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Governance and complexity have increasingly become subjects of interest within research on sustainable tourism. Governance has been marked by a turn to more corporatist and networked policymaking structures. At the same time, the use of the concept of complexity in research on tourism destinations and governance is gaining momentum in an effort to address the links in increasingly networked systems as well as the interrelatedness of the multiple features of a tourist destination. Meanwhile, resilience has emerged as a new buzzword in research on sustainable development and governance which denotes the ability of a destination to cope with and adapt to change. This article reviews the literature on destination governance to identify critical issues and trends and discusses the relevance of complexity approaches. Evolutionary studies and research on resilience in a sustainability context are becoming part of this discussion. The review sheds light on the limitations and merits of each of these concepts, as well as on their nexus. The article concludes with some key areas for future research on destination governance. The aim of the review is to contribute to conceptual clarity and to advance the application of complexity approaches in research on destination governance.

Recent studies question whether ubiquitous connectivity via mobiles represents an enhancer and facilitator in nature-based tourism experiences or a potential destructor to disconnect from. We argue that extant research approaches cannot fully grasp the complexity of the connectivity-disconnection dilemma, specifically how tourists appropriate, reinterpret, reshape, and negotiate with meanings inscribed in mobiles and how such negotiations link to valuations of nature-based experiences. This research adopts an interpretivist approach and uses actor-network theory to investigate negotiations of connectivity and their experiential meanings through field interviews in Fulufjället National Park, Sweden. Results reveal translations of social connectivity, facilitation of information and orientation as thematic cores of tourists’ embodiments of mobile connectivity. Results also show how the comprehensive tourismscape where such embodiments find meaning contributes to tourists’ definitions of disconnection. Such definitions comprise human and non-human actors on site, off site, and cannot be exhausted by essentialist dualisms between being plugged and unplugged.

Tourism education has matured from vocational to more liberal education while current trends underline the importance of critical studies and the shift of curricula to more action-oriented forms of education and citizenship education. However, a gap can be noticed between theory and practice in the development of pedagogy for sustainable tourism. The research reported here draws from debates in tourism education, education for sustainability, critical studies, and education for citizenship to develop a conceptual framework for pedagogy for sustainable tourism. This framework is used to reflect on the curriculum space of a master programme in tourism in Sweden in an analytic autoethnographic approach. The analysis indicates that the master programme addresses several aspects of the reflective vocational and reflective liberal curriculum space. It would also benefit from the integration of more experiential, action-oriented learning to strengthen the communal understanding of civil action and education for citizenship. This research contributes to the conceptualisation of the curriculum space for sustainable tourism. Such efforts are considered especially important in acknowledging the complex, dynamic character of tourism higher education. The aim is to invite a dialogue about the reform and evolution of tourism education to meet the needs for a sustainable future.

The world is experiencing an unpresented health, social, and economic crisis situation with tourism reported to be one of the most severely hit sectors (UNWTO, 2020). COVID-19 pandemic is often discussed as an imposed pause of humanity’s frantic growth and an opportunity to reflect on our choices and future paths, an invitation to tourists and the industry to reconsider their options and adopt more sustainable practices in the after COVID-19 era (Gretzel et al., 2020; Ioannides and Gyimóthy, 2020) a view shared also by UNWTO claiming that “sustainability should be the new normal” in the after covid era (https://www.unwto.org/covid-19-oneplanet-responsible-recovery).. COVID-19 crisis although reduced or even eliminated tourism and travel opportunities for certain periods, it has also contributed to the first in history reduction in greenhouse gas emissions related to reduced travels and industrial production (Gössling et al., 2020).  As the world is now focusing in mitigating the adverse impacts of the pandemic and bringing economy and tourism ‘back to business’, there are also alarming voices that measures taken in the pressure of emergency to combat economic recession from COVID-19 should not contradict or jeopardise with long-term sustainability goals and SDGs should not be overlooked or neglected (Hall et al., 2020).  Besides the problems created, crises can be a disruption leading to innovations. It is a period of transition and innovation to combat a rapid crisis such as the pandemic while some of these actions and innovations, if adjusted adequately, can be useful in the long run to combat the less visible slow crisis like climate change and other sustainability challenges. In this research we look on knowledge and experience generated during the pandemic crisis to attain a more sustainable development of tourism now but very importantly in the “new normal” after the crisis. We look onto how companies in Dalarna and Gotland have responded to the pandemic so far and how they work with sustainability and climate change. In this presentation I want to explore the idea of cocreating knowledge with companies. How can we engage companies? What is relevant research for them? How can we help them towards a transformational approach to embrace sustainability?

