Managing Knowledge in Tourism Planning

SUMMARY

This paper explores the theme of strategic planning in a State Tourism Organization (STO) from a knowledge management perspective. It highlights the value of knowledge in strategy making and the importance of an organisation's knowledge management agenda in facilitating a strategic planning process. In particular, it considers the capability of an STO to implement knowledge management as the key to a successful strategic planning exercise. In order to develop greater insight into the factors that impact on planning competence, the key aim of this paper is to develop a framework on which the capability of a STO to implement a knowledge-based agenda in strategic planning can be assessed. Research on knowledge management in the field of tourism is limited and there is little practical account of the application of knowledge management principles in tourism planning. Further, there is no apparent tool or instrument that allows for the assessment of an STO's capability to implement knowledge management in planning initiatives. Based on a literature review, a three-point framework of assessment is developed. The three elements of the framework are identified as:

1. Integration of knowledge management objectives with strategic imperatives;

2. A planning approach that balances top-down (outcome focused) with bottom-up (process focused) planning processes; and

3. Organisational capacity, including leadership, people and culture, process, technology, content and continuous improvement.

The framework is tested through application to a practical case study-a planning initiative undertaken by a leading tourism STO in Australia. The results demonstrate that the framework is a useful means to evaluate organisational capability in knowledge-led strategic planning exercises and would be of practical value as a point of reference for future knowledge- based strategic planning projects.     

The Knowledge Café–A Knowledge Management System and Its Application to Hospitality and Tourism

SUMMARY

Knowledge management is identified as a key success factor in most industries today. While data or information can be stored independently from people, knowledge is bound to people who use it for their interactions. The main goal of knowledge management is to improve the usage of knowledge in the enterprise. Knowledge management systems are not only organizational memory information systems. They also contain organizational standard procedures and a certain cultural attitude. A reference framework gives implementation hints mainly influenced by technical possibilities. The knowledge management system reference architecture contains layers of sources, repositories, taxonomy, services, applications and user interfaces. A software tool that largely corresponds to this reference framework is the Knowledge Café. Possible applications of this tool to the area of hospitality and tourism are described in this paper.     

Understanding and Sharing Knowledge of New Tourism Markets

SUMMARY

This paper examines issues involved in the definition, creation, and use of knowledge about the Chinese outbound market. It provides an initial view of the type of knowledge required by tourism managers in Australia, some suggestions about where this knowledge is available, or how it may be produced, and identifies issues in sharing that knowledge between tourism industry members and between academics and the industry.     

Cross-Border Destination Management Systems in the Alpine Region–The Role of Knowledge Networks on the Example of AlpNet

SUMMARY

The Alps are the focus of a wide-ranging discussion. Researchers, scientists, politicians, inhabitants, and people who earn their living in the Alpine region are all confronted with difficult challenges. The main topics are the development in the fields of nature, landscape, tourism and leisure, traffic and transport, and its consequences for the Alps as a living space and economic area. About 30 years ago, a cooperation of tourism and political authorities in 11 countries, regions, provinces, and cantons of Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Austria has been established. Due to globalization and changing traveling patterns, people have become more and more aware that a new international cooperation of the Alpine tourism regions in the field of destination management and marketing is required. This is necessary in order to react to market changes accordingly. This acknowledgment is instead of small and more or less independent and self-sufficient organizations. It also includes the collaboration concerning one of the most important resources of our time-knowledge-and the establishment of a network where it can be consciously managed.

The following paper shows the special qualities of networks, especially knowledge networks at the example of AlpNet. It consists of three parts. The first part deals with the change of Alpine tourism management and marketing, the second part discusses the necessities and challenges of a cross-border cooperation in tourism marketing with a special focus on networks and knowledge networks, and the third part presents the results of an empirical study explaining the problems and perspectives for developing knowledge networks of cross-border destination management in the Alpine region. As far as management and marketing of tourism destinations are concerned, it is shown what possibilities-yet what limits-may result in launching cross-border cooperation projects in the future. For decades cross-border cooperation was used for compensating existing competitive disadvantages on tourism markets. The example of the new project AlpNet shows how important cooperation and member-specific requirements are for tourism and other economic industries when it comes to the establishment of knowledge networks.     

