Umberto Martini

4L tourism (landscape, leisure, learning and limit): responding to new motivations and expectations of tourists to improve the competitiveness of Alpine destinations in a sustainable way

Purpose – 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.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on field research with the administration of about 1,000 question...

Roles and opinions of primary and secondary stakeholders within community‐type destinations

Purpose – 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.Design/methodology/approach – 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; th...

Integrated planning for sustainable tourism and mobility. A tourism traffic analysis in Italy's South Tyrol region

Emerging tourist market trends are compelling destinations to consider mobility as an essential strategic component of sustainable tourism planning. Tourism mobility analysis is a tool available to policy-makers when developing integrated and effective sustainable transport and tourism policies. This paper introduces an innovative tourism-traffic analysis based on survey techniques which allows the identification of tourism-related components and an estimate of their environmental impact on a destination, information critical to the development of appropriate mobility management measures. This methodology was implemented in Italys South Tyrol region, an alpine province at the forefront of sustainable tourism and mobility innovation. The significant environmental impact of tourism traffic revealed in the destination justifies the innovative steps taken toward sustainable mobility in two pilot case studies covering eight communities. An exploratory desk analysis shows that neither the push – encouraging sustainable behavior – nor the pull – discouraging unsustainable practices – mobility measures adopted in these pilot areas decreased tourism flows; however, they did succeed in providing more environmentally sustainable means of transport, with reduced emissions. And in a majority of cases, tourism flows increased above the regional average. A range of problems with the existing methodology are described, along with key issues for future research.

A Modular Approach to Quality Evaluation of Tourist Destination Web Sites: The Quality Model Factory

One of the most important steps in Web site quality evaluation projects is the choice of which aspects of the site to consider. The aspects constitute the model of the site itself and should be identified and evaluated based on the objectives of all stakeholders. In some cases it is possible to adopt standard “syntactic” models. Where this is not possible it is necessary to “personalize” the evaluation model so that it takes into account the semantics of the site or sites under assessment. This adaptation takes time and resources. In this paper we put forth a modular approach that supports the definition of detailed semantic models for the evaluation of Web sites of tourist destinations, starting from a common meta-model. The methodology — referred to as “quality model factory” — is based on the identification of unique elements of diverse types of tourist destinations.

The coordinating DMO or coordinators in the DMO? – an alternative perspective with the help of network analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative perspective on understanding the coordinating role of destination management organizations. Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are known to have a coordinating role within a destination. Many qualitative case studies discuss this role in the institutional context, assuming that the DMO is supposed to coordinate the network of the organizations and stakeholder groups in the destination. By contrast, this paper analyzes the coordinator role of DMOs by focusing primarily on the prominent individuals (directors and board members) affiliated with it. In so doing, it proposes an alternative perspective on these organizations. Looking at the influential individuals in the destination, in particular those affiliated with the DMO, reveals new insights into what the DMO alternatively could be from an individual’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Using social network analysis, the coordinator role of the actors affiliated with the DM...

Awareness and Exploitation of the Potential of the Web by SMTEs: The Case of Alpine Hotels in Italy and France

The economic literature has clearly shown the potential of the introduction of the ICTs in the management of the firms, starting from the seminal research of the MIT in the Ninetines. The question is if small tourist businesses have used correctly and widely the new technologies, gaining competitive advantages and improving their market results. The paper presents the results of a field research on this topic, managed by the eTourism Research Group in the territory of the Alps, where the tourist offering is based on small — or micro — businesses. The analysis allows to identify both positive and negative results, highlighting some lacks in the use of the Web by the SMTEs and suggesting some areas of improvement.

