Description
In these days, innovation is a key factor for economic competitiveness of firms. Tourism is currently one of the most promising industries in the world and there is urgent need to better understand innovation in this sector. Creating of innovative products and marketing of innovative services is currently one of the most frequently studied topics in terms of science and research as well as practice in tourism. The increase in national and international competition as well as market saturation is the incentives for innovations. The tourism market requires innovative services and products. Without doubt new product development and innovation have the capacity to create additional value for customers and sustainable growth for entrepreneurs. However, management processes leading to new products or innovations are highly complex, in particular in a service dominated industry like tourism.
This book entitled Innovation in Tourism Industries brings the reader information about the dynamics and characteristics of innovation in tourism, and serves real world-examples examples of how business models are evolving as a result. It enables a better understanding of innovation in tourism and aims at increasing theoretical discussion as well as furthering knowledge on the subject. This book reviews the research contributions, dealing with various categories of innovation – product, process, managerial, marketing and institutional. Important determinants of innovation are acknowledged, including the role of entrepreneurship, technology push and the existence of territorial industry clusters. An overview of the importance and the concept of innovation are given prior to an illustration about important areas of innovation research in tourism. Therefore, the aim of the book is to fill the cognitive gap by providing evidence for different factors hampering the innovative activity of micro, small and medium-sized tourist enterprises identified and explored within the framework of innovative chain of the regional tourism.
Students, professors and researchers of innovation, entrepreneurship, and tourism studies will find this book an invaluable resource.
