Alpine Destinations Research Articles

The Case of Sustainable Tourism Development in Alpine Destinations: Importance, Implementation, and the Role of the Local DMO

ABSTRACT Sustainable tourism development asks for coordinated and collective action where destination management organisations (DMOs) are considered a crucial steering stakeholder. The aim of this study is to explore the current state of implementation of the internationally renowned destination sustainability standards from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) in Alpine destinations (Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Italy). Drawing from a survey (n = 80) with destination managers, it explores (1) the attributed importance, (2) the self-assessed level of implementation, as well as (3) the expected future importance of the GSTC criteria. Despite the indicated importance, the degree of implementation lags significantly behind. This lack of implementation is critical, especially since the DMOs attach even greater importance to these issues in the future. Further research needs to address how to close the identified gap between the perceived importance and actual implementation to advance in this urgent challenge of sustainable transformation.

It's getting tight in the Alps - challenges and implications of the e-mountain bike boom for sustainable tourism management

This study analyses the challenges and implications of technological development in mountain-bike sports for Alpine tourism destinations. We investigate the motivations of e-mountain bikers in tourism destinations and derive implications for tourism managers to handle dynamic technological developments in a sustainable manner. A mixed-method design including qualitative in-depth interviews with relevant actors and a quantitative survey with 175 e-mountain bikers was applied. The e-bike boom offers potential and challenges for sustainable tourism management in Alpine destinations. Tourism managers must develop diverse, participatory, and nature-friendly concepts as well as collaborations with nearby destinations and recreational areas to control the flow of tourists within ecologically sensitive areas.

The future of Alpine pastures – Agricultural or tourism development? Experiences from the German Alps

Alpine pastures are central to tourism in the European Alps. Tourism development in many alpine destinations relies significantly on the work force and products of alpine farmers without considering or integrating them in tourism related processes, assuming that farmers are interested in further economic growth through tourism. The question arises, whether an adequate involvement will support this interest in maintaining or expanding tourism use. The paper at hand used questionnaires and in-depth interviews with alpine farmers in the Achental region of Southern Bavaria, Germany, to examine current experiences with tourism and outdoor recreation. The study concludes that the interest in expanding tourism use is rather limited and financial aspects have little impact on the main motivation to engage in tourism development. In contrast, the study shows many conflicts arising in the clash between agricultural production and tourism use. Therefore, management actions by the local association Eco-model Achental tasked with tourism coordination are essential, including farmers as stakeholders in a participative planning process. New initiatives and support covering legal aspects, visitor management, information, networking, energy and water management are considered key to maintain this sustainable form of rural tourism in the region. In this paper we recognize that certain stakeholder groups have been neglected in tourism planning processes. However, stakeholders who are largely responsible for stewardship of the landscape need to be incorporated in regional tourism development to ensure sustainability. Therefore, the following management actions are identified: -Actively engage crucial stakeholders in participatory planning processes. -Understand that stakeholders' motives are not necessarily based on economic gain. -Identify factors that support landscape maintenance. -Create a network of stakeholders to generate appropriate support for a variety of interests.

Geography Matters, But… Evolving Success Factors for Nature-Oriented Health Tourism within Selected Alpine Destinations.

This paper analyzes the success factors of health tourism based on natural attractions in selected European spa and health destinations. The natural resources included in the offers, such as water, salt, and air, play a central role in this context, as their evidence-based effects have a high relevance for the health and wellbeing of tourists. Due to its specific geographical location and considering the threat of climate change, however, this offer is facing increasing challenges which make adaptation strategies necessary. In addition to a conceptional introduction to the topic, this paper contains a descriptive analysis of tourism statistics and the results from self-administered questionnaires with six selected representatives from alpine health destinations (DE, FR, IT, AT, CH, SI). The results show varying forms of health tourism based on natural attractions, which are also reflected in online marketing, with potential for optimization. The web research and the responses to the questionnaire revealed that evidence-based studies hardly play a role in promoting health touristic offers. Furthermore, climate change effects on natural attractions are considered extremely small and tend to prompt the development of new offers. Health destinations are advised to generate a clearer focus on the risks of climate change regarding natural resources.

The mountains are calling! An extended TPB model for understanding metropolitan residents' intentions to visit nearby alpine destinations in summer

This study investigated the suitability of an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to research the travel intention of metropolitan citizens to nearby destinations. The consideration of heat waves in this context is a novel approach. The survey data was collected from 877 Viennese respondents. Structural equation modelling shows a very good fit of the final model to the data; model extensions yield a strong increase of explained variance. The results suggest that heat-related change of intention is influenced by the strength of heat stress perceived during past heat waves. Nevertheless, subjective and social norm are the strongest determinants of intention, whereas attitude is a very weak predictor. Additional significant predictors are outdoor sports as a travel motive, media coverage, and past behaviour. The first application of an extended TPB model to summer tourism in the context of climate change yields important insights as to how climate change affects the destination choice of summer tourists. The results provide valuable starting points for attracting heat stressed metropolitan visitors.

