Session organisers:

• Gabriela Carmen Pascariu (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania)
• Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania)

Description:

During the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, tourism rose as one of the fastest growing industry and has become a focal point of interest within the global economy. Its constant growing rate, which managed to surpass the growth of the manufacturing sector or financial services, established tourism as a major economic sector with total contribution to global GDP of 10.2% (2019), and over 313 million jobs sustained indirectly (2019). One might think that this evolution was based on a strong connection with innovation, but the first papers reaching this dimension in tourism appeared only in the late ‘90s. However, two major shocks shattering the international tourism (the economic crisis starting 2008 and the recent health pandemic) forced the main actors, both institutional and private, to consider to a larger extent the innovative dimension in tourism. Given the complexity and the uniqueness of tourism innovation, new analysis techniques are required in order to properly tackle the issue, and thus enabling a better connection between academic views and policy-making.
This special session aims to bring together new theoretical approaches and empirical research results, focusing on the relevance of the innovation for tourism and the connection between the territorial dimension of innovation and the economic, social, or environmental issues that tourism currently encounters. We welcome contributions on, but not limited to:

• the relation between innovation and new service development
• smart tourism
• the role of innovation in tourism recovery
• innovative marketing approaches
• tourist behaviour
• new approaches to reduce the environmental impact of tourism activities
• the drivers of innovations
• empirical studies on regional / local policies and measures for boosting the innovation in tourism
• digitalisation, AI, and the tourism of tomorrow
• the innovative role of organisations, entrepreneurs, employees, and tourists

Accepted papers for this session could be submitted for publication in a special issue of Eastern Journal of European Studies, journal indexed in Clarivate Analytics, Scopus, Index Copernicus, ProQuest, DOAJ databases.