Working Within the Collaborative Tourist Economy: The Complex Crafting of Work and Meaning

Meged, Jane Widtfeldt; Christensen, Mathilde Dissing

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51799-5_12

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…From this perspective, collaborative consumption in tourism, and more specifically in free tours, constitutes a value for users, enabling them to develop connections with the destination and with the people residing therein, providing a richer and more authentic experience (Dredge and Gyimóthy, 2015; Meged and Kristensen, 2017) which leads him to travel and know the less known spaces (MacCannell, 2003).…”

Section: Regarding the Free Tours Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tourist guides and free tours: A controversial relationship

García

2021

Tourist Studies

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Like other tourism subsectors, guided tours have been affected by the emergence of the sharing economy. Although this subsector of tourism is not as well known, it constitutes an interesting scenario for studying these new business models and it is also generating debate. This article analyses the uniqueness of the tourist guide services provided through online platforms under the name of free tours. The study includes a bibliographical revision and it is carried out from a qualitative methodology based on a survey conducted among tourist guide professionals and in-depth interviews. The study analyses the point of view of professionals in the guiding sector from 11 European cities subject to common regulations. It aims to determine how they are affected by the free tours as well as to assess their relationship with this new activity, a complex relationship with many controversial elements in terms of labour, tax and organisation. It will be shown that the free tours respond to the trends of contemporary society but are not an expression of the collaborative consumption among equals, but rather an effective marketing strategy.

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Section: Regarding the Free Tours Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tourist guides and free tours: A controversial relationship

García

2021

Tourist Studies

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“…We also expected to find extensive literature on how megatrends and disruptors will impact organizations within specific industries, but surprisingly we found only nine specific sources providing information from a specific industry perspective. In other sources, examples are sometimes given such as the financial services sector where work is being automated at a fast pace in contrast to other sectors which are less likely to change such as personal coaching and beauticians [123][124][125]; or the heavy industry and stock breeding sectors where organizations are likely to be impacted severely by measures against climate change. The size of literature found with an industry perspective, a meagre six percent in our review, does not support the notion that the impact of megatrends and disruptors on organizations varies by industry/sector.…”

Section: Industry Perspective On Megatrends and Disruptorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Megatrends and Disruptors and Their Postulated Impact on Organizations

Linthorst

Waal

2020

Sustainability

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The coming decades are expected to be extremely challenging for organizations. On the one hand, there are the United Nations Sustainable Development goals to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone. On the other hand, organizations are expected to have to deal with an increasing number of megatrends and disruptors, many of which are already having an impact. To help organizations in their priority setting and decision-making so they can contribute to the development goals (specifically Goal 8: decent work and economic growth), a descriptive literature review was undertaken to identify which megatrends and disruptors will impact the future of organizations and in what ways they are expected do this. From the literature, thirteen megatrends and one disruptor emerged, and for each of these their postulated impact and consequences for organizations as described in the literature were gathered. The study reveals that there is ample attention given to megatrends in the academic literature but that not much can be found about dealing with disruptors. As a consequence, academic literature currently falls short in suggesting ways in which organizations can deal with disruptors. Managerial literature offers more suggestions in this respect.

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“…They are resilient but concurrently open to innovation. One of the latest innovative turns in guided tours is found within the sharing economy, reflecting a major trend in tourism nowadays (Dregde & Gyimóthy, 2015;Londoño & Medina, 2017;Meged & Kristensen, 2017). The sharing economy proposes new, super flexible business models, eliciting idle resources at particularly little cost.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cooperation in networks is changing rapidly due to access to ubiquitous ICT. Social media like Facebook, TripAdvisor and Twitter empower private customers (Munar, 2013), but they also provide a whole new lowcost interactional marketing platform for the industry (Meged & Kristensen, 2017). Social networks are defined as nodes that are linked by social relationships and that occur between organizations and/or individuals (Sørensen, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until 2012, the guide market in Copenhagen was fairly protectednot by law, as it is an entirely free trade, but through collective bargaining with major employers who, by gentleman's agreement, predominantly hired certified guides (Meged & Kristensen, 2017). There was a market for non-certified guides who either worked as self-employed or were hired at far lower tariffs.…”

Section: Introduction To Copenhagen Free Walking Toursmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disruptive network innovation in free guided tours

Meged

Zillinger

2018

Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism

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This article provides an analysis on how disruptive innovation is spurred by the dynamics of digital and analogue networks in the sharing economy. The analysis builds on a free guided-tour company in Copenhagen. Data is collected in a bottom-up reiterative process, drawing on theories on disruptive innovation and network theory. Between 2013 and 2016, one of the free tour companies in Copenhagen was followed by means of participant observations, interviews with tour guides and interpretation of online documents. Results show that free guided tours based on tips alone and orchestrated within the frame of the sharing economy are not merely a product innovation. More importantly, they entail disruptive market innovations that circumvent traditional industry structures and ultimately produce disruptive organizational innovations where trust in network is the crux. Free guided-tour companies operate as communitarian organizations in extractive business models, and they are game changers in the field of guided tours, and ultimately in the field of tourism.

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Working Within the Collaborative Tourist Economy: The Complex Crafting of Work and Meaning

Cited by 16 publications

References 23 publications

Tourist guides and free tours: A controversial relationship

Tourist guides and free tours: A controversial relationship

Megatrends and Disruptors and Their Postulated Impact on Organizations

Disruptive network innovation in free guided tours

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