Cultural and Tourism Innovation in the Digital Era (eBook)

This book explores a wide range of emerging cultural, heritage, and other tourism issues that will shape the future of hospitality and tourism research and practice in the digital and innovation era. It offers stimulating new perspectives in the fields of tourism, travel, hospitality, culture and heritage, leisure, and sports within the context of a knowledge society and smart economy. A central theme is the need to adopt a more holistic approach to tourism development that is aligned with principles of sustainability; at the same time, the book critically reassesses the common emphasis on innovation as a tool for growth-led and market-oriented development. In turn, fresh approaches to innovation practices underpinned by ethics and sustainability are encouraged, and opportunities for the exploration of new research avenues and projects on innovation in tourism are highlighted. Based on the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT) and edited in collaboration with IACuDiT, the book will appeal to a broad readership encompassing academia, industry, government, and other organizations.

Thanasis Spyriadis (PhD, FHEA) is a Senior Lecturer and researcher at the Department of Marketing, Retail, and Tourism (MRT) at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, as well as an Associate Lecturer at the Hellenic Open University in Greece. He has authored a number of publications on tourism and destination management and has presented his research at international academic conferences. He also serves as a reviewer for various academic journals. He has acted as the Principal Investigator in several research and knowledge exchange (RKE) or consultancy projects with clients that include Arts Council England, Visit Manchester, Manchester Cathedral, and the Association of British Travel Agencies (ABTA). His research interests include in the areas of tourism development, strategic management, tourism marketing, destination management, sustainability, as well as cultural and adventure tourism.