Objectives 

A large part of the growing body of literature on the use of ICTs  and mobile technologies in tourism has examined the adaption and embracement of mobile technologies in tourism and the impact it brings in tourist experiences, often in advocative approaches (Neuhofer, Buhalis & Ladkin, 2012; Buhalis & Foerste, 2015). Nevertheless, an increasing number of authors have been commenting on the disruptive character of these technologies with the research pointing to the tourists’ loss of sense of place, disengagement and alienation caused by the perceived invasiveness of technology on the overall nature-based experience (Silas et al. 2016, White & White 2007, Gretzel 2010, Tribe & Mkono 2017). Although trends related to disconnection have been acknowledged in the form of ‘digital detox’ and ‘digital switch-off’ holidays (Elmahdy, Haukeland & Fredman, 2017; Gretzel, 2014), a relatively limited number of studies has looked into tourists desire to “disconnect” from ICTs and mobile connectivity in nature-based tourist experience (Dickinson et al. 2016; Paris et al. 2015). Current research regarding connectedness and disconnectedness in tourism experiences has followed rather dualistic, dichotomising approaches. For example, research has looked into the enforced disconnectedness as experienced in “technology dead zones” or as deliberate disconnectedness in technology-free zones (Pearce and Gretzel 2012); or technology as a barrier or an opportunity in experiencing the natural environment (Dickinson et al 2016). Dickinson et al. discussed also the dilemma of ‘to use or not to use’ mobile technologies as a “double edge sword” (p. 196) as experienced by users in campsites.ICT and mobile technology use and value creation in nature-based experiences along with the negotiation of tourists’ connectivity is a relatively understudied topic which would require further investigation (Dickinson et al. 2016; Gundersen & Frivold 2008; Vespestad & Lindberg 2011).

In this paper, we examine connectedness and disconnectedness in nature-based experiences as positions in a continuum. Instead of examining mobile technology use in nature-based activities as something inherently “good” or “bad” which either advances or destructs the experience, we try to understand the different positioning that tourists can have on a continuum, which embrace both disconnection and connectivity as performative valuing acts (Baka 2015). In doing so, we move from the dominant post-positivist approaches of technology (Munar et al. 2013), which are reflected on how connectivity and disconnection are investigated in nature-based tourism. By adopting a performative view, we examine how and why subjective ideas of disconnection and connection are constructed and performed within the tourist experience of natural areas. This could contribute to answering the question of how disconnection is subjectively negotiated with being connected (Dickinson et al. 2016; Neuhorfer 2016). 

Methodology Qualitative, semi-structured interviews at international visitors in Fulufjället National Park, Sweden, was the method of data collection. Interviews took place right after their visit to the park and were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. A total of 36 interviewees were part of this research.

Main Results and Contributions Preliminary analysis indicate that tourists seek for some control over their connectivity while outdoors in the park. Although a clear articulation of the need to disconnect has been expressed during interviews, this is negotiated from complete disconnectedness to partial one, allowing information, orientation and safety reasons to use it. Furthermore, this negotiated disconnectedness was found to form part of a broader disconnectedness from their every-day life. Disconnecting from their mobiles and technology act as a performance of their escapism from their ordinary lives and work. This is better understood as a performative act of disconnecting from ordinary life and connecting back to nature and the inner self.

Limitations 

This research builds on a limited number of interviews in a single case-study. Further research would be necessitated to explore further the findings. The findings offer also the ground for the development of further quantitative surveys.

Conclusions 

This research contributes to a rather understudied field, that of ICT and mobile connectivity use in nature-based experiences with empirical data from Sweden. The resulting knowledge contributes to a better understanding on the mediating role of ICTs as contributors or destructors in nature-based experiences and visitors value creation in these experiences. At a theoretical level, the research introduces the notion of a continuum in connectedness/disconnectedness in nature-based activities and the understanding of it as a performative act.

