Jaume Guia

How Tourism Destinations Evolve: The Notion of Tourism Local Innovation System

The analysis of tourism destinations as territorial agglomerations, that is, industrial districts and clusters, has been given attention in this journal in recent years. In these analyses, tourist companies closely situated in a territory or space are claimed to benefit from available shared resources. These papers, however, do not focus on the key role that innovation and the relationships among actors have on the evolution of tourism destinations. In trying to close this gap, we use the notions of system of innovation and social network analysis, and apply them to the tourism industry, to introduce the Tourism Local Innovation System (TLIS) model. This model can be used to assess the innovation capacity of tourism destinations and, also, to design relational network structures that favour innovation. Finally, by using social network analysis methods to draw a destinations relational network map, we present the case of Costa Brava Centre (Mid-Costa-Brava) — the most visited destination in Catalonia, which at the same time is the most visited region in Spain — as an actual example of TLIS.

Exploring the Legacy of Sport Events on Sport Tourism Networks

Abstract An important amount of literature have focused on analyzing the consequences of sport events, particularly on the economic impacts; however as is often claimed, impacts also occur on the environment, culture and society. As sport events are intensive in stakeholders’ relationships, the creation and strengthening of networks among these stakeholders should be a first priority of strategies aiming at building events’ legacies. The purpose of this study is to explore the generation of effective networks in a regional triathlon event using social network analysis theory and techniques. Ten key stakeholders from the sports and tourism areas were interviewed before and after the first edition of the event in 2009 and the data collected were analyzed by means of social network analysis software. Findings indicate that there is an evolution in the structure and complexity of the network, affecting both the social, personal and economic components of relationships and the connectivity among local and external stakeholders. Subsequent implications for managers are drawn to plan strategies that ensure the effectiveness of the event in terms of positive legacies.

Analyzing Image Fragmentation in Promotional Brochures: A Case Study of Two Urban Destinations

Tourism image is a relevant issue that affects the way in which tourists make decisions regarding their choice of destination. However, there is a lack of studies focusing on emitted images and particularly on the fragmentation of emitted images in tourism destinations. This article proposes a conceptual framework to analyze emitted tourism destination image fragmentation patterns and explores these patterns in two urban destinations, Perpignan and Girona, with the purpose of finding out why they emerge, which are their relevant dimensions, and how these are interrelated. By analyzing the promotional brochures of these destinations the authors first identify the attributes of their induced images and, then, by means of a cluster analysis, determine the patterns of fragmentation of their emitted image. The results show that both destinations have a slightly different image fragmentation pattern in terms of image content, and a clearly different structural pattern of image fragmentation, as Perpignan has a more centralized pattern than Girona. This difference is reflected in the higher relevance of the local destination marketing organization in the case of Perpignan.

Tourism as a catalyst for changing boundaries and territorial sovereignty at an international border

This research note examines five ways in which tourism is an impetus for changes to international boundaries and sovereign territory, including subsequent tourism, wrapping of a resource, heritagisation of borders, modification of infrastructure, and territorial exchange. The empirical emphasis of this study is on the final type, as illustrated through the case of the Andorran–French border, and how sovereign territory was exchanged between the two countries and the boundary adjusted to accommodate the growth of tourism in Andorra.

Tourism destination zoning in mountain regions: a consumer-based approach

This paper puts into question the conventional way of delineating tourism destination borders in terms of taken-for-granted administrative boundaries. Despite the fact that the literature on destination boundaries advocates for conceptual frameworks where customers’ consumption patterns play a more fundamental role, instances of actual attempts of structuring tourism geographies into ‘new tourism areas’ are scant, and instances of zoning on the basis of visitors’ consumption patterns are absent. A method for identifying alternative and more effective consumption-based tourism zones that combines geographical information system and hierarchical cluster analysis techniques, and that relies on time distances between attractions, is thus proposed, and implemented in the case of the Pyrenees mountain region. As a result the region is restructured into nine new tourism zones, which, compared to the original destinations, are more uniform in size and have a higher correlation index between attractiveness and accommodation intensity; they also have different levels of cross-border intensity and are very similar to historical regions; and the more they differ from the original destinations the higher their attractiveness, which supports the effectiveness of the new zoning technique. Four types of tourism zones ranging from higher to lower tourism intensity are also identified.

Customer’s Perception of Familiness in Travel Experiences

ABSTRACT Although familiness is a relevant topic for tourism family firms, there is very little research on familiness from either the perspective of the consumer or in tourism firms. To redress this situation, this paper focuses on understanding how familiness is perceived by customers of tourism family businesses. Findings suggest that consumers experience and perceive familiness as a bundle of four distinctive dimensions, which are seen as both differentiating and valuable elements of the travel experience. Tourism family firms can thus take advantage of their idiosyncratic resources in order to bestow their products with familiness and brand them as such.

Heritage tourism clusters along the borders of Mexico

This article seeks to find potential heritage tourism clusters in border areas. Literature about tourism destinations is essentially focused on administrative-bound areas, while little attention has been paid to functional regions. The research is based on a methodological exercise to contribute to this debate by analyzing the case of three border regions between Mexico, the USA, Guatemala and Belize, respectively. These borders have never been static but have changed throughout history, to the present day situation. It is argued that these changes have implications for the potential development of heritage tourism. The results identify a number of cross-border clusters and corridors in these areas with different levels of tourism underdevelopment, mainly because of political or legal restrictions. The results of this study contribute to an improved understanding of borderland heritages and cross-border regional clusters in the context of tourism.

Innovation as Institutional Change. A Complexity Approach

Over the past few decades, the literature on innovation management has focused on explaining how to be innovative in one’s own organization. Even though there is a variety of prescriptions, a key question in all of the perspectives relates to how manageable the innovation process is.

Values in Tourism: The Case of EMTM

Abstract This chapter analyzes the importance and performance of values in tourism higher education and business as seen by the alumni of the European Master in Tourism Management. The students were exposed to the values-based education framework proposed by the Tourism Educational Future Initiative. This chapter empirically tests the relevance of its model for an ideal and real industry, and for the corresponding world of tourism education. Using importance performance analysis, results identify gaps between the importance and performance in the values. The findings have implications for the future development and implementation of experimental values-based education.