Tourism and Innovation: A Cross Sectoral and Interregional Perspective

Knowledge management is pivotal in innovation using mechanisms to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning among competitive tourism organisations and destinations. Nevertheless, both the tourism industry and its scholars have been slow to embrace the field leaving it relatively underdeveloped. Knowledge management, as a sequential process of capturing, developing, sharing, and leveraging from organisational knowledge, particularly from knowledge transfer and knowledge-based innovation, includes spillovers, flows, and transfers. The latter two are more intentional and therefore may be effectively managed through peer-to-peer exchanges, knowledge sharing and team learning. Knowledge exchange, learning and innovation can take place in-house (within organisation) at the micro level and at the macro, i.e. sectoral and territorial levels, where knowledge transferred around networks as a supply-side collaborative response to tourism demand and changing business environments. This chapter focuses on the macro level by taking an evolutionary economic geographical approach. This chapter explores the current research agenda for addressing these challenges in tourism and begins with a discussion on the knowledge and system dimensions and their relevance to the tourism industry. It is followed by revisiting the innovation system approach and its sectoral and regional tourism perspectives, as well as taking a critical approach towards being addressed in the tourism literature.