What are the benefits of clean air for Alpine destinations?

PurposeIn this paper, the authors assume that the matter of a good quality of air will grow in importance in the future, and that it could be a noticeable part of a quality system to be used for communication purposes. The authors propose some synthetic indicators for air quality and discuss them in-depth to provide robust indexes suitable for ranking a set of alpine destinations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use locally based data on three pollutants with reference to 25 alpine touristic destinations. Starting from hourly data for 62 days of the 2014 summer season for each pollutant, the authors end with a single synthetic air quality index for any locality. The aggregation methodologies are at the core of the paper; in particular, the authors propose a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function – a well-known tool in Economics – to aggregate the pollutants the authors deal with. Because the degree of substitution among them is unknown, the authors simulate two extreme cases and an intermediate one to rank the localities on the bases of the synthetic air quality index.FindingsAll the Alpine destinations the authors considered have – or had in summer 2014 – an excellent open-air quality, and this was a permanent trait of that period. Ranks look robust (stable), as they do not depend significantly on the available options of the techniques the authors used.Originality/valueThe originality of the paper is inherent first in the idea that high quality air can be an issue of interest for touristic goals, especially in the case of mountain destinations, which have all proven to offer an excellent open-air quality. Second, from a methodological perspective, the paper frames dispersed and sectorial approaches into a single flexible one which has the property of being theoretically grounded into the economics mainstream and, at meantime, suitable to deal with some lack of information and research.

Tourismus und Klimawandel – Eine nachfrageseitige Analyse zu Wahrnehmung und Reaktion am Beispiel der Alpen

ZusammenfassungWetter und Klima sind wichtige Einflussgrößen für den Tourismus und folglich spielt auch der Klimawandel eine wichtige Rolle für den Tourismus (Dwyer et al. 2009; Lohmann & Aderhold 2009; Eisenstein 2016). Dies gilt sowohl für die Anbieter- als auch für die Nachfrageseite (Scott et al. 2012; Lohmann& Hübner 2013). Die Tourismuswissenschaft verzeichnet hierzu eine zunehmende Zahl an Studien in den vergangenen Jahren (BMWFW 2012; Becken 2013). Häufig werden die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf den Tourismus computergestützt in unterschiedlichem Detaillierungsgrad modelliert (Sax et al. 2016). Auffällig ist dabei, dass bisher vor allem die Anbieterseite im Fokus der Untersuchungen steht. Es gibt nur wenige Analysen zur Nachfrageseite, die beispielsweise die Wahrnehmung und Reaktion der Touristen bezüglich der Folgen des Klimawandels untersuchen. Ausnahmen bilden einige Arbeiten im Bereich des Wintersporttourismus (z. B. Dawson et al. 2013) sowie einige wenige explorative marktsegmentübergreifende Studien (z. B. Reintinger et al. 2016). Diese Forschungslücke ist Ausgangspunkt für die vorliegende Analyse der Diskrepanz zwischen Wahrnehmung und (potentieller) Reaktion von Touristen auf die die Folgen des Klimawandels auf Basis eigener empirischer Erhebungen (standardisierte Face-to-Face Befragung) in zwei ausgewählten alpinen Destinationen (Garmisch-Partenkirchen und Meran).

Winter tourism in Germany is much more than skiing! Consumer motives and implications to Alpine destination marketing

Winter sports tourism is a key economic factor in many mountain regions worldwide. Research to date has concentrated on economic and environmental questions related to winter sports and winter outdoor activities, with the impacts of climate change and adaptation strategies being the dominant fields of discussion. An analysis of German winter holidays indicates that winter sports are only one of several product types. The fact that the majority of German travellers prefer long-haul warm weather destinations in the winter raises the question of triggering factors for winter holiday trips. A qualitative study based on a Germany-wide online discussion forum analyses all aspects of winter trips. It centres on people’s everyday life during the winter and their linked emotions, travel motives, destination choices and general expectations, in particular with relation to trips to Alpine destinations. The results show that the grey winter weather and factors such as cold, humidity, lack of sun and dull atmosphere are the dominant factors in the desire to escape on a holiday trip. Non-skiers expect snow-covered landscapes and an environment conducive to relaxation-related activities and are therefore likely to be looking for sustainable winter products. This supports Alpine destination managers who are developing sustainable winter products in addition to winter sports in order to become more competitive in the non-skier market.