References 

Baka, V. (2015). Understanding valuing devices in tourism through “place-making”. Valuation Studies, 3(2), 149-180.

Buhalis, D., & Foerste, M. (2015). SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-creation of value. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 4(3), 151-161.

Dickinson, J. E., Hibbert, J. F., & Filimonau, V. (2016). Mobile technology and the tourist experience: (Dis)connection at the campsite. Tourism Management, 57, 193–201

Elmahdy, Y. M., Haukeland, J. V., & Fredman, P. (2017). Tourism megatrends, a literature review focused on nature-based tourism. MINA fagrapport 32, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Gretzel, U. (2010). Travel in the network: Redirected gazes, ubiquitous connections and new frontiers. Post-global network and everyday life, 41–58.

Gretzel, U. (2014). Travel Unplugged: The case of Lord Howe Island, Australia. In Proceedings of the TTRA Canada annual conference. Yellowknife, Canada, september 24–26. 

Gundersen, V. S., & Frivold, L. H. (2008). Public preferences for forest structures: a review of quantitative surveys from Finland, Norway and Sweden. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 7(4), 241-258.

Munar, A. M., Gyimóthy, S., & Cai, L. (Eds.) (2013). Tourism social media: Transformations in identity, community and culture. Emerald Group Publishing.

Neuhofer, B., Buhalis, D. & Ladkin, A., (2012). Conceptualising technology enhanced destination experiences. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 1(1-2), 36-46.

Neuhofer, B. (2016). Value co-creation and co-destruction in connected tourist experiences. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2016 (pp. 779-792). Springer, Cham. 

Silas, E., Løvlie, A. S., & Ling, R. (2016). The smartphone’s role in the contemporary backpacking experience. Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 9(6), 40–55.

Tribe, J., & Mkono, M. (2017). Not such smart tourism? The concept of e-lienation. Annals of Tourism Research, 66, 105–115.

Vespestad, M. K., & Lindberg, F. (2011). Understanding nature-based tourist experiences: An ontological analysis. Current Issues in Tourism, 14(6), 563-580.

White, N. R., & White, P. B. (2007). Home and away: Tourists in a connected world. Annals of Tourism Research, 34(1), 88–104.

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned into a global crisis, the impacts of which are being felt around the world. Tourism and hospitality is one of the most severely hit sectors with many arguing that this is a period for fundamental transformations towards a new normal in the industry. There are also voices, however, who argue for a bouncing back and the recapturing of lost ground as soon as the circumstances allow. At the time of writing this abstract, several countries were experiencing a third wave with limited knowledge however on the impacts and experiences from the first wave.This research is on two destinations, one in Sweden and one in the USA. The two countries have followed quite different approaches in the management of the pandemic. We performed in-depth interviews with tourism businesses and actors in the two destinations with the aim of understanding their reactions and their experiences at an early stage of the pandemic. Interviews took place in spring 2020 when most of the world was still in lockdown. We try to understand how companies in an island summer destination in the Baltic Sea and in a nature-based destination in the USA are coping and negotiating their future early in the pandemic. Uncertainty was evident among interviewees. Uncertainty was related to lack of knowledge about the future and how to cope with and manage their business in light of that. Uncertainty was experienced also as anxiety over the survival of their business or even the future of the tourism industry and the social implications the economic downturn would have. Besides that, tourism actors in both destinations were trying to adapt and change their business models or products to respond to the crisis. They could see some positive signs in the new products or models they have adapted and how they could shape the future. Thinking out of the box or investing time and effort in things they did not have the time to do before were perceived as positive. Although at a very early stage to claim any transformation, change and adaptability to respond to the new circumstances and reduce losses were found among businesses. This is an early reaction paper to understand how companies and destinations were experiencing and understanding their situation amidst the crisis. This knowledge can help us understand and better manage destinations for the new normal but also in future crisis situations.

