Tourism Management, Marketing, and Development ─ The Importance of Networks and ICTs

Companies and destinations in the tourism sector are confronted with increasing managerial challenges and have to deal with a competitive, turbulent and fast changing environment. The understanding that both tourism companies and destinations endowed with the best assets (natural and cultural) cannot survive the escalating international competition without good managerial practices, has provided significant momentum for the development of the disciplinary field of tourism management in the last three decades.

This book provides an overview of the research field of tourism management, including twelve chapters from a diverse international group of academics. While drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives and adopting different epistemological paradigms and research methodologies, Tourism Management, Marketing, and Development recognizes the relevance of physical and digital networks for the development of one of the fastest growing sectors of the contemporary global economy: Travel & Tourism.

Marcello M. Mariani is Professor and Director of the Master in Business Tourism and Destination Management and the Master in Digital Marketing for Tourism at the University of Bologna, Italy.

Rodolfo Baggio is Professor and Coordinator of the Information and Communication Technologies area of the Master in Economics and Tourism at Bocconi University, Italy.

Dimitrios Buhalis is Professor and Director of the eTourism Lab at the School of Tourism at Bournemouth University, UK.

Christian Longhi is Senior Researcher in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (GREDEG-CNRS) and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France.