Service Design Guidelines for New Types of Wellness Tourism

In this article, we describe the preliminary results of an ongoing project aiming at increasing the attractiveness of Alpine destinations in Switzerland, by means of a very widespread hotel. We investigate how to design new services for wellness tourism, which target (a) “young elderly”, whose age is comprised between 60 and 75 years, and (b) enterprises interested in meetings, incentives, conferencing and events. The first customer segment is known to be proactive in seeking to improve or maintain health and quality of life, while medical tourists generally travel reactively to receive treatment for a diagnosed disease or condition. The second customer segment mostly seeks for complementary activities to be done after work or as main topic for a seminar. Accordingly, we have conducted interviews with different stakeholders: hotel managers, owners of firms producing natural components for wellbeing and tourist officers. In the end, we highlight a set of relevant findings that should be taken into account when setting up wellness tourism in a dispersed area.

Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and their role in summer product development in selected Alpine countries

Appeared in the XIX century, summer mountain tourism has a very strong capital attraction for international tourist flows and constitutes the basis of leisure tourism. However, for the last several years numerous, mature Alpine destinations in particular have been losing overnight stays during summer months by cause of competition with winter tourism as well often from warmer, cheaper and more easily accessible beach destinations. Moreover, due to the globalisation pressure, summer mountain tourism development is strongly dependent on structural change in “21st century post-modern” tourist demand. Thus, innovative tourism product development has become a central key issue for many Alpine tourism organisations. The aim of this paper is to present the result of explanatory research conducted in 2014 and 2015 in four Alpine countries. The research objective was to evaluate the role of 125 Destinations Management Organizations (DMOs) in the stimulation of summer tourism through the commercialization of various tourism products

Destination Competitiveness—A Comparison of Subjective and Objective Indicators for Winter Sports Areas

Studies about measuring competitiveness of winter sport destinations are rare. Subjective measurements seem to dominate research mostly either from demand or supply side; however, seldom integrated approaches from both sides are used. Objective measures seem to be scarce, and comparisons of both subjective and objective measures seem to have been neglected so far. To increase the credibility of previous findings, this article relies on subjective primary data (demand and supply side), also named “soft” data, and objective secondary data (demand side), also named “hard” data, on the competitiveness of six Alpine destinations. Findings show evidence that subjective performance measures show deviations from the results based on objective measures.

Destination attractiveness and destination attachment: The mediating role of tourists' attitude

The present study investigates the influence of destination attractiveness on tourists' destination attachment by examining the mediating effect of tourists' cognitive evaluations (i.e., their attitude). Data were collected using on-site interviews with 1232 international tourists in six Alpine destinations. Study 1 addresses the impact of destination attractiveness factors (i.e., accessibility, amenities, scenery and local community) on tourists' attitude. Study 2 validates the model and links it with tourists' destination attachment. Results obtained from SEM highlight the importance of a more fine-grained conceptualization of the antecedents of destination attachment. Findings reveal indirect-only mediation for access and local community, complementary mediation for amenities, and mediation with suppression for scenery. Without tourists' attitude as a mediating construct, however, only amenities show a positive, significant effect on attachment formation. The empirical findings provide destination managers and policy makers with valuable information about how to use destination perception and cognitive reenactment to increase destination attachment.

Transition management towards sustainable mobility in Alpine destinations: realities and realpolitik in Italy's South Tyrol region

ABSTRACTSustainable mobility, including public transport and human-powered slow mobility is a priority for the sustainable development of tourism destinations, but it is a complex challenge to devise, implement and manage. This paper explores the mechanisms and conditions governing transition towards sustainable mobility in destinations, using a complexity-based approach. Destinations are understood as complex adaptive systems where social-ecological, socio-technical and socio-political subsystems interact dynamically with the tourism subsystem. These subsystems are interwoven and undergo significant, and inter-related, changes during transition towards more sustainable mobility. Three examples from the tourism intensive Alpine destination of South Tyrol (Italy) illustrate subsystem interactions during the transition process. Key player interview-based qualitative research indicates that the complexity of transition management is rooted particularly in the paired presence of risk aversion among local stakeholders and the unpredictability of visitor flows. Mitigating risk aversion through collective knowledge creation and offering answers to unpredictability by developing a strong adaptive and (re)organisation capacity seem to be required to adjust sustainable mobility solutions to continuous market changes, to convince stakeholders and to guarantee incremental and durable success. The public sector's special role is noted, as are the time demands of transition management, and the value of both formal and informal partnerships.