Sustainability is a concept that has been dominating developmental and political debates during at least the last two decades. It is a contested concept, flexible enough to match diverse or even conflicting viewpoints and interests. In tourism, this vagueness is related to the value-based character of the sustainable tourism concept. The concept is often related to broad and sweeping ethical and ideological considerations and to a simplified and harmonic view on sustainable development where inescapable conflict of interests between social, cultural, economic and environmental issues are neglected. The aim of this research is to critically discuss discourses of sustainability of a disputed tourist project in rural Sweden as communicated in mass media. More specifically, the research is examining the case of Sälen mountain resort and look on how the development process of a new international airport, inaugurated in 2020, was presented and debated in newspapers. The project was considered controversial with many proponents as well as opponents raising conflicting interests and points of view. We have analysed material in newspapers for the period 2011-2019. Preliminary findings indicate that the project of the development of an international airport is presented as hopeful and good with indications of intrinsic though utilitarian values. Pro-growth discourses around increasing numbers of international tourists and job generation, or even of positive environmental impacts are evident in the media. Opposition on the other hand, comes as debate articles and develops around tax-payers money, responsibility to future generations and environmental concerns. Discourses of weak and strong approaches and pro-growth vs degrowth become part of the discussion of the results to inform the theoretical framework of analysis. As this transportation project and the discourses around it analysed rely a lot on the premise of growth and international tourism, aspects of circularity become also part of the discussion.  The role of an international airport as a transportation mega-project to compensate for rurality and peripherality as well as social sustainability is evident also in the discourses. Aspects of locality and proximity are ignored in these discourses and pinpoint its relevance to circularity paradigm and its contribution in advancing sustainability discourses. 

COVID-19 pandemic is often discussed as an imposed pause of humanity’s frantic growth and an opportunity to reflect on our choices and future paths (Gretzel et al., 2020; Ioannides and Gyimóthy, 2020. As the world is now focusing in mitigating the adverse impacts of the pandemic and bringing economy and tourism ‘back to business’, measures taken in the pressure of emergency to combat economic recession from COVID-19,  sustainability goals should not be overlooked or neglected (Hall et al., 2020).  At the same time, it is a period of transition and innovation; crises can be a disruption leading to innovations. This research develops around a new project funded by Tillväxtverket which focuses on eliciting the knowledge and the experience generated during the pandemic crisis to attain a more sustainable development of tourism in the “new normal” after the crisis. During the presentation, an overview of the project will be given and some preliminary results from interviews with companies in Dalarna and Gotland will be presented. We look onto how companies have responded to the pandemic so far and how they work with sustainability and climate change. The aim is to better understand vulnerability and resilience among tourism companies and contribute to a more sustainable tourism in the new normal. In this project we undertake a transformative approach which acknowledges the presence of diverse interests and tensions and which employs collaborative and disruptive methods to work with. It also integrates a transformative approach in analysing and discussing the preliminary results and the role of companies in climate change and sustainability in the new normal. Transformative approaches thus are integrated in the ontological as well as epistemological foundations of this research. Very importantly, methodologically we work with collaborative disruptive methods to trigger transformation in the system and enable a discussion with stakeholders around systemic changes in our understandings of development, vulnerability, climate change and sustainability

Tourism education has matured from vocational to more liberal education while current trends underline the importance of critical studies and the shift of curricula to more action-oriented forms of education with the community on focus. In parallel to the developments in tourism education, debates in pedagogy have discussed the role of education for citizenship to prepare“citizens of a complex and interlocking world” (Nussbaum 2002, p. 292). In spite of the proliferating number of relevant publications and of programme offer in tourism, little change can be noticed in tourism curricula while very little is still known about tourism education outside the Anglo-Saxon world. This research employs an autoethnography approach to analyse a master programme in tourism in Sweden. The aim is to highlight issues of importance and relevance for sustainable tourism pedagogy. It draws from discourses in tourism education, education for sustainability, critical studies, and education for citizenship to operationalise an analytical framework regarding tourism education. This framework is used to reflect on a master programme offered in Sweden and the expressions that pedagogy for sustainable tourism can take in specific contexts. Findings indicate that a number of qualities of Education for Sustainability can be found in the master programme including critical analysis and reflectivity, linking theory to practice and experiential learning methods, evolving dynamic learning, self-reflectivity over one’s own learning and peer feedback, multiple stakeholders’ approach, divergent cultural understandings, or understanding of power dimensions. Learning as a transformative experience is embedded into the programme trying to enable students to develop their own understandings of tourism and sustainability. Although the curriculum addresses all four dimensions of the analytical framework, more work can be done to strengthen parts of it, especially the need for civil, liberal action. Higher education in Sweden including, tourism education, has remained at a more reflective liberal space advocating for critical analysis skills and individual abilities to perform certain tasks. It is suggested here that tourism education needs to embrace and move towards liberal action and incorporate social learning and community service in more transformational approaches to education for sustainability.