Mentoring Small Destinations into Destination Management towards Electronic Marketing

The paper reports on fieldwork concerning destination management: the build up of a virtual organisation for a tourist destination, the choice of a destination marketing strategy, the creation of a destination management system. The work belongs to the research domain on Information Systems, involving IT aspects as well as aspects of people development, organisation and management, and of marketing and business. The solid structure of an enterprise organisation is here replaced by the weak-link structure of a local community. The character of the present work is that of a case study, and the research methodology employed follows the guidelines of Action Research [1] [7]. In some respects, it is akin to Participatory Design in the field of software development. The present work builds up on earlier research work on destination management and destination management systems in the ICT community [3] [4] [11] [18] [20]. The point of view here focuses on tourist destinations (TDs), intended as homogeneous territorial domains, identifiable each with its own name, personality, and offer of a tourist product. We have helped a small TD to get started in adapting to the new situation and to induce change, and we trained ourselves on how to help to induce change successfully.

The Web as (a Weak) Enabler of New Marketing Approaches. An In-Depth Study of SMTEs in the Dolomites

This paper analyses the impact of ICTs on the strategic and organisational behaviour of hotel enterprises in the Dolomites, one of the main tourist areas in the Alps. The results are from two research projects conducted in 2005 and which involved 1) in-depth personal interviews of a sampling of 43 hotelkeepers and 2) the evaluation of the Web sites of 147 hotels. The effects of the widespread application of new ICTs among small hotels arc also discussed, looking specifically at whether and to what degree such technologies have supported the creation of a network among SMTEs and enabled innovative processes in marketing. From the two research projects it is possible to conclude that as yet the Web has not been an enabler of processes for structural, managerial or commercial reorganisation for SMTEs in the Dolomites. Hotelkeepers had a positive perception of the usefulness of new ICTs tools such as email and Web sites and also that they arc a wise economic investment. Nonetheless, these technologies have been used only to conduct traditional business in a new way, bringing advantages in terms of efficiency and efficacy, but not being used to redesign the internal management and organisational structure, nor the network of relations with local partners within the value chain. New ICTs have had a typical veiling effect insomuch as they have been used for traditional tasks but lack the capability to have a definitive effect on the reorganisation of management processes. A possible solution to achieve this result for SMTEs is to adopt a business culture with a broader strategic vision that is more open to collaboration. Unless such a new approach is taken the possibility of using Internet to redefine the business model at an individual and destination level would probably be lost.

Intelligent Governance for Rural Destinations

Abstract One of the main challenges of “good tourism intelligence governance” is to balance and manage the interests of private enterprises, public administrations, and civil society, and to find the right mix between strategic and operational governance. An innovative governance model was introduced in 2011 in emerging rural destinations within the three years’ European project “Listen to the Voice of Villages.” By means of in-depth interviews carried out in summer 2014 in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia, this chapter investigates how this model of governance was deployed and performed. Findings suggest that this model is effective and sustainable, promotes and supports knowledge transfer and as such it can be recommended for implementation in other emerging rural destinations.

Local networks, stakeholder dynamics and sustainability in tourism. Opportunities and limits in the light of stakeholder theory and SNA

Purpose of the paper : Given the importance of relationships between territorial actors and their ability to make collective decisions in order to ensure the sustainable development of tourism, this paper suggests social network analysis (SNA) as an appropriate method to explain the dynamics of interpersonal relationships in tourist areas. Methodology : The stakeholder map was reconstructed by using stakeholder theory in conjunction with the identification of actors through snowball sampling. The most important stakeholders were identified by adopting the in-degree centrality indicator referred to the weighted adjacency matrix (quantitative) and the role played by stakeholders (qualitative). The in-degree network centralization indicator showed the distribution of centrality between the nodes of the network. Findings : SNA enriches the reading of multi-stakeholder relationships in non-hierarchical territorial contexts; it picks up on the evolving dynamic of networks and the relative weights of the decision makers within them, providing a more comprehensive and convincing interpretation than does the stakeholder approach alone. Research limits : exploratory research was undertaken in order to focus on analytical tools and the general theoretical framework. Practical implications : the reconstruction of the networks and the interpretation of the relationships provide a sounder basis for the definition of strategies and of instruments that are employed to facilitate processes of participative governance in accordance with principles of sustainability. Originality of the paper : few applications of SNA to tourism have so far appeared in the literature. However, the results derived from SNA can open new scenarios in destination management since, as well as demonstrating the existence of relationships, they also classify and prioritize them.