Review and Application of Knowledge Management and Knowledge Sharing in Tourism

Knowledge and its management are generally recognised as a strategic asset that provides organisations with a competitive edge. Prior research demonstrates that knowledge sharing (KS) is crucial because it helps organisations promote best practice, facilitate knowledge creation and enhance effectiveness. Although there is a growing realisation that KS is critical to knowledge creation and organisational performance, this is still an emerging area of inquiry whose key variables, relationships and implications for tourism organisations are not yet clear. In this paper, key concepts of knowledge, organisational knowledge, knowledge management (KM) and KS are reviewed. This paper would be of interest to readers who would like to understand more about how KM and KS can be applied to tourism.     

Implications of “New Economy” Traits for the Tourism Industry

SUMMARY

The tourism industry is a knowledge-based industry. The recent developments in information processing and knowledge production and transfer have implications for the processes and relations in the tourism industry. The main aspects are the change of the structure of transaction costs, the increasing importance of networks and the impact of the conditions of knowledge transfer on the inter-industrial relations. The concept of cognitive maps is used to explain the processes of information transfer. The overall result of the different aspects of the knowledge orientation of the tourism industry is the importance of trust as the core instrument in this industry.     

Knowledge transfer processes in the authenticity of the intangible cultural heritage in tourism destination competitiveness

ABSTRACT

As tourism based on intangible cultural heritage usually encompasses a knowledge transfer process, the authenticity of the heritage (or its perception) can be affected by knowledge transfer. These knowledge transfers occur to present the heritage to the tourists (courses, tour guiding, etc.), but also in the destination itself when the heritage knowledge is codified in museums, tour guides are trained, or the heritage is transferred to newer generations. These situations present potential challenges where authenticity is distorted or even lost, and it affects the competitiveness of the destination. The work attempts to analyse those knowledge transfers and their challenges regarding authenticity to sustain the competitiveness of the destination.     

The Effect of Healthy Food Knowledge on Perceived Healthy Foods’ Value,Degree of Satisfaction,and Behavioral Intention: The Moderating Effect of Gender

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to determine how knowledge about healthy food impacts its perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intention among college students to access healthy foods, and to investigate the moderating effect of gender on the formulated relationships. The results show that knowledge about healthy food positively influences perceived value and behavioral intentions, and perceived value is a significant predictor of satisfaction and behavioral intentions toward healthy foods. In addition, knowledge about healthy food does not significantly influence on satisfaction in this study. The results regarding the moderating effects of gender show that gender only moderates the relationship between satisfaction and behavioral intentions toward healthy foods. These results offer useful information for foodservice companies and educational institutions; more specifically, for gaining a better understanding of college students’ behaviors and perceptions toward healthy foods and developing marketing strategies accordingly.     

The dynamics and evolution of knowledge transfer in international master franchise agreements

The paper identifies and evaluates the antecedents, contextual factors and inter-organisational processes that influence knowledge transfer in international hotel master franchise agreements and how these evolve from the perspective of both franchisors and franchisees. A single, purposively selected in-depth qualitative case study reveals the specific factors relevant to knowledge transfer at different stages of the franchise agreement. Drawing on the alliance literature, the impact of four partner-specific variables on inter-organisational design processes used to transfer knowledge and on three antecedents to knowledge transfer; shared identity, absorptive capacity and casual ambiguity is identified. The study contributes to our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of knowledge transfer in master franchise agreements by highlighting the relative importance of partner-specific variables and relational management to knowledge transfer evolution and the relative importance of shared identity as an antecedent to knowledge transfer in these agreements     

