Rodolfo Baggio

Symptoms of complexity in a tourism system.

Tourism destinations behave as dynamic evolving complex systems, encompassing numerous factors and activities that are interdependent and whose relationships might be highly nonlinear. Traditional research in this field has looked after a linear approach: variables and relationships are monitored in order to forecast future outcomes with simplified models and to derive implications for management organizations. The limitations of this approach have become apparent in many cases, and several authors claim for a new and different attitude. While complex systems ideas are among the most promising interdisciplinary research themes emerged in the last few decades, very little has been done so far in the field of tourism. This article presents a brief overview of the complexity framework as a means to understand structures, characteristics, and relationships, and explores the implications and contributions of the complexity literature on tourism systems. The objective is to allow the reader to gain a deeper appreciation of this point of view.

Knowledge transfer in a tourism destination: the effects of a network structure

Tourism destinations have a necessity to innovate in order to remain competitive in an increasingly global environment. A pre-requisite for innovation is the understanding of how destinations source, share and use knowledge. This conceptual paper examines the nature of networks and how their analysis can shed light upon the processes of knowledge sharing in destinations as they strive to innovate. The paper conceptualizes destinations as networks of connected organizations, both public and private, each of which can be considered as a destination stakeholder. In network theory, they represent the nodes within the system. The paper shows how epidemic diffusion models can act as analogies for knowledge communication and transfer within a destination network. These models can be combined with other approaches to network analysis to shed light on how destination networks operate, and how they can be optimized with policy intervention to deliver innovative and competitive destinations. The paper closes with a practical tourism example taken from the Italian destination of Elba. Using numerical simulations, the case demonstrates how the Elba network can be optimized. Overall, this paper demonstrates the considerable utility of network analysis for tourism in delivering destination competitiveness.† †An earlier version of this paper has been presented at the IASK Advances in Tourism Research 2008 Conference, Aveiro, Portugal, 26–28 May 2008.

Improving tourism destination governance: a complexity science approach

Purpose – The growing interest in complexity science as a framework for understanding social and economic systems has had, in recent times, an influence on the study of tourism destinations. This paper aims to describe this approach and discuss its theoretical and methodological implications in terms of destination governance.Design/methodology/approach – Traditional research has adopted a reductionist approach to modelling tourist destinations: variables and relationships are embedded in simplified linear models that explain observed phenomena and allow implications for management or forecasting of future behaviours. In comparison, this paper adopts an adaptive management approach. Rather than imposing lines of action to force the evolutionary path of a system, the effect of different management actions are modelled, producing experimental results that provide information about the system that is being managed, and used to refine strategies and governance styles. Complex systems provide a theoretical fra...

Collaboration and cooperation in a tourism destination: a network science approach

The extent of collaboration and cooperation is an important determinant for the development of a tourism destination. These features are usually assessed through qualitative investigations. This letter proposes a quantitative approach based on the evaluation of the modularity characteristics of the network of the destination stakeholders. The results of a sample analysis are reported.

Network Position and Perceptions of Destination Stakeholder Importance

ABSTRACT This paper examines the organization and governance of the inter-organizational networks of key tourism organizations within the Gold Coast, Australia and how the position of individual stakeholders in a destination network is related to their perceived salience. In this study 22 key organizations identified using a reputation method were interviewed and asked about the skills and power of the 21 other organizations. Based on this data three analyses were conducted. Firstly, an analysis identified the order of the perceived salience of the organizations studied. Secondly, a k-core clustering analysis identified the organizational network as having a core- periphery structure. Thirdly, the network salience of each stakeholders was correlated with their perceived salience resulting in a correlation coefficient of 0.51. Together these analyses indicate that the key stakeholders on the Gold Coast are located in the core of the network and form an elite that is seen as more salient while peripheral stakeholders are seen as less important and suggest that destination management is controlled by a limited number of stakeholders.

The effects of online social media on tourism websites

Web 2.0 and online social networking websites heavily affect today most of the online activities and their effect on tourism is obviously rather important. This paper aims at verifying the impact that online social networks (OSN) have on the popularity of tourism websites. Two OSNs have been considered: Facebook and Twitter. The pattern of visits to a sample of Italian tourism websites was analysed and the relationship between the total visits and those having the OSNs as referrals were measured. The analysis shows a clear correlation and confirms the starting hypothesis. Consequences and implications of these outcomes are discussed.

Complex and chaotic tourism systems: towards a quantitative approach

Purpose – Tourism systems have been considered more and more in the light of complexity and chaos theories. Most of the work done in this area has highlighted the reasons for and the issues regarding this approach. A steadily growing strand of the recent literature uses the theories to overcome the problems of a reductionist and mechanistic view that is considered unable to provide a full understanding of the structural and dynamic characteristics of tourism systems, and specifically of tourism destinations. This paper seeks to continue this approach and to provide a series of quantitative methods to assess the dynamics of non‐linear complex tourism systems.Design/methodology/approach – The time series used in the paper contains data collected from a sample of 23 large (four‐star) hotels located in Milan, Italy. For each structure daily data of occupancy, average room rate and RevPAR (revenue per available room) were recorded for the period 2006‐2009. The daily distributions of these observations are high...

The web graph of a tourism system

The website network of a tourism destination is examined. Network theoretic metrics are used to gauge the static and dynamic characteristics of the webspace. The topology of the network is found partly similar to the one exhibited by similar systems. However, some differences are found, mainly due to the relatively poor connectivity and clusterisation of the network. These results are interpreted by considering the formation mechanisms and the connotation of the linkages between websites. Clustering and assortativity coefficients are proposed as quantitative estimations of the degree of collaboration and cooperation among destination stakeholders.

The web of connections between tourism companies: Structure and dynamics

Tourism destination networks are amongst the most complex dynamical systems, involving a myriad of human-made and natural resources. In this work we report a complex network-based systematic analysis of the Elba (Italy) tourism destination network, including the characterization of its structure in terms of several traditional measurements, the investigation of its modularity, as well as its comprehensive study in terms of the recently reported superedges approach. In particular, structural (the number of paths of distinct lengths between pairs of nodes, as well as the number of reachable companies) and dynamical features (transition probabilities and the inward/outward activations and accessibilities) are measured and analyzed, leading to a series of important findings related to the interactions between tourism companies. Among the several reported results, it is shown that the type and size of the companies influence strongly their respective activations and accessibilities, while their geographical position does not seem to matter. It is also shown that the Elba tourism network is largely fragmented and heterogeneous, so that it could benefit from increased integration.

Complex Systems, Information Technologies and Tourism: A Network Point of View

There is a growing interest in complexity science as a framework for understanding social and economic systems. This paper aims at presenting this approach giving a brief overview of the complexity framework and illustrating some of the methods in order to allow the reader to gain a deeper appreciation of this perspective. The role of information management and information technology in tourism, emphasized on numerous occasions, is examined in this context. It is argued that this framework can offer tools and techniques able not only to better understand the general state from a theoretical point of view, but can also provide practical guidance in specific situations. As an example, the structure of the community of websites belonging to Italian travel agencies is analyzed.