Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Janne Liburd & Anja Hergesell
School/Work Place : University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Contact : liburd@sitkom.sdu.dk
Year : 2007

This article reports on an ongoing project that focuses on learning and innovation as prerequisites for sustainable tourism in a transnational environment defined by the European North Sea Region. According to Buhalis (2000: 113) providing innovative and well co-coordinated tourism products is exceedingly important for tourism regions. Similarly Hjalager (2002) agrees on the need for innovation in tourism, i.e. creating additional, commercially relevant value through the redesign of products, processes, management, logistics, and/or collaborative and regulatory structures. Hjalager (ibid) further argues that there is a gap between existing literature emphasizing the importance of tourism innovation, which is currently not reflected in practice. A number of inhibitors can be identified, of which some relate to human resource practices and the sector’s organizational structure. In particular, lack of retention, training and succession planning challenge the sustainability of the sector’s many small and medium sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) (Liburd 2007). Also lack of trust and fear of change constitute major barriers to the generation and use of knowledge to nourish innovation (Hjalager 2002; Cooper 2006; OECD 2006).

Developed on behalf of the European Commission in 2006 these impediments are addressed in the Tourism Learning Area (TLA) approach. The TLA objective is to improve human potentials in tourism at local and transnational levels by developing a suitable framework to improve learning opportunities and facilitate sustainable tourism development. The concept thereby recognises the importance and ephemerality of specified knowledge and the need for lifelong learning in a variety of formal and informal settings (European Commission 2006). Moreover, it underscores the need to enable training of human resources in co-operation between competing and complementary destinations (Buhalis 2000: 114). In accordance, a key component of the TLA approach is to establish information and cooperation networks between stakeholders from relevant sectors with either a thematic or spatial focus. Also proposed as a problem-solving methodology the approach implies a mutual understanding of issues and goals (European Commission 2006). Moreover, partnerships among research and educational institutions for the identification and analysis of problems as well as dissemination of findings are strongly encouraged.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
2 Think Tank XVIII Community participation and stakeholder engagement in ... file 3566 Jan 07, 2019

Keywords: natural resource management, community participation, stakeholder engagement, co-creation, sustainable tourism, Networks of Reserves.

Author: Umberto Martini, Federica Buffa, Sandra Notaro, Nicola Zeni & Pier Luigi Novi Inverardi 

Year: 2018 

1 Think Tank XVIII Connecting through Stories: Adapting Communication to ... file 1359 Jan 07, 2019

Key words: story-telling, landscapes, interpretation, sustainable tourism experiences

Author: Gianna Moscardo & Karen Hughes 

Year: 2018 

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