This paper explores social capital in the tourism destination of Bohemian Switzerland, located in thenorth of the Czech Republic. The research uses the synergy view on social capital, which incorporatesorganisational and institutional actors as well as local community. Through interviewing differenttypes of stakeholders from the destination, data were collected and consequently analysed with theuse of thematic analysis. An important element was identified: trust, which is especially necessary inorder to facilitate collaboration. Furthermore, positive influence from communication and localengagement in collaborations was noted. In addition, the role of institutions and tourismorganisations in the creation and positive demonstration of social capital in a tourism destinationwas emphasized. Therefore, there is a need to recognise the complementary relationships ofdifferent agents in tourism destinations

A Decision Analytical tool capable of handling numerically imprecise data for decision making is used in this paper to analyze the risk of the effect of data alteration in the ranking positions of country alternatives for food price volatility. Unguided decision making processes would lead to non-optimal decisions with it’s dire consequences on the resources of organizations. The paper is thus guided by the use of an accurate risk classification model to implement uncertainty and imprecision which are essential part of real life decision making processes with computer based tools to overcome the problem of possibilities uncertain and imprecise input data of criteria and alternatives. A ranking of the alternatives is conducted after imprecision is considered in the input data and a further analysis is carried out to determine which criteria is sensitive enough to alter the position of a country in the rankings.

Collaboration is a social activity shaped by interactions. Taking a structural approach in social representations theory, the present research used a cognitive mapping method to analyse and compare the mental models of actors regarding collaborations in Idre, Sweden. Tourism actors share a core system in their representations which develops around packaging and selling of the tourism product to an international market, indicative of a hegemonic representation. Issues of quality, shared responsibility, trust, inclusivity and power were also revealed and should be taken into account in planning tourism and collaborations in the area. Findings indicate that actors hold multiple representations of collaboration, which reflects the social complexity apparent in the tourism destination, and the evolutionary character of social representations. 

Purpose

The aim of the research is to examine tourism actors’ perceptions of collaborations in Idre, Sweden, and reveal differences and similarities in the way that individual actors value the outcomes of collaborations, in what they consider as important in collaborations and how collaborations in the area take place.  This is examined with cognitive mapping taking a social representations theory approach.

Theoretical perspective

Social representations developed by Moscovichi are about a cognitive system at the social level allowing the members of a community to share a common understanding of things communicate and act cohesively (Nicolini 1999). Social representations in tourism have been used so far mainly in examining attitudes of host communities towards tourism. Social representations in the study of tourism place emphasis on the social construction of tourism allowing more power to the members of the community and thus enabling sustainable development (Moscardo, 2011).

Cognitive mapping offers a method to elicit and analyse perceptions an individual holds about a particular domain. Comparisons between cognitive maps can reveal similarities and differences in the way the domain under investigation is constructed and understood while the analysis of the cognitive maps can reveal values and central constructs in individual cognition. These characteristics make cognitive maps particularly attractive in examining social representations. Surprisingly however, hardly any study has attempted to do so.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a key informants sampling technique together with snowballing, the study identified eight tourism actors in the area covering several types of tourism stakeholders. A cognitive mapping method based on SODA (Eden and Ackermann, 2001; Farsari, Butler and Szivas, 2010) approach using semi-structured interviews was used to study perceptions of tourism actors in Idre, Sweden, about collaborations. Data were analysed using Decision Explorer’s analytical tools. Value, hieset, potency, domain, centrality and cluster analysis were used to analyse cognitive maps and reveal goals, key issues and clusters in the perceptions of tourism stakeholders about collaborations in Idre. Consequently, the individual maps were compared against these findings to reveal similarities and differences in the perceptions of tourism actors.

Expected Findings/Discussion

This is still a work in progress. Results are expected to reveal key issues in collaborations between tourism actors in Idre, as well as similarities and differences in the way actors construct their perceptions of collaborations. This comparison will allow revealing well established notions in collaborations in the area as well as differences and gaps that might hinder them. Results are discussed in light of representations theory to highlight whether there is some consensus in the understanding of collaborations in the area.

