COMBINING KNOWLEDGE IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT The case of North Jutland, Denmark Henrik Halkier Aalborg University Tourist overnights

COMBINING KNOWLEDGE IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT The case of North Jutland, Denmark Henrik Halkier Aalborg University 1.Tourism, innovation and knowledge combination 2.Analysing knowledge dynamics in tourism 3.Temperate coastal tourism : A case study 4.Conclusions and perspectives

TOURISM, INNOVATION and KNOWLEDGE COMBINATION  Limited innovation an oft-repeated claim in tourism research  Small actors with limited resources  Many life-style businesses  Competitive pressure on European destinations growing  Cheap flights, also to far-away destinations  Internet creates new transperancy for experienced travellers  Need to stimulate change through public policy obvious  Refining existing experiences: Cumulative knowledge  New experiences/visitors: Combination of knowledges  Two challenges  Different forms of knowledge  Organisational fragmentation Henrik Halkier –

TOURISM, INNOVATION and KNOWLEDGE COMBINATION Henrik Halkier – Travel services commercial infrastructural On-site services accommodation catering transport Experiences prescribed/voluntary non-/commercial Market intelligence Production /consumption Consumption monitoring Conception/ design / marketing DESTINATIONS

TOURISM, INNOVATION and KNOWLEDGE COMBINATION Henrik Halkier – Travel services commercial infrastructural On-site services accommodation catering transport Experiences prescribed/voluntary non-/commercial Market intelligence Production /consumption Consumption monitoring Conception/ design / marketing DESTINATIONS Symbolic Synthetic DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS

ANALYSING KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS IN TOURISM Qualitative approach focusing on  Inter-organisational relations  Creation, acquisition and use of knowledge  Different forms of knowledge  Activity domains: marketing, experience production, service, …  Analytical / Synthetic / symbolic  Tacit / explicit  Discourses on interaction and knowledge dynamics Henrik Halkier –

TEMPERATE COASTAL TOURISM A case study of knowledge combination Studying destination Top of Denmark, North Jutland  Three municipalities, leading leisure tourism area  Small tourism enterprises, holiday homes, campin  A qualitative longitudinal study (EU FP6 EURODITE) Three stages of destination development Henrik Halkier – OrganisationInitiatives 1989 Horizontal collaboration between tourism associations  Reservation System  Service  Marketing 1996 Municipalities and tourism associations create DMO  Prolonging of season  Product development  Networking within sector Municipalities and tourism associations sponsor DMO  Branding  All-year tourism  Extra-sectoral networking

TEMPERATE COASTAL TOURISM Knowledge combination, challenges and prospects Henrik Halkier – Organisation: Mutual dependency in decentralised network  Widespread ownership to small centre via task involvement  Overcoming longstanding competition between localities  Securing local links to small firms  Overcoming public-private divide in knowledge/funding Knowledge combination gradually increase  Mobilising tacit knowledge of small private firms  Employed in joint promotion/innovation projects  Reaching outside ‘traditional’ sector (attractions, accommodation)  Food to increase attraction and prolong season  External sources of knowledge fairly limited  Caught in VisitDenmark-defined segmented universe

COMBINING TOURISM KNOWLEDGE Conclusions and perspectives Henrik Halkier – Development and policy challenges  Addressing longstanding organisational-cultural barrier  Inter-local rivalries, public-private  Successful mobilisation of tacit knowledge  for marketing (and development) purposes  Combination of symbolic/synthetic knowledge across domains  Inward-looking knowledge strategies  Interpretative horizon defined by VisitDenmark segmentation Future research  Intertwining of knowledges and organisations pronounced  Knowledge typologies may be of less importance  Epistemic communities, communities of practice?  Organisational learning literature a source of additional inspiration