| Abstract: |
Given that one type of tourist does not exist and different strategies are
drawn to reach the wished "extraordinary" by tourists for holidays, there are
windows of opportunities to the tourist destinations, as these give them the
chance for differentiated offers and for a flexibility that opposes uniformity
and gives place to variety and difference. Assuming that the development of
the destinations do not obey to just a standard way, and alternatively is
embedded in the historical, cultural, institutional and natural matrices of
the regions where destinations are anchored, then the specific resources of a
place can assume the basic role of inputs for the differentiation of the
tourist destination and for the diversification of its tourist offers. Taking
into account the exceptionality of tourist product as an experience, which is
associated with an integrated experience offer, one can say that an
idiographic perspective of a destination requires that the valuation of its
specific resources pass not only for the tourist services providers to assume
themselves as agents who facilitate the stay and the mobility of the tourists,
but also that they need to become ambassadors of all the kind of services of
the destination as well as of the region itself. Such tourist destination
generates change. As it generates differentiated strategies at the regional
level and as it is based on co-operation and network, these strategies and
related facts make the environment propitious to the dissemination of
knowledge and innovation. Innovation, in turn, generates difference, that
strengthens the identity of the region, and potentially, of the tourist
destination. Such strategies of differentiation, in a sustainable development
frame, can be the turning point for a more selective tourist industry, and
where all can win: the local communities, the tourists, the tourist agents,
and the environment. |