Overview
The project wants to analyse the possibilities of using upcoming approaches in the sharing economy to help to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the Swiss tourism industry. New sharing approaches can not only lead to a better guest experience, they can also have positive effects on sustainability in all the three dimensions. Sharing solutions can help to save costs and to strengthen the regional economy (economic), to reduce resource consumption (ecological) and to involve stakeholders from in- and outside of the tourism industry and make them participate in the benefits (social).
Therefore, the main objective of the project is to systematically analyse the needs, potential barriers, benefits and risks of sharing approaches in the (alpine) tourism. Moreover, the project aims at developing management guidelines for sustainable sharing in tourism. After an extended State of the art analysis (1) a potential analysis in tourism destinations (2) will be conducted. Together with a tourism destination, sharing possibilities along the tourism supply chain will be analysed in workshops and qualitative interviews. The third step will be empirical research on consumer behaviour (3). Using a quasi-experimental approach, the needs and willingness to use sharing solutions while travelling as well as (changing/adapting) travel behaviour in the context of sharing will be evaluated. Based on the findings of the previous steps the strategic alignment for the destination will be defined (sharing concept) and potential innovative new business models will be identified (4). To ensure the transferability of the approach (5), a “manual” including a checklist will be developed and made available to other interested stakeholders.