Transferring Tourism Knowledge

SUMMARY

Knowledge sharing and quality assurance in hospitality and tourism is a very broad topic to cover. This paper focuses mainly on the role of higher education in transferring knowledge into practice. Knowledge can be defined as “an understanding of something and the ability to use that understanding through study and experience.”¹     

An Investigation of the Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in Chain and Independent Hotels

SUMMARY

The failure rate of new service projects is high, because the knowledge about how innovations should be developed is limited. In the last decade, several studies have investigated the success factors associated with service innovations (e.g., Atuahene-Gima, 1996; de Brentani, 2001; Storey and Easingwood, 1998). However, no research in new service development (NSD) has addressed the question of whether chain affiliated and independently operated service firms have different approaches for developing successful innovations. The majority of past new service development (NSD) success studies have concentrated on the financial service sector, which is generally represented by large corporate organizations. The findings of this study indicate that the factors which impact on the performance of NSD depend on the organizational relationship of hotels-chain affiliation or independent operation. The study's results suggest that market attractiveness, process management, market responsiveness and empowerment predict NSD success within chain affiliated hotels. While empowerment and market attractiveness are also related to NSD success in independent hotels, this is also linked to effective marketing communication, employee commitment, behaviour based evaluation, training of employees and marketing synergy.     

The Fuchsia Destination Quality Brand

SUMMARY

Quality has been widely recognised as a source of competitive advantage in tourism (Poon, 1993; Fayos-Sola, 1996; Laws, 2000). Given the shift that has taken place from interfirm competition to interdestination competition (Go and Govers, 2000; Crouch and Ritchie, 1999), a need to focus on the quality management at the destination level has been identified (Laws, 1995 and 2000; Woods, 2003). In an attempt to address this need, a case study of the Fuchsia destination quality brand, West Cork, Ireland, was carried out. The findings revealed that whilst the Fuchsia brand did not appear to function as a powerful signal of quality to the customer, it did provide a support system which fostered an environment conducive to knowledge sharing amongst the tourism service providers applying for brand membership. This was mostly as a result of the policy of compulsory training for brand applicants. The paper reveals the way in which policies and programmes undertaken to overcome reluctance to participate in a destination quality assurance system also helped remove obstacles to knowledge sharing amongst tourism suppliers at the destination.     

The lone digital tourism entrepreneur: Knowledge acquisition and collaborative transfer

This paper addresses calls for more detailed studies of small tourism enterprises. Researchers report a lack of adoption and ineffective utilisation of digital technologies in smaller tourism businesses. The study focuses on two university-facilitated projects of digital marketing adoption and utilisation by 53 small and medium sized tourism businesses in the South of England. The framework for this study was driven by Modes of Knowledge Transference and Technology-In-Practice. The findings describe peer-to-peer knowledge acquisition and sharing that take place in university-led projects and suggests that a combination of Mode 1 and Mode 2 knowledge helps entrepreneurs to advance their digital marketing knowledge. Peer-to-peer clusters are an effective means of placing digital marketing knowledge and technology in the context of small and medium tourism business practice. The paper provides implications for destination marketing organisations and policymakers and suggestions for future avenues of research are offered.     

An Examination of Quality Management in Luxury Hotels

Abstract

The purpose of this case study was to analyze and compare the total quality management (TQM) practices of three luxury hotels. Leadership, guest and market focus, and information and analysis emerged as the three most significant TQM factors successfully implemented in these three hotels. The human resource focus factor was less successfully integrated into these hotels' operations. Although the three hotels claimed that they managed their processes effectively, these processes were not as well-designed or complex as in many other quality-conscious companies. Strategic planning emerged as one of the most difficult factors to implement. The general managers interviewed argued that these six factors contributed positively to their hotel's business results. Managerial and research implications are also discussed.     

