Spatial-economic impacts of tourism on regional development: challenges for Europe

Despite the increasing socio-economic importance of tourism, in particular in the European context, a set of recent studies involving a large number of European regions has led to the identification of important problems related to the sustainable use of natural resources, innovation dynamics and specialization patterns, impacts of tourism on regional economic growth, and the relations between tourism performance and regional sustainable development in Europe. Taking these questions as a starting point, the purpose of this review article is to propose a conceptual framework for their analysis, including concepts like authenticity, place, smart tourism, co-creation of destinations and experiences, information segmentation, differentiation of supply, life cycle of tourism destinations, path dependence, customer variety, specialization or integrative diversification of tourism products. Finally, this analytical framework is used in order to identify and discuss a set of challenges for the future of tourism in European regions, with a view to policy and managerial implications, oriented to the integration of tourism policies within a broader context of socio-economic development, with implications on the definition and implementation of innovation and regional development policies, including smart specialization strategies. These challenges relate to the touristic experience (memorable, personalized and authentic), innovation (in the context of a diverse economy) and participatory governance (communities sharing spaces and places).