78 INNOVATION IN TOURISM DESTINATIONS – Contributions by Birgit Pikkemaat
78 INNOVATION IN TOURISM DESTINATIONS – Contributions by Birgit Pikkemaat
Involvement and development
My first contact with tourism research was in the field of information search and travel decision-making among tourists; at that time, everything was still analogue and published under my maiden name Mäser (Weiermair & Mäser, 1996; Mäser & Weiermair, 1998). As this research area was not solely driven by scientific interest but by my personal interest in travel, I completed my PhD thesis and became aware of other topics, such as cultural issues of tourists (Pikkemaat & Weiermair 2001), event management (Peters & Pikkemaat, 2005a) and crisis management at tourism destinations (Peters & Pikkemaat, 2005b).
The latter triggered my interest in destination management and shifted my focus more to the tourism supply side. At that time, the tourism industry was characterized by predominantly saturated markets, at least in Tyrol where I settled down. As we often discussed Butler’s (1980) “tourism area life cycle model” in tourism lectures and classes, I quickly asked myself about the further development of Tyrol, as a saturated tourism destination, and was convinced that the tourism industry would soon need to develop new products and innovations for rejuvenation. From then on, I was passionate about innovation research in tourism (Pikkemaat, 2008; Pikkemaat & Zehrer, 2016; Pikkemaat, Peters & Chan, 2018).
Innovation research was still in its infancy at the turn of the new millennium and only began to develop slowly. Since the concept of innovation is a very broad one and is applied in a wide variety of research contexts, I concentrated my research on small and medium-sized tourism enterprises in rural areas with fragmented destination structures and managerial deficits. At the beginning of my innovation research contributions, I was fascinated by the concept of innovation, and how to conceptualize and measure it both at the micro and small business level and at the destination level (Pikkemaat & Weiermair, 2004; Pikkemaat & Peters, 2005). Thus, it was mainly the article by Johannessen et al. (2001) on innovation as newness: What is new? How new? And new to whom? that stimulated further avenues of my innovation research.
Growth
The measurement of innovation in the destination context is particularly exciting, as other influences, such as the cooperation between key stakeholders and different entrepreneurs (families), but also the role of the destination management organization, determine the development of innovative products and services and thus the long-term success of the destination (Pikkemaat & Weiermair, 2007). Especially in community-model destinations, the entrepreneurial network, cooperation, and knowledge are decisive for an innovative development of the destination (Pikkemaat, 2008), in addition to competition, location and resources.
The majority of small hotel entrepreneurs in rural areas focus on product innovations or hardware investments, s