Agent-Based Modelling for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

Agent-based modelling (ABM) is a computer-based system to simulate the interactions, relationships and behavior of individual agents in a defined spatial context. Due to its stochastic and heterogenic nature, the method has the potential to represent the complexity of the tourism system with a broad range of possible applications. In the context of visitor flow management for instance, ABM can function as a possible decision support tool for policy makers to better understand and evaluate the dynamics of future scenarios and proposed policy changes towards a more economically, socially and environmentally resilient tourism development altogether. The following paper discusses the potential and implications of agent-based models in tourism research with a complex system approach in regard to ABM’s inherent elements of agents, interactions and environment. It introduces the planned application of ABM in an ongoing project dealing with visitor flows in an urban as well as rural destination context and draws up possible implications for sustainable tourism development.

Bridging Disciplinary Divides through Computational Social Sciences and Transdisciplinarity in Tourism Education in Higher Educational Institutions: An Austrian Case Study

“…The research on the individual level comprises spatiotemporal consumer behavior and attitudes (e.g., [32,33]), whereas the organizational level deals with marketing and financial performance. On an industry level, tourism flow [34,35], demand volume [36][37][38], and sustainable development [39,40] are of particular interest. Naturally, security and privacy issues are also addressed, especially when dealing with location-based social media [41,42].…”

Balancing long-term and short-term strategies in a sustainability game

“… 58 More specific applications include climate change adaptation, 59 , 60 , 61 impacts on agriculture, 62 , 63 , 64 the transition to electric vehicles, 65 , 66 , 67 and sustainable tourism. 68 Given the wide variety of systems at play, ABM often requires interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders to ensure the models adequately capture the complexity of sustainability challenges and their implications. 69 , 70 The game we propose follows in both the tradition of modeling large scale societal dynamics, with the possibility of socio-ecological collapse, 71 , 72 but also the prospect of transitioning to a future wherein multiple players co-exist sustainably.…”