Collaboration and technology for more sustainable and responsible tourism marketing

Vulnerable is how we are nowadays. In fact, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is neither time limited nor spatially contained. But like many other natural disasters, the pandemic brought calamities and inequalities (Shklar, 1990), threatens the environment and raises a problem of precarity that is no longer limited to the poor and dependent as contagion patterns have no boundaries (Forester & McKibbon, 2020). So even more than revealing the vulnerability wealthy countries are facing, the pandemic forces us to recognize our progressively more interdependent lives in a globalized world and the responsibility to safeguard the planet. Economies all over the world were hindered by Covid-19 but tourism was completely devasted by this pandemic. In the first five months of 2020, international tourism arrivals decreased by more than half and some $320 billion dollars in exports from tourism were lost. Overall, some 120 million direct jobs in tourism are at risk (WTO, 2020). The current situation recalls emergency status for countries that depend on tourism and for minorities that may find in tourism a driver to social integration, empowerment and income. The Covid-19 crisis offers opportunities to rebuild tourism in a safe, equitable and sustainable way. To that end technology, partnerships and sustainable and responsible practices are strategic.

How digital strategy increases overtourism the case of Barcelona

The term ‘overtourism’ made the headlines in 2017 to denote the antithesis of a fair, well-planned form of tourism. An overtourism destination is a destination perceived as the victim of uncontrolled flows of tourists. Some authors have contributed to analysing the first stages of this perception. Boissevain (1996) published ‘Coping with tourists: European reactions to mass tourism’, in which he analysed how a massive flow of tourists in Malta generated negative side effects and a total dependence on touristic economy. Tyler et al. (1998) offered one of the first analyses of ways to control tourism flow from a sustainable point of view. Bosselman et al. (1999) published a pioneering analysis on the relationships between hosts and tourists. The paper discusses the risks and benefits of growth in tourism and the need for long-term management to avoid overexploitation of tourist destinations. These research projects laid the foundations for reflection on sustainable tourism and were the starting point for studying the risks of overtourism. Fyall and Garrod (1998) discussed the impacts of overtourism on heritage sites. On the one hand, the phenomenon contributes to a short-term economic boost; on the other hand, it impacts negatively on the way of life of local communities.

Collaborative economy in the tourism industry The new deal for consumers in the European Union

Europe is the most touristic continent in the world, receiving more than 50% of all international tourists (Santolli, 2017) according to the World Tourism Organization. People from all over the world want to go to the most famous tourist attractions in Europe and what once seemed a distant dream to international tourists due to the high prices of hotels and air tickets, is now possible thanks to the competitive prices of international airlines such as Ryanair, Vueling and EasyJet (O’Connell & Williams , 2005) and the alternative to traditional accommodation providers: collaborative economy platforms such as Airbnb, HomeAway or Wimdu. This short research paper will be focused on this type of platform, which provide mainly hosting services, and the legal aspects of their terms and conditions of service. The collaborative economy in the tourism industry is a growing business model, which allows consumers around the world to rent a spare room, an entire house or an apartment, for a short period of time, at a lower price than the accommodation offered by the traditional service providers such as hotels. However, this phenomenon was not born as a trending idea or an alternative way of getting an extra income, but of the pure necessity of generating cash in a period when the economy was stagnating, and the owners of properties needed to be creative with the available resources. The collaborative economy is characterized by generating economic benefit (Botsman & Rogers , 2010) from assets that would otherwise be given little or no use by their owners or holders. However, the concept of ‘resources’ covers much more than just assets, since resources can refer to spaces, skills and any kind of goods, which, if not made available to the collaborative economy, would be largely unused.

Host–tourist interactions and residents’ attitudes towards sustainable tourism development

