ABSTRACT
Tourism is a central part of regional development strategies in many localities around
Europe, not just in traditional coastal or mountain resorts, but also in areas without a
strong track record with regard to visitor economy (Anastasiadou, 2006; Hall, 2008;
Halkier, 2010a). Traditionally strategies for developing tourism have relied heavily on
marketing the experiences currently available to new potential customers. However, in
a globalizing world, destinations can no longer take their traditional visitors for granted
and escape growing competitive pressures, because increasingly experienced, specialized
and demanding travellers now have a vastly greater number of potential destinations to
choose from (Weaver & Lawton, 2002; Hall & Page, 2006; Halkier, 2010b), and hence
both well-established and would-be emerging tourist destinations are under pressure to
be innovative to increase their attractiveness in the globalizing visitor economy. It is,
therefore, hardly surprising that in the increasingly competitive market for leisure and
business travel, more attention is now being given to innovation in experiences and
services (Hall & Williams, 2008; Hjalager, 2010; Halkier, 2011), and that the growing
awareness of tourism’s economic growth potential has also lead policy-makers to
search for more comprehensive approaches to the development of the sector, as evidenced
in reports by, for example, the OECD (2006), UN’s World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO, 2005), and the EU (European Commission, 2006).
