Transition management towards sustainable mobility in Alpine destinations: realities and realpolitik in Italy's South Tyrol region

ABSTRACT

Sustainable mobility, including public transport and human-powered slow mobility is a priority for the sustainable development of tourism destinations, but it is a complex challenge to devise, implement and manage. This paper explores the mechanisms and conditions governing transition towards sustainable mobility in destinations, using a complexity-based approach. Destinations are understood as complex adaptive systems where social-ecological, socio-technical and socio-political subsystems interact dynamically with the tourism subsystem. These subsystems are interwoven and undergo significant, and inter-related, changes during transition towards more sustainable mobility. Three examples from the tourism intensive Alpine destination of South Tyrol (Italy) illustrate subsystem interactions during the transition process. Key player interview-based qualitative research indicates that the complexity of transition management is rooted particularly in the paired presence of risk aversion among local stakeholders and the unpredictability of visitor flows. Mitigating risk aversion through collective knowledge creation and offering answers to unpredictability by developing a strong adaptive and (re)organisation capacity seem to be required to adjust sustainable mobility solutions to continuous market changes, to convince stakeholders and to guarantee incremental and durable success. The public sector's special role is noted, as are the time demands of transition management, and the value of both formal and informal partnerships.

关于阿尔卑斯山旅游目的地可持续交通的转型管理：意大利南蒂罗尔地区的现实情况与现实政治

可持续交通是旅游目的地可持续发展的重点，设计、实施和管理均是挑战。本文采用复杂性方法探索目的地可持续交通转型的机制和条件。案例阐明转型中旅游及其他子系统间有相互作用。通过创造集体知识和解决不可预测性（增强组织/改组能力适应性）来降低商家风险规避倾向以简化转型管理，或需调整可持续性交通方案应对市场变化，说服利益相关者及保证成效持久增长。公共部门特别作用、转型的时间需求和各式合作关系的价值已被注意。

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable mobility
• transition management
• complex adaptive systems
• sustainability transition
• destination governance

关键字:

• 可持续交通
• 转型管理
• 复杂适应系统
• 可持续性转变
• 目的地管理

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and assistance from the journal editor, the guest editors and the anonymous reviewers in improving this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Scuttari

Anna Scuttari is a researcher at the Institute for Regional Development and Location Management at the European Academy of Bozen-Bolzano (EURAC Research, http://www.eurac.edu), Italy, and a doctoral student at the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (Germany). Her main fields of research are regional development, destination management and governance, sustainable transport and mobility.

Michael Volgger

Michael Volgger is a researcher at EURAC Research at Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, and a doctoral student at the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (Germany). His main fields of research are destination governance, location management, co-operation and innovation in tourism.

Harald Pechlaner

Harald Pechlaner holds a Chair in Tourism at the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (http://www.ku-eichstaett.de), Germany, and is the director of the Institute for Regional Development and Location Management at EURAC research in Bozen- Bolzano in Italy. He has a doctorate in social and economics sciences from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He was the president of the German Association of Tourism Research (DGT) and is the president of the Association Internationale d'Experts Scientifiques du Tourisme (AIEST). He is an adjunct research professor at the School of Marketing of Curtin University in Western Australia.