Specific resources as bases for the differentiation and innovation of tourist destinations

Vaz, Margarida (2007): Specific resources as bases for the differentiation and innovation of tourist destinations.

Abstract

Given that one type of tourist does not exist and different strategies are drawn to reach the wished "extraordinary" by tourists for holidays, there are windows of opportunities to the tourist destinations, as these give them the chance for differentiated offers and for a flexibility that opposes uniformity and gives place to variety and difference. Assuming that the development of the destinations do not obey to just a standard way, and alternatively is embedded in the historical, cultural, institutional and natural matrices of the regions where destinations are anchored, then the specific resources of a place can assume the basic role of inputs for the differentiation of the tourist destination and for the diversification of its tourist offers.

Taking into account the exceptionality of tourist product as an experience, which is associated with an integrated experience offer, one can say that an idiographic perspective of a destination requires that the valuation of its specific resources pass not only for the tourist services providers to assume themselves as agents who facilitate the stay and the mobility of the tourists, but also that they need to become ambassadors of all the kind of services of the destination as well as of the region itself.

Such tourist destination generates change. As it generates differentiated strategies at the regional level and as it is based on co-operation and network, these strategies and related facts make the environment propitious to the dissemination of knowledge and innovation. Innovation, in turn, generates difference, that strengthens the identity of the region, and potentially, of the tourist destination. Such strategies of differentiation, in a sustainable development frame, can be the turning point for a more selective tourist industry, and where all can win: the local communities, the tourists, the tourist agents, and the environment.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: University of Beira Interior
• Language: English
• Keywords: Specific resources; idiographic approach; innovation; tourist destination; sustainability; regional development
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L8 - Industry Studies: Services > L83 - Sports ; Gambling ; Restaurants ; Recreation ; Tourism; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes