Innovation and internationalization as development strategies for coastal tourism destinations: The role of organizational networks

Since the mid-twentieth century that several coastal areas in southern Europe began their tourism development, attracting unprecedented numbers of tourists, and culminating in the emergence of mass tourism. Henceforth, several negative impacts occurred, leading to the loss of attractiveness and competitiveness in the face of emerging tourism destinations. Therefore, there is a need for greater diversification of products and markets that underpin the tourism economy of seaside territories and enhance their competitiveness, which should be based on innovation. Recent territorial innovation models rely on networks, considering that the relationships established among organizations play an important role in the development of new products and services. This research aims at identifying the international dynamics that coastal tourism destinations should adopt within tourism innovation networks, that most contribute to regional-level innovation. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is applied to tourism stakeholders located in the coastal region of Aveiro, being possible to identify the structure and the processes underlying the international ties established towards the development of tourism innovation. The results bring important contributions to coastal tourism policymakers and governance, as it allows to (i) design innovation strategies based on international networks that increase competitiveness; (ii) acknowledge the most important type of organizations in coastal tourism innovation; and (iii) promote the geographical diversity of stakeholders in the network in order to capture new knowledge leading to innovation and to avoid the "lock-in effect".