Tourism is often prescribed as a powerful catholicon for socio-economic development of island states (Chen et al., 2011; Ribeiro et al., 2013). Although tourism provides some benefits for residents and destinations, its introduction creates adverse impacts as a by-product of its functioning that erodes sustainable development goals (Alipour et al., 2020); therefore, in order to minimize the unintended impacts, the involvement of all stakeholders in the planning process is recommended by many scholars (e.g. Chang & Mak, 2018; Cusick, 2009; Ribeiro et al., 2018). Amongst the many stakeholders einvolved in the sustainable tourism management of an island, residents have been considered as the most important and effective, without whom any plans towards sustainable development goals may be doomed to failure (Lalicic & Önder, 2018). Investigating the attitude of residents about the impacts of any development plan is gaining momentum in tourism, as an essential concern in managing and marketing sustainable tourism products and services (Chen & Chen, 2010; Choi & Murray, 2010; Kebete & Wondirad, 2019; Wang & Chen, 2015). Accordingly, the literature has been enriched with a variety of different studies related to residents’ attitudes, interactions with tourists and different aspects of sustainable development, yet the ambiguity in the perception of these topics by locals is far from adequately explored (Eusebio et al., 2018). Therefore, it is imperative to delve into the host-tourist interactions to have a richer understanding of the residents’ role in sustainable tourism development. Notably, it is vital to consider tourism as one of the biggest industries considered beneficial in developing countries and small state islands due to political and development nature of these areas, yet, there is a lack of adequate studies specifically in the developing nations (Akhshik et al., 2020; Sirivongs & Tsuchiya, 2012).

Social interaction in co creating the tourist experience An exploratory study of Chinese visitors to Japan

Tourists are increasingly looking for experiences that allow them to actively participate (Campos et al., 2015), and the role of the tourist as a co-creator, or even the sole creator, of the tourism experience is becoming widely recognized among tourism scholars and practitioners (Binkhorst & Dekker, 2009; Rihova et al., 2013; Campos et al., 2015). Some even regard active value co-creation as the most important aspect of the tourism experience (e.g.Boswijk, Thijssen & Peelen, 2007; Binkhorst & Dekker, 2009). Destinations may be viewed as a space in which tourists co-create their own memorable experiences through social and other interactions (Morgan & Xu, 2009). Following this conceptualization, social interaction among participants is an essential condition for value co-creation. Categories of social actors participating in tourism value co-creation include service providers (e.g., Salvado, 2011; Minkiewicz, Evans & Bridson, 2014), the local community (e.g., Azevedo, 2009; Richards, 2010), and other tourists (e.g., Rihova et al., 2013, 2015; Reichenberger, 2017). Surprisingly perhaps, previous tourism studies have tended to take social interactions among actors in tourism for granted, and have often treated them as inherently positive. Hence, we feel that an investigation of these basic assumptions of positive social interactions and how they are perceived by tourists is warranted. Furthermore, tourists’ perceptions and attitudes towards different types of on-site social actors may lead to different forms of value co-creation. We therefore need to study from the perspective of the tourist how different types of social actors participate in the tourism value co-creation process, and what is the relative impact of each type of social actor on this process.

Residents’ perceptions of cruise tourism in an overcrowded city The case of Venice

Tourism is one of the most important industries in Europe: it represents 10% of the European Union GDP and 12 million people are employed in this sector (UNWTO, 2018). Due to its important contribution to the economy and its impact on the community, it affects the everyday life of residents, both in a positive and negative way. Within the industry, cruise tourism is the fastest growing segment of leisure tourism (Klein, 2011). In the last twenty years, the cruise sector has increased significantly, amounting to 24.7 million passengers in 2016 (CLIA, 2018) and employing 1,021,681 people around the world (BREA, 2017). Further, the cruise sector produces $57.9 billion in direct expenditures, thus creating a total economic output of $125.96 billion worldwide. In this scenario, academic research has devoted to analyze the residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward cruise tourism development (i.e. Brida et al., 2011; Del Chiappa & Abbate, 2016). However, studies have mostly analyzed cruising destinations in the Caribbean, Arctic and the polar areas (Hritz & Cecil 2008; Diedrich 2010; Klein 2010; Stewart et al., 2013; Heeney, 2015; Stewart et al., 2015; Jordan & Vogt, 2017) and, recently, also in the Mediterranean area (Marušić et al., 2008; Brida et al., 2012; Peručić & Puh, 2012; Pulina et al., 2013; Del Chiappa & Abbate 2016; Del Chiappa et al., 2017; Del Chiappa, et al., 2018b; Del Chiappa, et al., 2018c), mainly focusing on port-of-call cruise destinations. Despite this, only few studies have been carried out on homeport cruise destinations so far (Brida & Zapata 2010), and very few studies exist on destinations where the number of tourists creates massive overcrowding. This study was therefore carried out by surveying a quota sample of 354 individuals residing in Venice. Venice was selected as the research setting for this study for two main reasons. First, it is the second homeport in the Mediterranean area and one of the most famous tourism destinations worldwide, with around 24 million tourists a year. Second, it is considered to be affected by the so-called overtourism phenomenon (Seraphin et al., 2018). Anti-tourism movements have been growing in the last few years, voicing their concerns toward the continuous growth of the tourism phenomenon in the city, particularly toward cruise-related activities. This renders the research setting particularly interesting for the purposes of this study. Specifically, this paper aims to profile residents in Venice according to their perceptions towards the impacts of cruise tourism, and to ascertain whether there are significant differences among the clusters based on the socio-demographic traits of respondents.

