Abstract
Tourism is perceived as an appropriate solution for pursuing sustainable economic growth due to its main characteristics. In the context of sustainable tourism, gamification can act as an interface between tourists (clients), organisations (companies, NGOs, public institutions) and community, an interface built in a responsible and ethical way. The main objective of this study is to identify gamification techniques and applications used by organisations in the hospitality and tourism industry to improve their sustainable activities. The first part of the paper examines the relationship between gamification and sustainability, highlighting the links between these two concepts. The second part identifies success stories of gamification applied in hospitality and tourism and reviews gamification benefits by analysing the relationship between tourism organisations and three main tourism stakeholders: tourists, tourism employees and local community. The analysis is made in connection with the main pillars of sustainability: economic, social and environmental. This study is positioning the role of gamification in the tourism and hospitality industry and further, into the larger context of sustainable development.
Highlights
The relationship between tourism and the environment represents one of the main topics in the agenda of tourism stakeholders, all of them being aware of its importance
Mapping a range of diverse cases of gamification applications gives the possibility to incorporate all aspects and key players in an overall picture. It outlines the role of gamification, adding sustainability features to organisations activating in the tourism and hospitality sector
Implementing gamification for marketing purposes, the majority of organisations from tourism and hospitality perceive the use of game elements as an opportunity to reshape loyalty programmes, innovate advertising and promotion campaigns and customize and develop new products
Summary
The relationship between tourism and the environment represents one of the main topics in the agenda of tourism stakeholders, all of them being aware of its importance. Environment-sensitive tourism: reduce environmental effects and increase sustainability; Environment-dependent tourism: the environment represents one of the main inputs for tourism, which must be preserved in order to guarantee long-run success. Organisation (UNWTO), sustainable development represents “a process to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [7]. This approach can be explained using the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social and environmental. A sustainable tourism process should take “full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities” [7]
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