Entrepreneurs undertake the innovation journey every time they follow a sequence of events to transform a new idea into an implemented reality or innovation. The journey has often been referred to as a “black box”, where the internal workings are complex and poorly understood, and this is especially true of tourism. In order to understand this process this study aims to present a comprehensive model which integrates existent information from different strands of literature to describe and understand the tasks and subtasks in which the process can be divided. This paper focuses on the innovation journey of a specific type of innovator: new-to-tourism young entrepreneurs who followed a distinctive start-up process. It analyses the sequence of events and associated micro processes and actions in the innovation journey that broadly correspond to the unfolding innovation process: idea generation, coalition building, idea realization and transfer or diffusion. The analysis draws on the narrations of a sample of tourism innovators recipients of loans from a Spanish tourism innovation programme about their journey, backed up by desk research about the types of innovations and the entrepreneurs’ identities to reconstruct each innovation biography. The findings show that these innovators, coming from other fields (mainly engineering), consider tourism to be a lower-risk sector with low barriers to entry, and high potential for technology-based innovations. However, the lack of tourism experience has forced the innovators to build coalitions with tourism stakeholders at different points. The findings also confirm the key characteristics of the process outlined by innovation scholars: the journey is highly dynamic, uncertain and fraught with difficulties of a dynamic nature which require quick, creative – and mainly collective - responses. This is particularly important when traversing the so-called Valley of Death, the gap between set-up costs and revenue generation.

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The Innovation Journey of New-To-Tourism Entrepreneurs and The Challenge of Traversing The Valley of Death

Seasonality is a widely recognised and accredited phenomenon known to cause an imbalance in tourism activity throughout the year, prompting tourist destinations, both public and private, to consider how best to plan the use of their resources. One way of mitigating the economic imbalances that seasonality can cause is to find strategies for seasonal adjustment, such as travel programmes aimed at the elderly. This paper analyses the seasonality of tourism activity in some EU countries, and in particular in Spain. Different indicators are used to compare the results and carry out a sensitivity analysis. The study then focuses on tourism programmes for the elderly in Spain to see whether this type of programme helps to alleviate the seasonality of tourism activity. To corroborate this, an econometric model is specified and estimated, which enables the scope of these programmes to be compared.

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Seasonality in Tourism: Do Senior Programs Mitigate It?

Due to the continuous advancement of smart tourism and the improvement of tourists’ security perception of personal information (SPPI), SPPI has become an important factor affecting tourist happiness (TH). However, few studies have been conducted on the influencing mechanism via which SPPI affects TH. According to the risk perception theory and subjective wellbeing theory, the following conclusions were drawn from mixed methods research: (1) SPPI has a significant direct effect on TH; (2) SPPI has a significant indirect effect on TH through the perception of smart tourism application (PSTA); (3) the perception of smart tourism technology (PSTT) does not have a significant moderating effect between SPPI and PSTA or between PSTA and TH, but has a significant moderating effect between SPPI and TH. The discussion of this mechanism can not only promote the combined development of the two theories but also remind destinations or scenic spots to focus on improving tourists’ SPPI when developing smart tourism.

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Research on the Influencing Mechanism via Which Security Perception of Personal Information Affects Tourist Happiness: A Moderated Mediation Model

PurposeThe importance of smart tourism technologies (STTs) has been rising recently, but how STTs are related to tourists' psychological well-being has got little attention. The study intends to show how STTs increase tourists' psychological well-being by capitalizing on the theory of Tourism 4.0. The study investigates the associations between the factors of STTs with the perceived benefit and, subsequently, perceived benefit with the psychological well-being of tourists. Moreover, this study also examines the moderating impact of a growth mindset (GM) between perceived benefits (PB) and tourists' psychological well-being (TPW) in the tourism industry.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structured questionnaire, 243 responses were collected through the convenience sampling method. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis.FindingsFindings show that automation, security/privacy concerns, information accuracy, and personalization are significantly related to the PB of tourists. The results also confirm that a GM moderates the relationship between PB and TPW.Practical implicationsThe results show the social and managerial importance of the perspective of tourism in developing countries. Based on the tourism 4.0 concept, this study presents a theoretical contribution by expanding practical information regarding the link between STTs and psychological well-being. Moreover, the study shows some directions to the tour operator about improving PB and psychological well-being. The notion of tourism 4.0 is a new paradigm that seeks to unlock the psychological well-being of visitors through the hyper-interconnectedness of humans and technologies.Originality/valueThis study contributes to prior research on technology-based tourism by exploring the uncharted STT variables, PB, GM and psychological well-being. Moreover, the study makes an empirical effort to conceptualize the tourism 4.0 concept on the proposed relationships. Tourist firms should focus on implementing this theory to develop their business.

Smart tourism technologies for the psychological well-being of tourists: a Bangladesh perspective

Tourism, sustainability, and the economy in Bangladesh: The innovation connection amidst Covid-19

Technology innovation has become one of the driving forces that advance the tourism industry, but the industry has yet to account for the manner in which personal technologies can foster tourists’ sustainable well-being. Generating innovation that promotes the sustainable well-being of individuals is deemed to be challenging because the experience needs to account for users’ psychological well-being and their attitudes towards technology. A holistic apprehension of these needs, which requires multidisciplinary perspectives, can help designers to identify design spaces for further design investigations at the fuzzy front-end of innovation. Hence, the goal of this study is to identify design opportunities for smart tourism innovation that foster sustainable tourist well-being by using Q methodology to gather participants’ attitudes on the future use of such technology. The study involved 43 participants ranking 46 statements derived from the extant literature. The results show four opinion clusters related to the optimal use of personal technologies for sustainable tourist well-being. These clusters, which highlight both hedonic and eudaimonic user experience considerations, provide directions for designers for developing innovations that promote well-being. Recommendations of using Q as an exploratory design research method are discussed.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7929/pdf

Adaobi J. Onuike

Papers

Illuminating Opportunities for Smart Tourism Innovation That Foster Sustainable Tourist Well-Being Using Q Methodology