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Abstract
The study of tourism destination evolution has been enriched in recent years by the adoption of concepts from Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG). The aim of this article and those constituting this special section is to further develop this field of research by discussing recent developments within EEG and Tourism Studies, paying special attention to the nature and impact of trigger events and transformative moments that represent a turning point in the evolution of destination development paths. We consider the role of reproductive and transformative agency, and different types of destination path plasticity. Three key issues and areas for future research are identified: the role of human agency, the co-evolution of tourism with other development paths, and the importance of utilising political economy perspectives, including legitimation and discursive practices.
Acknowledgements
Cinta Sanz-Ibáñez and Julie Wilson acknowledge support from the I + D + i ADAPTOUR project (Grant number PID2020-112525RB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033z. Laura James, Henrik Halkier and Cinta Sanz-Ibáñez also are also grateful for the financial support of the Regional Studies Association Small Grant Scheme which funded the project ‘Bouncing back or bouncing forward? Place leadership and post-pandemic recovery in European tourism regions’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Laura James
Laura James is Associate Professor of Tourism Development and Regional Change at Aalborg University, Denmark. She has published in the fields of regional studies, human geography and tourism. Her research interests include destination development and planning, regional policy and tourism governance.
Henrik Halkier
Henrik Halkier is professor of regional and tourism studies at Aalborg University. His current research interests includes tourism destination path development, post-pandemic tourism and cluster development policies.
Cinta Sanz-Ibáñez
Cinta Sanz-Ibáñez is Researcher and Adjunct Professor at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research Group on Territorial Analysis and Tourism studies – GRATET (Catalonia, Spain). The main interest of her research is understanding the processes underlying the evolution of tourism destinations, with special emphasis on the study of networks, governance, knowledge dissemination, and the effects of specific moments in time, from evolutionary economic geography perspectives.
Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson is Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), where she teaches in the field of tourism geographies and sustainability. Her research interests focus on the socio-spatial transformation of urban/rural landscapes, the role of culture and creativity in the generation of new forms of sustainability in tourism, geographies of the platform economy and evolutionary economic geography as interpretative frameworks.