The role of protected areas in destination choice in the European Alps

Abstract This paper investigates the role of protected areas (PA) for destination choice in the European Alps. It is based on the analysis of the most relevant types of PA (national park, nature park, biosphere reserve), constituting part of the supply of tourism development, and a representative survey of the German population interested in holidays in the alpine area, representing the demand. Our analysis of the legal framework showed that all three types of PA facilitate tourism development, albeit in different ways. The survey included a generic choice experiment of alpine destinations with 17 attributes. Its location in or close to a PA was included as one variable. This destination demand study in an area of origin provided a different perspective on the preference for PA compared to other studies, and revealed significant differences between respondents with and without previous experiences in the Alps. The alpine experienced tourist is more likely to distinguish between the various types of PA such as national park and nature park. For the inexperienced alpine tourist, representing latent demand, the branding effect of PA is rather limited. For nearly all tourists, experienced and inexperienced, and across all segments, offers that include a nature experience are important. Nature experience, which is offered by all types of PA, is of high relevance within the destination choice and should therefore be used more intensely in destination marketing based on PA. Overall, this study shows that the role of PA for destination choice is not as strong as is reported by most of the published literature, as most of these studies are based on surveys in the destination and use single item scaling questions, which overvalue the role of PA.

The sensitivity of winter tourism to exchange rate changes: Evidence for the Swiss Alps

This paper investigates the impact of the appreciation of the Swiss franc on international tourism in Swiss Alpine resorts, city and lake destinations using annual data for winter seasons 2007/2008 to 2010/2011. Using median regression models, we find that the nominal and real appreciation of the Swiss franc has a large and significantly negative impact on international tourism demand in Alpine destinations during winter months. The elasticities of the relative price (to those of competing countries) range between −3.0 for foreign hotel nights and −2.1 for foreign hotel arrivals. In contrast, the real exchange rate effect is much lower in absolute terms for city and lake destinations. The results are not sensitive with respect to different measures of international tourism demand (arrivals, hotel nights and the length of stay). Income elasticities are also significant and large with values of two and higher. In general, these findings are robust to alternative estimation methods (i.e., median regression, robust regression method and ordinary least squares in first differences).

The climate tourism potential of Alpine destinations using the example of Sonnblick, Rauris and Salzburg

The climate tourism potential of a region can be described by methods used in human biometeorology and applied climatology. Frequency analyses based on complex thermal bioclimatic indices (e.g. physiologically equivalent temperature) and diagrams of precipitation patterns based on thresholds offer new approaches of visualisation. An integral approach for tourism climatologic analyses is provided by the climate–tourism/transfer–information–scheme that also bases on frequency distributions of relevant factors and parameters which are important for a destination. The knowledge about the vertical variability of tourism climatologic factors is of high importance because of the several kinds of tourism activities affected by weather. The same holds for a quantification of extreme events like heat waves because of their possible effects on health and recreation over a year's course. The results show that the vertical gradient of bioclimatic and tourism-related parameters can be of value when developing strategies of adaption to climate change.

From destination management towards governance of regional innovation systems – the case of South Tyrol, Italy

PurposeIn South Tyrol, Italy, and in other alpine destinations, the role of publicly financed tourism destination management has traditionally a strong focus on image promotion. In South Tyrol, three further regional public management organisations have recently been founded with the aim of developing the location by expanding its innovation and export capabilities, especially for small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). All four public organisations aim to increase the competitiveness of local companies through creating a more efficient management of destination and location. The cooperation between the four organisations and further public and private regional stakeholders might be regarded as a regional innovation system (RIS). This paper aims to analyse and discuss within the frame of a case study, the structure of the cooperation between the four public organisations and if it can be regarded as a developing South Tyrolean regional innovation system. The paper aims to focus on the roles of the four organisations, possible synergies and implications for regional governance.Design/methodology/approachFour qualitative interviews were conducted with the directors of the four organisations, based on four open questions. The interviews were analysed using the GABEK technique and WinRelan software. These combined techniques helped to visualise the processes within and between social organisations. Further, they helped to show, structure and organise respondents' experiences and opinions, and enabled the researchers to identify opportunities and difficulties, even in such complex structures.FindingsThe results of the study show there exists a cooperation of semi‐private organisations in South Tyrol, which shows characteristics of being a central part of a developing regional innovation system. The four analysed organisations work on different tasks and positions in the promotion and management of the region under a set of common goals. The destination management organisation takes a central and important part in the regional innovation system. Its umbrella brand is an integrating element for the entire cooperation. Nevertheless, the analysed organisations have unrealised potential for further cooperation. The realisation of synergies, and a clearer definition of responsibilities by the regional government, are seen as the bases for better regional governance and for the implementation of an effective regional innovation system in South Tyrol.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations, including that further research on this approach is needed in order to characterize the whole regional innovation system. Furthermore a comparative study with other regions should be conducted.Originality/valueThe processes behind the development of an integrated regional management and marketing can be observed in several alpine regions (such as Graubünden, Tyrol) and major cities (for example, Zürich, Bern). South Tyrol underwent a long process of umbrella brand development – the basis for the integration of economic and tourist promotion. Through the integration and development of the product, other facets were enhanced, including marketing, innovation, the establishment of new enterprises and exports, which together can be regarded as regional innovation systems. This case study shows the synergies of the different regional actors, as well as implications for the governance of such regional innovation systems. In this way, the paper adds value to the discussion, how regional innovation processes can be initiated and governed, considering the role of the destination management organisation.

