Call for Papers: DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES
Special Issue : Information Technology & Tourism Journal
http://www.springer.com/?SGWID=0-102-2-1538141-0

CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue: DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES

Guest editors: Giampaolo Viglia, Hannes Werthner and Dimitrios Buhalis

The diffusion of disrupting innovations has generated significant market changes, modifying the dominant logic. This structural change is affecting the organizational networks and the services tourism players are supposed to use to perform well in markets (and be efficient). This disruptive change affects the whole tourism and hospitality industry: relationships between players change as their respective roles change; this is driven by e-commerce / e-business and disruptive innovation. For instance hotels, thanks to e-business technological platforms, can now use algorithms to set yield and revenue management strategies, monitor competition in real time and allow consumers to use mobile devices to access several services.

In the tourism industry, many innovations have been initiated from companies in the information technology sector. Generally, Information technology is revolutionizing products, services and markets. The aim of this Special Issue is to promote new theoretical and empirical research on disruptive innovation for tourism, understanding how and why the changes happened (theory building), as well as providing cases for the respective arguments.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

The major topics of interest focus on disruptive innovation and their role within the Tourism experience and industry. They include but are not limited to:

• Structural changes to the industry (e.g.: dematerialization, smartness, new forms of accommodations, disruptive technologies, mobile, etc.)
• New market structures and network relations as well as new roles of tourism players
• Diffusion issues
• Operators’ challenges (e.g.: forecasting the future demand, aggregations, smart statistics to support change, identifying competitor set)
• Incremental innovation versus disruptive innovation (e.g., going beyond traditional business, traditional markets exploring not well understood problems)
• How smart and connected products are transforming competition
• Contextual issues (sectorial differences as well as regional differences; competition vs oligopoly)

SUBMISSION

Papers are required no later than June 30th 2016
Notification of outcome will be provided by August 30th 2016
Final papers should be submitted by October 15th 2016

Please submit manuscripts through the Springer online system (if you are a new author to the system you will be required to create a system login). Submit online

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation. The journal imposes no hard limits on the paper length as long as what authors write is important. Submissions that exceed 40 pages in journal format (including illustrations and references) should however be accompanied by a short justification as to why a briefer discussion of their research results.

Full author instructions may be found here: http://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/business+information+systems/journal/40558 

Any questions related to this special issue should be directed to:

Dr. Giampaolo Viglia, Bournemouth University, gviglia@bournemouth.ac.uk

Prof. Hannes Werthner, Vienna University of Technology, hannes.werthner@ec.tuwien.ac.at

Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University, dbuhalis@bournemouth.ac.uk,

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Rewilding Britain: Ecotourism and economic diversification

 140 delegates gathered on the 5th May 2016 at Charlton Down Village Hall, near Dorchester to discuss and explore the application of rewilding concepts to Dorset co-hosted by Bournemouth University and the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Dr Susanna Curtin explains as a commentator on wildlife tourism in Britain, this was an exciting event I couldn’t miss.  It was a combined meeting between Bournemouth University and Dorset Wildlife Trust and its purpose was to debate the concept of ‘rewilding’; a term mostly associated with environmental campaigner George Monbiot and his book ‘Feral’ which celebrates the idea of ‘optimising the diversity of the web of life’.

‘Rewilding’ is an emotive and exciting new approach to conservation and land management. Its concepts are not entirely new. The romantic idea of getting back to nature has been around for a while but now its reality is gaining pace. We are now at an interesting junction based on the realisation that our use of natural resources, our carbon emissions, the loss of biodiversity and the decline in human mental and physical health are no longer sustainable. We have had an impact on our landscape in Britain for at least 7000 years. The RSPB’s report on the ‘State of Nature’ highlights the 58% decline in fauna and flora since the 1970s and how the United Kingdom has lost 44 million birds since 1966  and, historically, more large mammals, including wolves, lynx, bears, beavers, boars, moose, bison, and wolverines, than any other European country except Ireland.  We live on a highly-developed island where nature and wilderness struggles to survive. Through advances in inter-disciplinary conservation science, we have realised just how degraded our ecosystems are, that there are multiple natures out there and that nature is worth conserving. But in order to do this, we have to develop exciting new possibilities and visions; we have to rethink our relationship with nature.

The day’s speakers lay testimony to these possibilities: Professor Paul Jepson from the Conservation Governance Lab gave a high level policy overview on the importance of getting the concept of ‘rewilding into the next biodiversity strategy; of ‘kicking on’ beyond traditional conservation and agricultural policies.  He highlighted the remarkable immersive shift in the way that we engage with nature; particularly the rise in thrill seeking outdoor sports and recreation: climbing, mountain biking, walking, hiking, cycling, kayaking, photography and travel; bringing the public closer to nature and wildlife all the time. This creates opportunities for new landscape economies, news ways of managing land and conservation, and from my part the benefits of Britain’s wildlife tourism opportunities.

Most people associate rewilding as bringing back keystone species such as beavers, wolves and bears but Dr Chris Sandom of the University of Sussex spoke of putting rewilding in practice; of small steps to restore natural processes such as using beavers for structural river engineering to increase water storage and prevent flooding, restoring natural hydrology and even strange inventions for urban seed dispersal. He spoke of ‘passive’ rewilding; of setting up a space and abandoning it to nature watching biodiversity creep back in. What an amazing resource this could be for wildlife tourism: butterflies, wild flowers, dragonflies, birds and beavers.

 In fact Matt Heard gave an account of the rewilding project at Knepp Estate, Sussex, which restored their historic deer park, and are in the process of reintroducing grazers such as Exmoor ponies, long horned cattle, Oryx, wild boar and red and fallow deer.  They have plotted the change from agricultural fields to scrubland over a period of five to six years and with it the changes in floral composition. 

 On top of this they have reinstated the natural watercourse of the river Adur to produce natural meanders, ponds, water botanicals, amphibians and dragonflies.  Now Knepp estate is a biodiversity hotspot with purple emperor, nightingale, Bechstein’s bats, cuckoos, turtle dove and woodcock; all of which support a thriving high-end glamping and wildlife safari business.  This is attracting a growing number of visitors which support and diversify Knepp’s income, making ecotourism a key profit centre. I left the event uplifted and optimistic for Britain’s countryside and excited about the possibilities.

 For anyone interested in pursuing research on the opportunities of rewilding and ecotourism please contact me at scurtin@bournemouth.ac.uk or visit my website http: www.rewildingjourneys.com