Conclusion/Contribution/Originality

Practical implications include the identification of important aspects in actors’ collaborations. In this way collaborations might be strengthened enhancing sustainable tourism development in the area. Theoretical contribution of the research emanates from the studying of social representations in collaborations and moreover using a cognitive mapping method. Hardly any study has used cognitive mapping to examine social representations. This research aims at exploring the use of a specific cognitive mapping method to this direction and thus potentially  offer the ground for more research in the area. Very importantly, with this method, findings are not only based on the content but also on the way actors structure their perceptions allowing a more thorough understanding and studying of them.

Sustainable tourism is a malleable concept that needs to be operationalized for successful implementation. Policies based on firm conceptualizations are needed in order to put sustainable tourism into practice. The present research develops a conceptual model to support sustainable tourism policy making. It brings together, into a single model, knowledge from diverse literature sources and structures it as a system of interrelated components using a holistic, adaptive, and complex systems' approach. In building the model it is the interrelationships of the elements that shape it and underline its contribution as something more than a listing of policy considerations. This comprehensive representation of interrelationships should help policy makers to navigate through the complexities of sustainable tourism and to make more knowledgeable decisions.

Kalymnos Island lagged in tourism development noticed in other Aegean islands. It was not before the 1997 that the first climbing routes were engraved. During the last decade, Kalymnos has become a popular worldwide climbing destination with more than 1200 routes in 77 climbing fields. Several commentators argue on the potential of climbing tourism for the sustainable development of the island. Climbing tourism is a niche market of adventurous tourism. Adventure tourists tend to value the environment of the destinations visited. However, little empirical research on the topic exists while no one has examined climbing tourism in Kalymnos. The present research aims to understand environmental attitudes of climbing tourists in Kalymnos and examine whether climbers are indeed aligned to alternative tourism. The New Ecological Paradigm Scale has been a widely used instrument to measure environmental attitudes and the endorsement of an ecological worldview.

The paper discusses a study of policies for sustainable tourism developed at all four policy making levels in Greece using a complex systems approach. Complexity was examined between policy issues i.e. the elements constituting policy considerations. The mental models of policy makers were elicited, built and analyzed by applying appropriately developed cognitive mapping methods to reveal key policy considerations, valued outcomes and perceptions of complexity. Individual map analysis and comparisons of policy making at each level revealed greater structural differences than similarities. These findings indicate a complex domain with various ramifications perceived in different ways by individual policy makers. Despite structural differences, policies at all levels in Greece contained a clear focus on the economic sustainability of tourism, reflecting a rather parochial perspective on sustainable tourism.

Sustainable tourism is a malleable concept which needs to be operationalised for successful implementation. Policies based on firm conceptualisations are needed in order to put sustainable tourism into practice. The present research develops a conceptual model to support sustainable tourism policy making.  It brings together into a single model knowledge from diverse sources and structures it as a system of interrelated components using a systemic, holistic approach. A wide array of topics of tourism literature were retrieved and reviewed. These included policies undertaken in north Mediterranean countries, policy recommendations, principles and the discourse on sustainable tourism, tourism impacts and other specific issues revealed during the research process. Literature findings, treated as data, were coded and inductively analysed to identify themes and patterns and to classify them into categories, followed by interpretation to organise them into hierarchical constructs. No hypothesis or external analytical frameworks were imposed on them. Induction and interpretation followed an iterative process, during which initial categories found in the data were progressively refined and integrated to result in a hierarchical classification. In building the model it is the interrelationships of the elements that shape it and underline its contribution as something more than a listing of policy considerations. This comprehensive representation of interrelationships should help policy makers to navigate through the complexities of sustainable tourism and to make more knowledgeable decisions.