Do Actors Really Agree on Strategic Issues? Applying Consensus Analysis of Stakeholder Perceptions in Tourist Destination Communities

Consensus on strategic issues in tourist destination communities is an integral part of the extensive body of literature on destination planning and destination policy making. But while there are numerous contributions addressing methods and concepts for achieving explicit consensus, research on implicit consensus among decision-makers that increases the likelihood of collective action is lacking. This article focuses on individual perceptions of prominent actors in four European Alpine destinations and the question of whether they implicitly agree upon selected strategic dimensions. With the help of network data and the application of formal consensus analysis, the empirical research identifies whether there is one common truth and if so, which actors know the truth best and which are the ones who are bad informants or even create dissent. Despite the earlier and ongoing planning processes in the research sites, which involves most of these actors, and despite the explicitly agreed-upon destination strategies and plans, the results show only partial consensus. Against expectations, the best informants are not the most influential actors but rather those prominent individuals who reside in relatively marginal positions, at hierarchical middle levels and with limited responsibility. The results indicate that the less concerned some individuals are with a strategic dimension, the more likely they give the culturally correct answer, because they do not have to advocate or defend a differentiated position. Additionally, external individuals may catalyze the formation of consensus over time, but only after they have first destabilized stalemate perceptions and positions among the local actors. The article concludes with implications for destination planning that complement the current approaches.

The resource-based and the market-based approaches to cultural tourism in alpine destinations

This study focuses on the relevance of cultural resources in tourism, including cultural heritage sites, cultural landscapes, events or festivals. It seeks to reveal the differences between two management strategy perspectives, the market-based view or approach (MBV) and the resource-based view or approach (RBV), of involved destination stakeholders and the impacts of those differing approaches on their perception of cultural tourism development. The literature on the strategy orientation of organizations/destinations is reviewed and serves as the theoretical background. Data were gathered from 38 semi-structured interviews with experts and key stakeholders in alpine destinations of cultural tourism in Northern Italy, using GABEK, a tool for analyzing complex qualitative data. The results indicate differences between destinations with diverse strategy-perspectives in terms of authenticity perception, standardization, leadership and sustainability orientation. The MBV requires larger financial resources to create an effective brand image. Authenticity was found to be very important and the VRIO framework (valuable, rare, inimitable and organized) a valuable tool. The RBV is best related to niche market products. The RBV also leads to more sustainable strategies for resource use but requires strong vision and network management skills.

Neue Herkunftsmärkte und regionale Tourismusstruktur. Ein tourismuspolitisches Spannungsfeld im alpinen Tourismus

Zusammenfassung Der Tourismus in Österreich, vor allem in den alpinen Destinationen, verdankt seinen hohen gesellschaftlichen Stellenwert vor allem seiner regionalen Ausgleichsfunktion, die weite Teile des Landes als Lebensraum erhielt. Schon seit geraumer Zeit wird jedoch der Nachfrageausfall aus den traditionellen Herkunftsmärkten beklagt. Marketingverantwortliche versuchen in logischer Konsequenz, neue Märkte zu erschließen. Kaum wird jedoch hinterfragt, was diese neuen, keineswegs homogenen Märkte für die regionale Verteilung bedeuten. Vor allem die Fernmärkte weisen einen hohen Attraktivitätsfaktor auf. Davon profitieren zwar die Städte, keineswegs aber die peripheren Regionen. Eine Umlenkung der finanziellen Ressourcen innerhalb der regionalen Marketingstrategie ist folglich auch vor dem Hintergrund des regional-wirtschaftlichen Instruments „Tourismus“ zu sehen.