Innovation in the Tourism Sector: Results from a Pilot Study in the Balearic Islands

Abstract

This paper provides empirical evidence on innovation in various tourism firms in the Balearic Islands. The main results from this pilot study are as follows. Innovation is common in Balearic tourism firms, especially in the lodging and accommodation sector. Process, delivery and organizational changes are the most frequent forms of innovation. Non-technological innovation is common, especially in the lodging and accommodation sector. Technological innovation relates mainly to information and communication technologies. FirmsThe authors are grateful to Enric Tortosa, Vincec, Tur and Marco A. Robledo for comments and suggestions. Also, two anonymous referees significantly improved the manuscript. This article is the outcome of research activities carried out within the Fundacion Cotec Project: 'Innovacion en el sectot tun'stico balear. Analisis prospectivo de tecnologias'.

Innovation Activity in the Hotel Sector – the Case of Croatia

“…Another reason is the more and more intense competition in tourism. In such market conditions, there is a general consensus that competitiveness of tourism enterprises increasingly depends upon their innovation activity bringing about lower costs and/or higher quality output Gnoth, 2005, Chadee andMattsson, 1996;Mattsson and Or…la-Sintes, 2009 (Hjalager, 1997, 2002, Jacob et al , 2003Nordin, 2003;OECD, 2003;Sørensen, 2004;Volo, 2004Volo, , 2005Frechse, 2005, Pikkemaat andPeters, 2005;Pechlaner et al, 2005;Weiermair, 2005;Mattsson et al, 2005, Or…la-Sintes et al, 2005Walder et al (Eds. ), 2006;Or…la-Sintes and Mattsson, 2007, Ottenbacher and Gnoth, 2005, Novelli et al 2006Sundbo et al 2007;Pikkematt and Weiermar, 2007;Hall and Williams, 2008;Hjalager et al, 2008;Pikkemaat, 2008;Hall, 2009, Mattsson andHjalager, 2010 Hjalager (2010, p. 1) that "innovation has become a buzzword which in many cases is used without deeper re ‡ection for anything that is moderately novel" points out to a needed caution and academic rigour in discussion and research on this complex and important issue.…”

“…Therefore, Hall and Williams (2008) and Hall (2009) conclude that there is an obvious need for better empirical evidence on innovation in tourism and that its quanti…cation is an essential need. One of the ways is to include the tourism "industry" in an adequate way in the existing research, such as CIS (Jacob et al, 2003). Alternatively, the development of tourism speci…c methodologies is an option.…”

“…Such studies have shown that hotels are the most innovative segment of the tourism o¤er (Jacob et al, 2003;Sundbo et al, 2007;Pikkematt and Weiermar, 2007;Pikkemaat, 2008). Additionally, they have shown the dominance of technological innovation the hotel industry (Or…la-Sintes et al, 2005) and the positive e¤ect of innovation on hotel image, pro…tability and customer satisfaction (Jacob et al, 2003).…”

Migration and Innovation at the Bottom End: Understanding the Role of Migrant Managers in Small Hotels in the Global City

“…Drawing upon the work of Jacob et al (2003) and Orfila-Sintes et al (2005), three dimensions of innovation in hotels are identified: products, processes and market/organisational (Sundbo & Galloouj, 1998). The first dimension relates to product enhancement and differentiation, which aim to improve customer experiences by creating new combinations or sets of services (Norman, 1984), including more environmentally sustainable products (Williams & Shaw, 1998).…”

“…Hoffman et al (1998) specifically argue that such a relationship generally exists for small and medium sized firms. However, there is almost no systematic research on this issue in respect of hotels, with the exception of Jacob et al's (2003) work on the Balearic Islands, which found positive but often complex relations between innovation and different aspects of firm performance. These complexities are important because it can not simply be assumed that innovation automatically contributes to firm performance in a positive way.…”