Destination Resilience and Innovation for Advanced Sustainable Tourism Management

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Business and Tourism Department, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS B3M 2J6, Canada
Interests: tourist engagement; consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism; desti-nation management and marketing; tourism planning and policy; cultural tourism and scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL)

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Guest Editor
School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: sustainability; crisis; innovation issues in hospitality and tourism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the tourism sector has faced numerous disruptions, including natural disasters, health crises, and socio-political challenges, underscoring the critical need for destination resilience and innovative management practices. Destination resilience emphasizes a destination's ability to adapt to external disturbances, as well as learn from and reorganize after disasters and crises. It is crucial to focus on developing both planned resilience—preparing in advance for unexpected events such as crises, disasters, and security threats—as well as adaptive resilience, which concerns post-event recovery. Both require leadership, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and robust internal and external communication, with these laying the foundation for sustainable development.

This Special Issue, titled “Destination Resilience and Innovation for Advanced Sustainable Tourism Management,” aims to explore comprehensive and multidisciplinary approaches that leverage innovation to enhance the resilience and sustainable development of tourism destinations. It invites contributions that examine the resilience of destinations with varied structures and resources, including city destinations, rural areas, heritage sites, and small islands. We encourage submissions that address resilience at various levels—micro (e.g., tourists, local communities), meso (e.g., destination management organizations, business operators, supply chain management), and macro (e.g., socio-ecological systems)—in order to illuminate the dynamic interplay among these scales.

We welcome submissions employing diverse approaches, such as empirical research, case studies, conceptual analysis, critical analysis, meta-analysis, big-data analysis, text mining, bibliometric analysis, and exploratory content analysis, with the ultimate aim of identifying factors contributing to destination resilience and innovation. Furthermore, as innovative practices and technologies play a pivotal role in enhancing destination resilience, solutions such as automation through robotics, mobile applications for health and safety monitoring, artificial intelligence, and big data for predictive analytics are welcome. These advancements are instrumental in developing absorptive, innovative, and adaptive capabilities essential for tackling long-term challenges such as over-tourism and climate change.

To conclude, this Special Issue seeks to catalyze cross-disciplinary dialogue and inspire a diverse range of contributions that not only enhance destination attractiveness and competitiveness but also prioritize environmental and social justice. In doing so, we aim to build a comprehensive understanding of how education, inclusivity, and innovation can drive the agenda of sustainable tourism forward. Encouraging a holistic view, we invite studies that offer fresh insights into policies, strategies, and practices that are vital for fostering resilient, innovative, and sustainable tourism ecosystems.

Dr. Shuyue Huang
Dr. Dagnachew Leta Senbeto
Guest Editors

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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. Tourism and Hospitality is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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.

Keywords

  • destination resilience policy and planning
  • sustainable tourism management
  • technology and innovation in tourism
  • smart tourism destinations
  • social equity and inclusion in tourism
  • tourism supply chain sustainability
  • crisis management and risk reduction
  • stakeholder collaboration in tourism
  • climate change adaptation for tourism
  • education and capacity building in sustainable tourism

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1310 KiB  
Article
Resilience Components in Mexican Whale-Watching Regulation
by Iyari Janethzy Espinoza-Rodríguez, Rosa María Chávez-Dagostino and Gisela Heckel
Tour. Hosp. 2024, 5(4), 1028-1041; https://doi.org/10.3390/tourhosp5040058 - 28 Oct 2024
Viewed by 882
Abstract
Whale watching (WW) is a growing tourist activity that is at risk of becoming unsustainable. Legislation regarding WW must mitigate adverse effects on species and address the dynamics of complex systems. This study proposes analyzing this interaction using a socio-ecological resilience framework, considering [...] Read more.
Whale watching (WW) is a growing tourist activity that is at risk of becoming unsustainable. Legislation regarding WW must mitigate adverse effects on species and address the dynamics of complex systems. This study proposes analyzing this interaction using a socio-ecological resilience framework, considering both social and ecological components. Resilient governance is characterized by four features: flexibility to respond to change, adaptability, multi-level governance, and participation. The aim of this study was to assess how Mexican WW regulations contribute to the resilience of the socio-ecosystem through a literature review on compliance with the regulations and the presence of resilience elements in the regulations. Non-compliance with 12 guidelines was identified, with vessel crowding, distance, and unauthorized vessels being the most frequently reported issues. The analysis of the regulations revealed the presence of all four elements of resilient governance; however, participation is limited to certain key stakeholders, which undermines whale conservation due to non-compliance. In conclusion, the Mexican regulations contribute to resilient governance; however, to ensure whale conservation and socio-ecological resilience, it is essential that all involved parties understand their roles and actively participate in decision-making processes. Full article
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Reviving from the Pandemic: Harnessing the Power Of Social Media Reviews in Sustainable Tourism Management

Author: Dr. Brian Liang

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector encountered multiple challenges. Numerous governments chose to lock down their cities and countries. Despite this, many companies found their online businesses making the greatest leaps in their portfolios and social media platforms became one of the most valuable sources of information for purchase decisions.

There have been numerous studies on the effects of social media reviews - a form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), on consumer behavior. Few were found related to their impact on group package tour (GPT) while considering mixed eWOM, that is, both positive and negative present in the word-of-mouth communication. As the tourism sector gradually revives, the need to further explore how tourism and hospitality service providers can adapt to changes in post-pandemic consumer behavior has become imperative.

The influence of social media reviews on consumers’ value perceptions of a GPT to Japan, allowing for the influence of the marketing mix element of advertised price, was examined through online experiments in this study. Positive, negative and mixed eWOM were examined. It was found that eWOM was more influential on consumers’ value perceptions than the advertised price for all price acceptability levels. Mixed eWOM was found to negatively affect consumers’ final price perceptions which override the impact of quality perceptions in value formations. The value perceptions of the GPT became less acceptable when eWOM was mixed compared to when eWOM was absent or was positive. Mixed eWOM had a negative effect on value perceptions, but not as great as when negative eWOM was present and this was consistently found to apply for all price acceptability levels of the GPT.

The study’s contribution to eWOM research and implications on post-pandemic recovery of tourism and hospitality service providers are made, together with suggested strategies using innovative technologies and communications to enhance their adaptive resilience in the new normal.

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