Abstract
Article history: Received June 25, 2011 Received in Revised form August, 30, 2011 Accepted 5 September 2011 Available online 7 September 2011 Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world and a major driver of growth for developed countries. To maximize the tourism sector's economic benefits‚ tourism development‚ planning and strategies not only have to focus on increasing demand and supply‚ but also they must concentrate on raising the level of value retention and on value ¬creation and value co-creation within the sectors. Serious policy in one of these sectors may threat the whole tourism value chain. This makes analysis of the sector complex but crucial as it could be the catalyst for wide spread reforms. To offer a better tourism product, one should understand the sources of critical factors (ie: environmental, industry and organizational factors) for competing either domestically or internationally. Comparative and competitive advantages, information and communication systems and E-tourism, knowledge of value and value chain (identifying and analyzing the specific activities through which it can create value for its customers) all are the perquisite for value creation and value co-creation (the source of value lies in the personalized experiences that are unique to each individual customer). To achieve these, special attention must be devoted to strategic management, planning and society, in order to satisfy all stakeholders' expectation. Based on the above paradigm a model for value creation in tourism is proposed in this paper. It is hoped that this study could drive destinations to create and cocreate the values that makes a unique and memorable experience for each tourist. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Highlights
During the past few years, there have been various studies, which suggest that tourism can be considered as the main vehicle for advancing economy (Vanhove, 2011)
Comparative and competitive advantages, information and communication systems and E-tourism, knowledge of value and value chain all are the perquisite for value creation and value co-creation
If we look at them from Porte's (1985) value chain perspective, which concentrates on the production industry, or contrarily from the value constellation perspective presented by Norman and Ramirez (1998) that focuses on the relationship between different actors we will receive different responses, many of value creators are the sources of competitive advantages for various firms
Summary
During the past few years, there have been various studies, which suggest that tourism can be considered as the main vehicle for advancing economy (Vanhove, 2011). We need to have a crystal clear definition for tourism industry. Medlic and Middleton (1973:201) define tourism products as a bundle of activities‚ services and benefits, which constitute the entire tourism experience. This bundle consists of five components including destination attractions‚ destination facilities‚ accessibility‚ imagine and price. Buhalis (2000:98) summarizes the core components of a destination as follows:. Attraction: natural‚ manmade‚ artificial‚ purpose built‚ heritage‚ special events, Accessibility: entire transportation system comprising routes‚ terminals and vehicles,
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