The collaborative economy and tourism: Critical perspectives, questionable claims and silenced voices

Abstract

House swapping, ridesharing, voluntourism, couchsurfing, dinner hosting and similar innovations epitomize the collaborative economy. The rise of the collaborative economy, also known as collaborative consumption, the sharing economy and peer-to-peer consumption, has been fuelled by a range of social, economic and technological factors, including a shift away from ownership towards temporary access to goods; the use of technology mediated transactions between producers and consumers; direct host-guest relationships that contribute to a higher level of perceived authenticity of tourism experiences; and higher levels of consumer risk-taking balanced against mechanisms such as peer-to-peer feedback designed to engender trust between producers and consumers. This paper explores and critically assesses the collaborative economy and its implications for tourism industrial systems. It achieves this by mapping out the current knowledge dynamics characterizing tourism and the collaborative economy, paying particular attention to the asymmetries of knowledge that are emerging. The paper then identifies and critically discusses five pervasive claims being made about the collaborative economy, arguing for a balanced assessment of such claims. Highlighting these claims allows us to pursue a more reflective research agenda and leads to a more informed, evidence-based assessment of the collaborative economy and tourism.

Keywords:

• collaborative economy
• collaborative consumption
• tourism
• exchange
• critical studies
• sharing

Notes on contributors

Dianne Dredge is Professor in the Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Chair of the Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI). Originally trained as an environmental and urban planner, Dianne has 20 years of practical experience working with communities, governments, tourism operators and NGOs. Her research interests include tourism development processes, collaborative governance, tourism policy, tourism knowledge dynamics and tourism education.

Szilvia Gyimóthy is Associate Professor at the Tourism Research Unit, Department of Culture & Global Studies, Aalborg University in Denmark. Her primary research interest lies in strategic market communications in tourism, with a focus on narrative practices of commodification and competitive differentiation of regions in the experience economy. Szilvia is particularly interested in the engagement of visitors and leisure communities in collaborative communicative endeavours as well as in understanding new value creation phenomena on social media platforms.