Challenges to sustainability in prospective world heritage sites

Heritage cities often build on their cultural assets to develop as destinations. Yet, the assets communicated to visitors usually present only part of the picture. Heritage cities often tend to possess a significant cultural value that is hidden from the prying eyes. This value is not only exhibited as tangible assets, but the accumulation of knowledge and experience in the culture-laden milieu is also central to the notion of heritage (Falser, 2015). Such intangible elements have found their way into international discussions in recent years (Vecco, 2010). Heritage cities, as living spaces, also embrace a cultural heritage inseparable from local communities, and in a broader perspective, from the whole of humanity. This perspective is central to the creation of World Heritage Sites (WHSs) seeking to protect the world’s heritage with Outstanding Universal Value under the umbrella of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (1972). In this process, however, the heritage assets inscribed as WHSs are nominated by national governments which, upon inscription, become the primary entity responsible for safeguarding their integrity. The primary motivation for this research is the centralized governance structure in developing countries and how this affects the potential to achieve sustainability through tourism development. Turkey is an example of such a centralized system in regard to tourism and heritage management (Yüksel et al., 2005) which includes the WHSs. In Turkey, WHSs are not only effective tools to aid foreign policy (Atakuman, 2010) but are also integral to culture-driven tourism strategy (Ozturk & van Niekerk, 2014). Despite inconclusive evidence in the literature on the relationship between proliferation of tourism and WHS status (Jimura, 2011; Poria et al., 2013), Turkey’s proactive relationship with UNESCO may be interpreted as reaffirming the perceived linkage between WHS status and visitation.

An analysis of meal sharing reviews to explore serendipity

In the period 2008-2018, the positive variation of tourism industry receipts was higher than the worldwide GDP growth (UNWTO, 2019a). In 2018, the European Union was the region with the highest total tourist receipts, while France and Italy were amongst the top six tourism earners in the world (UNWTO, 2019a). In the case of France, “consumer foodservice accelerated its digitalisation in 2018, which allowed for improved customer experiences and/or production optimisation. Whilst operators widely innovated in terms of digital tools to consolidate or gain share, digital usage varies significantly between channels” (Euromonitor International, 2019a: 45). The mentioned adaptation is not only related to the use of new technologies, but to the experience itself. In the Italian market, for example, “consumers are also showing themselves to be increasingly willing to try new products, ingredients and flavours” (Euromonitor International, 2019b: 33). Cross-cultural empirical studies confirm that novelty-change is a fundamental dimension inherent to innovation in food products (Guerrero et al., 2009). Another important aspect for travellers’ food experiences is surprise, which was related to the simplicity, complexity and genuineness of these moments (Goolaup, Solér & Nunkoo, 2018). In recent years, the number of innovative tourism experiences in terms of sharing economy initiatives has increased (WEF, 2019). Amongst the factors that influenced the growth of sharing economy after 2007 were the reduction of consumer trust in corporations and the purchasing power of consumers (European Union, 2013). In this context, some activities emerged and became key sectors in this area, such as home and car-sharing (Sigala, 2015), which is expected to present a revenue variation from USD 15 billion to USD 335 billion in the period 2014-2025 (UNWTO, 2019b). Concerning meal-sharing platforms, they are considered a potential market, which is currently underdeveloped (UNWTO, 2019b). Conceptually, the sharing economy can be defined as “individuals offering their underutilized assets to others using digital platforms” (Bakker & Twining-Ward, 2018: 13). Thus, amid the aspects that differentiate sharing economy practices from traditional markets are the digital technologies that are used to match consumers and sellers, as well as the word of mouth reviews (Schor, 2014; WEF, 2017). Furthermore, the sharing economy is used to be related to eco-friendly initiatives, like the circular economy (OECD, 2019).