There is a growing body of literature arguing for the need to examine sustainable tourism and policies for sustainable tourism within complexity theory. Methods which are particularly developed to study complex problems are needed in order to move from conceptualization and theory to understanding and operationalization of the complexity underpinning policies for sustainable tourism. This paper discusses the development of a cognitive mapping method to study sustainable tourism policy as a complex problem which has to be viewed holistically, with ethical implications, and with means and goals being intermingled in adaptive routes. A variation of SODA (Strategic Options Development and Analysis) approach to cognitive mapping is proposed and the decisions the researcher has to make regarding the method of elicitation, the coding and the analysis of the cognitive maps are discussed. This method is particularly useful to study complexity between policy issues as perceived by policy-makers and to build models in the form of cognitive maps. The method discussed here provides rich qualitative information capable of revealing goals, key policy considerations, and their interrelatedness in a holistic context. Complexity may be examined and structured, and policies can be studied as a set of interrelated policy issues. In this way, policies for sustainable tourism can be improved on the basis of knowledge and complexity management.

Cognitive mapping has been a well known method for the elicitation, representation and analysis of implicit knowledge. Ontologies on the other hand have come into focus during the last decade to formalise, make explicit and machine-readable implicit knowledge. Nevertheless very few studies have examined the joint use of these two methods to improve knowledge sharing. The present research explores the development of a new method which uses cognitive mapping for the development of an ontology to support sustainable tourism policy making based on spontaneous argumentations and the natural language of policy makers. Results are encouraging and open a vast field of research in operationalising implicit knowledge, like the one that policy makers hold. Potential applications in the tourism field could involve e-tourism applications, destination management systems and travel planning tools for tourists.

The use of information and communication technologies in tourism has been a rapidly expanding field. However, most of the relevant applications relate to the transaction processing systems than decision support systems, which are designed to handle procedural tasks, such as airline and hotel reservation systems or destination management systems. These computer tools are of little support in decision situations involving uncertain, unknown or conflicting information while computerised systems to support sustainable tourism policy making are rather absent. Different decision support approaches are explored to identify the one that better matches sustainable tourism policy making needs. Research findings indicate that sustainable tourism policy making is a complex domain involving various issues which have to be managed simultaneously with often competing goals. It is argued here that soft decision support systems, based on knowledge capturing and representation in the form of mental models could have an important contribution to the improvement of sustainable tourism policies. Mental models have long being used in psychology, artificial intelligence and computer science to represent complex domains. Cognitive  mapping to elicit, analyse and represent policy makers’ mental models is discussed and findings from a previous research are discussed to reveal the complexity of sustainable tourism policies and highlight the role of cognitive maps to aid tourism policy making.

The use of information and communication technologies in tourism has been a rapidly expanding field. However, most of the relevant applications relate to the transaction processing systems than decision support systems, which are designed to handle procedural tasks, such as airline and hotel reservation systems or destination management systems. These computer tools are of little support in decision situations involving uncertain, unknown or conflicting information while computerised systems to support sustainable tourism policy making are rather absent. Different decision support approaches are explored to identify the one that better matches sustainable tourism policy making needs. Sustainable tourism policy making is perceived as a complex domain involving various issues which have to be managed simultaneously with often competing goals. It is argued here that soft decision support systems, based on knowledge capturing and representation in the form of mental models could have an important contribution to the improvement of sustainable tourism policies.  A cognitive mapping method to elicit, analyse and represent the mental models that policy makers in Greece hold for sustainable tourism policies is presented. Findings are discussed to reveal the complexity of the domain being investigated and highlight the contribution of mental models to the development of a decision support system to assist policy making for sustainable tourism.

Sustainable tourism and related policies have been an understudied topic within a Mediterranean context despite an increasing number of studies published during the last few years on Mediterranean tourism. This paper explores policies for sustainable tourism development and potential interrelationships between policy considerations. Such policies have been characterised as ad hoc and incremental, lacking a clear orientation towards sustainable development, and the complex relationships underpinning them have rarely been considered in decision-making for sustainable tourism. The paper highlights the need to understand and improve tourism policies in the world’s leading destination.

