Strategic Thinking and Innovation in Tourism Sector

Dear Colleagues,

Innovation ecosystems are a trending topic in multiple disciplines where traditional, reductionist approaches have proven increasingly inadequate for the problems and opportunities occurring in dynamic, interconnected conditions. Interest in innovation ecosystems in the tourism sector has been particularly robust, establishing tourism as an early adaptor of innovation ecosystems in practice and as a thought leader in scholarship. Although understanding of the nature and role of innovation ecosystems continues to evolve, its essence survives its conceptual inception (Lundvall, 1985) as “the network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diffuse new technologies” (Freeman, 1995, p. 23). In other words, innovation ecosystems are an application of complexity science and systems thinking.

Tourism is itself a complex adaptive system and has recognized the value of a systems approach (Farrell and Twining-Ward, 2004; 2005; Wegner et al., 2009; McKercher, 1999). There is active and exciting research on innovation ecosystems in tourism (Baggio and Chiappa, 2013; Boes et al., 2016; Buhalis  and Amaranggana,2013; Bulc, 2011; Gretzel et al., 2015; Peceny et al., 2019; Polese et al., 2018), and we believe that additional theory and research is needed to advance our understanding of this topic. Therefore, the primary purposes of this Special Issue are to consider the state of theory and research on innovation ecosystems in the tourism sector, expand existing theories or offer integrative models of tourism innovation ecosystems and, generally, foster additional scholarship on the topic.

Thus, we welcome manuscripts on any tourism-related innovation ecosystem topic. Both conceptual and empirical perspectives are welcome. Case studies involving in-depth and detailed examinations of tourism innovation ecosystems in real-life are encouraged.

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• Collaborative networks 
• Complex adaptive systems (CAS) 
• Complexity science 
• Entrepreneurial ecosystems 
• Innovation ecosystem governance 
• Interconnectedness 
• Models of innovation ecosystems 
• Regional innovation ecosystems 
• Smart tourism 
• Strategic dynamics 
• Sustainable innovation 
• Sustainable tourism 
• Systems thinking 
• Value co-creation