Conclusion Preparing for the future of travel and tourism in vulnerable times

When gathering the best papers presented in 2019 during the 8th ATMC conference in Namur for editing this book, we were not expecting 2020 to become the nightmare year that we all experienced in the world. The Covid-19 crisis has significantly disrupted our consumption and travel habits. Heaps of business sectors were severely impacted by the two waves of lockdown of populations and countries, the closure of stores and restaurants and the overall context of anxiety and uncertainty. More than other sectors, the tourism and travel industry was severely affected. The trips and recreative activities of our fellow citizens are henceforth punctuated by ‘barrier gestures’ and by a large number of health measures taken in order to limit the spread of the pandemic. Of course, the objective of this book was not to account for the current crisis, nor to analyze the extent to which our tourism and leisure activities have changed, and whether these changes are likely to last. The aim of the book was first to discuss sustainability and collaborative practices in order to fill tourism development with ethics and responsibility. Following the collegial tradition of Advances in Tourism Marketing conferences, this book is the result of the collaboration of established international scholars with emergent researchers around the globe. The twelve chapters of this book have offered innovative and dovetailing perspectives around four major strategic questions that may support tourism development in these vulnerable times, i.e.: Can technology enhance value co-creation and the tourism experience? How sharing economy practices develop in tourism? To what extent sustainability issues affect culture and the well-being of residents? What is the connection between technology, millennials and overtourism? Of course, those issues were considered in the framework of the digital world that is ever expanding since two decades. Digital technology has been massively integrated into the strategies and operations of tourism operators. Historically dedicated to marketing and communication, digital technology is now revolutionizing the entire tourism value chain. The promotion of a destination can no longer be considered without the mix between official digital channels and levers such as influencers and rating platforms. Any tourist expects to find relevant and up-to-date information on the Internet in order to prepare for his stay, to choose among transportation, accommodation and recreational alternatives, and to book activities. The exchange of tips and advice has become an important element in choosing a destination. In many regions, competition between destinations and operators makes it essential to be attractive via a different offer and digital technology may act as a major differentiator (e.g., Histopad to visit Chambord’s Castle, Monument Tracker). To answer these questions, the book was organized in four parts where interdependence, collaboration, sustainability and responsible behavior are deeply discussed with the aim of contributing to marketing tourism in the digital world that we know today. The book started with a discussion about how to co-create value with or without technologies, detailed how web platforms reboot collaborative economic practices, presented sustainable tourism development under a human perspective and ended with the discussion of key issues in tourism marketing, including overtourism and residents’ propensity to boost tourism development. We now summarize the key takeaways of those four parts, closing each part with a reflection on the lessons learnt from current Covid-19 crisis in order to assess what will be left after the vulnerable times that we live now.

Emotional interactions in festivals How do consumers build a collective emotional experience

Music festivals are factors of attractiveness for territories. As such they are part of their tourism strategies (Getz, 1991). In France, 84% of the 2018 music festivals took place during the touristic summer season. They sometimes even become a tourist product in itself like Tomorrowland Winter in Alpe d’Huez, a ski resort in the French Alps. During seven days, the ski resort is only accessible for the festival-goers. In 2019, Alpe d’Huez was fully filled with 23,000 tourists from 131 different countries who booked their holidays to enjoy skiing and concerts during that special event, and 36,000 people were on the waiting list. Provoking a spatio-temporal rupture with everyday life (Chaney, 2011), significant in leisure or tourist practices, festivals allow experiencing a real re-enchantment of the world and everyday life. According to the postmodern approach, the phenomenon of society around festivals, illustrated by the growth in festival demographics (in the number of participants but also in the number of events) (Négrier et al., 2013), can be considered in the global context of a return to festive alchemy and the cult of pleasure, with a powerful return to affect and emotion. This festival craze is significant for the “triumph of the collective will to live over the individual” (Maffesoli, 2012: 115). However, this collective dimension of emotions has received limited attention in marketing (Didry & Giannelloni, 2019). In addition, although accompaniment has often been analyzed in consumer behavior (Debenedetti, 2003), few studies consider the collective context in which consumers are immersed in their experience. If a festival experience is lived in a collective way, which behaviors do festival consumers develop to engage in emotional interactions with others? The challenge here is to bring a new reading of the experience of collective consumption through emotional transfers to fill a gap in the marketing literature. More specifically, it is a question of assessing how the need for emotional interactions will influence the festival-goer’s behavior.