Systems approaches to tourism studies have long been developed to denote the need for a holistic thinking in developing and managing tourism. However, during the last few years emphasis is being placed on the study of sustainable tourism in a complex systems approach to denote the need for understanding the complexity and non-linearities involved. Cognitive maps have been well examined in organisational learning, strategy formulation and policy analysis to structure and manage complex problems. However, their use in sustainable tourism studies is a rather unexplored field. In the present research cognitive maps of policy makers in Hersonissos, a tourist destination in Crete, Greece, were analysed to identify key issues in policies for sustainable tourism and explore their relationships. Subsequently, their emergent properties in terms of content and structure were compared across individual maps. Analysis and comparisons revealed perceived interrelatedness of policies, similarities and differences as to the key issues, relationships and perceived complexity of the domain investigated. Policy issues are interwoven into a net rather than following simple linear chains with a single outcome, with differences in their construal as perceived by different individuals. This suggests that policy formulation should consider potential nets instead of fragmenting policies. The whole analysis was based on both the structure and the content of the concepts with an emphasis being placed on the construal of the maps. In this way policies were examined and analysed as nets of interlinked issues contributing to the examination of sustainable tourism policy in a complex systems perspective illustrative of values and different pathways to achieve it.

Land use is an important explanatory variable in urban growth models, which explore the way various factors (e.g. geographic, economic, demographic etc.) interact to simulate growth dynamics. A serious and recurring problem for modelling urban systems has been the lack of spatially detailed data. Remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems have the potential to support such models, by providing data and analytical tools for the study of urban environments. High spatial resolution sensors such as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) allow the estimation of land covers using either supervised or unsupervised classification techniques. Moreover, the accuracy of the classification can be improved by incorporating ancillary data in the classification scheme. In this study, spatial data from various sources are combined to develop statistical models relating land use to population density, distance from the center of the city, a land use mix index and monetary land values. The work emphasizes spatial relationships between various geographic, land-use, and demographic variables characterizing fine zones across and around regions. It derives and combines land use data for the Heraklion (Greece) region from ASTER images, cartographic maps and Greek National Statistical Service census of population data. The statistical techniques applied for explaining the variability of land use are ordinary and logistic regression. Land use mix appears to be a significant predictive factor whereas the explanatory power of population increases as the grid cell categorization with respect to land use becomes finer.

Tourism is a spatial phenomenon which involves tourist generating markets, the destination and the movement of tourists from one to another. Although geographic Information Systems (GIS) are widely used in spatial analysis, thir use in tourism planning is limited. In this chapter the potential of GIS in tourism planning is discussed with a special focus on sustainable tourism development of destinations. A thorough literature review is used to reveal trends and patterns in the use of GIS in tourism planning on the base of GIS’ functions. The aim is to reveal the potential from the use of GIS in tourism planning as well as to identify and opportunities for tourism research.

The use of information systems has long been introduced in the tourism industry resulting in a number of changes in the supply and the demand chain of the tourist product. However, their potential in tourism planning and policy making has rather been neglected. Information systems to assist decision making are even less apparent in the case of managing established popular destination, which are related to a mass form of tourism development, towards a more sustainable form of development. This paper addresses these shortcomings, arguing that information systems could contribute to various aspects of sustainable tourism. A category of information systems is the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) which are capable of handling geographical data. The potential of GIS to form the base of a decision support system for policy and decision making in sustainable tourism is explored. A literature review is performed on the topic of GIS applications in tourism as well as on GIS- based decision support literature to identify the capabilities and the shortcomings. In this way, issues of designing a decision support system for sustainable tourism as well as issues of further research are highlighted.

Although Mediterranean is one of the world’s leading destinations, integrative studies on implementational aspects of sustainable tourism in the region have been scarce. One of the reasons is that sustainable tourism has been traditionally considered as the opposite of mass tourism which is the dominant form in Mediterranean coasts. This study attempts to assemble and conceptualize practices and policies used or proposed in different Mediterranean destinations with a focus on mass tourism. Issues which appear of importance to policy makers in the Mediterranean are discussed to explore relevance with the concept of sustainable tourism. In this way shortcomings as well as interrelations between different strategies are identified. The ultimate aim is to contribute to the establishment of a framework for sustainable tourism policies.

The topic of the present research is the pilot estimation of sustainable tourism indicators for the Municipality of Hersonissos in Crete. Indicators definition is based on the principles of sustainable development. Data sources, their format and functionality as well as limitations imposed by them regarding indicators estimation, are elements of this research. Moreover, indicators were examined in terms of their functionality, resulting in certain cases, in the definition of surrogate indicators in order to compensate the lack of data and complement their meaning respecting the needs of the application area.