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Abstract
Over the past couple of years, the term innovation has increasingly been used to describe the development behaviour of tourism
enterprises, destinations and the tourism sector. This article discusses various denitions. Examples of major changes in the tourism
sector are given within the framework of a model that distinguishes between regular, niche, revolutionary, architectural innovations.
It is stated that the tourism industry per se is not as crucial for innovations as the supplying and regulating sectors. Accordingly,
policies aiming at innovation in tourism should not uniformly focus on the industry itself, but take into account the driving forces of
other business sectors and the public sector. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Innovation; Driving forces; Knowledge; Transfer processes; Policies
1. Introduction
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0261-5177/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 2 6 1 - 5 1 7 7 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 1 3 - 4
466
In their explanation of the establishment and development of the automobile industry, Abernathy and
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Conserve/entrench existing
competence
Regular innovations
Niche innovations
Conserve/
entrench
existing
linkages
Revolutionary innovations
Architectural innovations
Disrupt
existing/
Creating
new
linkages
Disrupt/ make
obsolete existing
competence
While revolutionary innovations keep external structures unchanged, they have a radical effect on competences. A whole sector can, for example, be affected by
an aggregate shift in required skills and competences
over a longer period of time. At the enterprise or
destination level, revolutionary innovations can have the
following outcomes:
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The Abernathy and Clark model provides a framework for a clearer understanding of the nature of
particular and well-dened innovations. But the model
can be blamed for being too static and descriptive. For
example, an enhancement of the Internet might be a
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469
470
The trade
system:
Market surveys
Best practice
Certification
Standards
IT system
Etc,
The technological
system
Equipment and techn.
Semi-manufacturing
Outsourcing
471
The
tourist
business
The infrastructural
system
Natural and cultural
attractions
Traffic, transport
The regulation
system
Safety control
Economic
control
Environmental
systems
Labour
regulations
Etc
472
473
474
References
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