Towards Using Knowledge Discovery Techniques in Database Marketing for the Tourism Industry

SUMMARY

Given the trend that international corporations are utilizing various information systems for their daily activities, information on sales transactions together with corresponding customer profile is usually available in airlines and international hotel chains. This allows segments of customers to be drawn according to selected relevant demographic variables. This is referred to as Database Marketing, a new trend in marketing that makes use of information available in a company's database. The extracted information is also useful in planning marketing strategies, launching new products/services and defining market segmentation.

As databases in large corporations nowadays are getting large, sparser, more free-formatted and more dynamic, traditional statistical techniques may not be capable of extracting the encapsulated knowledge inside the databases. A new technical stream, data mining has been developed in Computer Science to deal with the complex task of extracting and managing any potential knowledge embedded inside databases. This paper introduces the common techniques in data mining, including decision tree classifiers, regression analysis, induction programming logic, and probabilistic rules. Suggestions are offered about how these techniques can be used in order to improve the engineering behind Database Marketing, which can help to promote niche markets in tourism. By utilizing its know-how in Database Marketing, a company can sharpen its competitiveness and build entry barriers for others.     

Contemporary factors influencing association conference attendance

Abstract

Competition amongst conference tourism destinations has intensified. Understanding the factors influencing delegate attendance thus becomes increasingly important. This paper aims to extend the current body of academic knowledge by examining motivators and inhibitors deriving from not only previous academic research but also contemporary industry reports. Delegate expectations relating to new and established factors influencing conference attendance are explored, while motivating and inhibiting factors are ranked in order of importance. Proactive management and organization responses to these factors are proposed. The research findings are important to destination managers in prioritizing the investment of their limited resources aiming to address the higher-importance factors. This allows such destinations to improve in their competitiveness in attracting conference tourism and conference delegates.     

European Spa World

SUMMARY

In this paper, we describe an international project for developing ‘Wellness Tourism’ across four regions of central Europe. The paper examines this project from the virewpoint of knowledge management and the partnerships involved in this project.     

Worldviews,Levels of Consciousness,and the Evolution of Planning Paradigms in Protected Areas

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) worldwide are facing increasing visitation and complexity. Mounting pressures from the private sector are intensifying the risks associated with overtourism. The increasing strategic importance of PAs for the communities and regions in which they are situated requires improved management effectiveness; yet, recent studies indicate significant and growing systemic risk. Worldview analysis can be a valuable tool for building consciousness and informing the evolution of PA planning and management. Directed content analysis was used to examine two Visitor Use Plans developed for the Coyhaique National Reserve, located in the iconic Patagonia cultural area of southern Chile. The plans were developed using distinct planning frameworks, with different underlying assumptions. Research questions focused on how modernist, postmodernist and integral worldviews were expressed within the two plans. Worldviews were explored in both manifest and latent manners, considering plan text, models and overall context revealing patterns and links between the plans and planning frameworks that guided their development. Rich context and a thorough discussion of methods assists with the incorporation of worldview evaluation within PA management theory, informing the continuing development of knowledge and capacities that can better prepare PAs for future challenges.     

Diffusion Patterns and Knowledge Networks: An Inductive Analysis of Intellectual Connections in Multidisciplinary Tourism Studies

This article presents an inductive citation analysis to examine diffusion patterns and knowledge networks in the economic, geographical/environmental, and socio-cultural domains of tourism research. Articles typical of these specializations were selected from the latest issues of Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, and Tourism Management, to begin with the tracking of major sources of knowledge for research in a sub-domain. Citation data collection followed a theoretical sampling approach for a scrutiny of three “generations” of intellectual connections. Analyses and sorting of subjects and coauthorship networks were facilitated by ATLAS.ti. Diffusion patterns are visualized through “pointed and high” versus “thick and flat” tree diagrams for these subdomains. The study also describes knowledge networks typically embedded in the coauthorship patterns of the major sources. While the study lends to discussions on intellectual connections, this set of inductively derived results should be read in caution of the research design, the behavior of citation, and the perspectives of the authors.