Tourism 3.0 embraces many trends and concepts already existing in the most innovative industries, though not all concepts may always be applied together, as explained in the three proposed approaches and the corresponding case studies.
Understanding these concepts is essential to envision the different approaches presented, as well as to envision new ones. The challenge of envisioning tourism 3.0 is just at the outset, and is to be continually demanding new approaches so long as destinations require their own adaptations to the local culture and stakeholder status quo.
Collaborative destination models are the destination’s business models operating like a platform that facilitates interaction between local service suppliers and tourists. As in many business models in other industries, multi-sided platforms are like scenarios or marketplaces where players with complementary interests interact and exchange goods or services. As explained in the upcoming White Paper “Envisioning destination models 3.0”, these may have multiple kinds of players beyond service suppliers and tourists, entailing volunteers, non-profit organizations, sponsors, investors, etc.
These destination models fully embrace the trend of collaborative consumption, already ingrained in many business sectors, and increasingly present in the tourism industry. The main advantage of this type of model is that it empowers the local community of stakeholders to bring in their value not only benefiting the platform, but also the rest of the community by fostering entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid and being able to keep ownership of their business. Further, it leverages the community’s creativity through participation in innovation practices.
What kind of collaborative business models would you suggest to develop tourism 3.0 at the local level, apart from the proposed multi-sided models?
