstract
Nightlife is a controversial offer for its possible negative social impacts, but it is also important for its media impact and as an element of differentiation of the tourist destination. In the coastal resorts it is a very important offer as it complements [...] Read more.
Nightlife is a controversial offer for its possible negative social impacts, but it is also important for its media impact and as an element of differentiation of the tourist destination. In the coastal resorts it is a very important offer as it complements the main offer. This paper seeks to determine the background of residents’ attitudes towards the offer of nightlife. To do this, the responses of a sample of 420 residents of the Maldonado-Punta del Este conurbation (Uruguay) who responded to a questionnaire with items measured with Likert scales are analyzed using Structural Equation Models. A first analysis, which presents costs and benefits of three types (economic, social and cultural) as a possible background of the degree of acceptance of this offer, did not detect significant relationships. In a second analysis, the mediation of the overall attitude towards tourism and the degree of acceptance of sun and beach tourism were proposed. In this second analysis it was found that: only economic benefits and cultural costs have significant effects on the overall attitude; the overall attitude has a significant effect on the acceptance of sun and beach tourism, but not on the acceptance of nightlife; and the acceptance of sun and beach tourism has a significant effect on the acceptance of nightlife. The acceptance of nightlife follows the same guidelines as its business development (it is a consequence of sun and beach tourism). Full article
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18 pages, 7289 KiB  
Article
Impact of Population Growth in the Central Coastal Zone of Chile: Factors for Estimating Tourism Carrying Capacity Based on the Case Study of One Latin American Seaside Resort
by Roberto Moris, Kay Bergamini, Horacio Gilabert, Rodrigo Culagovski, Daniela Zaviezo, José Ignacio Medina, Andrea Alarcón and Piroska Ángel
Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3527; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13063527 - 22 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3207
Abstract
El Quisco is a district and popular seaside resort on the coast of Chile that has suffered the effects of the growing demand for second homes and tourism activities. The district has the fourth highest influx of a floating population in the region, [...] Read more.
El Quisco is a district and popular seaside resort on the coast of Chile that has suffered the effects of the growing demand for second homes and tourism activities. The district has the fourth highest influx of a floating population in the region, which has had numerous impacts on the district at several levels. The objective of this article is to examine the issue of carrying capacity in Chile and its public management at the local level. To this end, this research developed an exploratory and instrumental case study. Carrying capacity problems were first identified in the existing literature. This information was subsequently complemented with more local information by means of: analysis of territorial planning instruments (TPIs) relating to the district; participative workshops with municipal government stakeholders; and, lastly, confirmation of the problems identified through correlation analysis of available historical data. The main result of this research was the determination of carrying capacity issues in El Quisco. This broadly coincides with indications from the existing literature and TPIs, while factors identified by local stakeholders are territory-specific, giving rise to new measurement variables. It was possible, in turn, to rule out certain carrying capacity issues perceived by the community. Full article
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24 pages, 5012 KiB  
Article
Country Performance Analysis of Swiss Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Research
by Lucília Cardoso, Arthur Filipe Araújo, Luís Lima Santos, Roland Schegg, Zélia Breda and Carlos Costa
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2378; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13042378 - 23 Feb 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3144
Abstract
Based on tradition and high standards, Swiss higher education in tourism and hospitality is ranked among the best in the world. Although scientific research is the foundation of a country’s higher education system, the Swiss Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Scientific Research (Swiss [...] Read more.
Based on tradition and high standards, Swiss higher education in tourism and hospitality is ranked among the best in the world. Although scientific research is the foundation of a country’s higher education system, the Swiss Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Scientific Research (Swiss TL&HM-SR) has not yet been subject to a systematic analysis. This paper aims to fill this gap by assessing the Swiss TL&HM-SR performance, as well as identifying and discussing its most prominent topics. To this end, bibliometric data were gathered from the Scopus database and analyzed through a bibliometric mixed-method approach. Results provide a new performance indicator for the Swiss TL&HM-SR in this field of research, and show that innovation and sustainable destination management are particularly prominent topics within Swiss TL&HM-SR. In this context, contributions to these topics in particular are discussed in more detail. The findings provide useful insights for stakeholders aiming to improve sustainability performance through strategic management of destinations, as well as for researchers aiming to follow the latest trends, identify emerging topics and formulate more attractive projects for financing institutions. The study also provides a new and innovative methodological contribution, as it combines different methods of scientific research performance assessment, which can be further employed in other countries or knowledge areas. Full article
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22 pages, 735 KiB  
Article
Improving the Management of Tourist Destinations: A New Approach to Strategic Management at the DMO Level by Integrating Lean Techniques
by Diana Foris, Adriana Florescu, Tiberiu Foris and Sorin Barabas
Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 10201; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su122310201 - 07 Dec 2020
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 9875
Abstract
Destination management organizations have a key role to play in the governance of tourism destinations, in managing destination networks and in ensuring good cooperation between stakeholders. Although, destination management organizations (DMOs) are atypical organizations, their operations are evaluated according to their organizational efficiency [...] Read more.
Destination management organizations have a key role to play in the governance of tourism destinations, in managing destination networks and in ensuring good cooperation between stakeholders. Although, destination management organizations (DMOs) are atypical organizations, their operations are evaluated according to their organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This study aims to propose a framework to improve the management of the tourist destination through an innovative approach that interconnects strategic management and Lean techniques to increase efficiency and productivity in operational processes, organizational efficiency and effectiveness at the DMO level. The framework developed in this study interconnects the analysis of the internal environment through the Value Chain and the Lean Six Sigma methods identified to be suitable for application in the management of the tourist destination. Testing of the practical application of this framework was done for Association for the Promotion and Development of Tourism (APDT), which is the DMO that ensures the management of the tourist destination of Brasov, Romania. The research contributes to the optimization of the processes at the DMO’s level. The framework developed in this study can be implemented by practitioners to improve the management of the tourist destination. The paper also offers future research directions. Full article
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