Sustainable tourism in a knowledge based economy

Abstract

The economies in developed nations have transformed from being "heavy industrial "to knowledge-based economies that create value in a different way. This transformation process has presented challenges to those economies and a need to drive change across many fields including the service sector. Many service sector businesses are thirsty for the knowledge and innovation that can bring them success. The knowledge they acquire in combination with the emergence of new technologies in the service sector plays a big role in the creation of new economic value - knowledge-based value. Theoretically, knowledge and services have a number of things in common such as intangibility, impossibility of ownership and difficulty of value recognition. On the one hand, these qualities make a knowledge-based economy specific and competitive, but on the other hand, its application remains questionable for its further sustainable development. In this sense, in order to achieve future sustainable growth, the service sector must utilise the positive aspects of a knowledgebased economy to secure its economic prosperity. This paper focuses on the role a knowledge-based economy has in relation to the sustainability in the tourism sector. With regards to the term "knowledge", it can be said that it is widely used in connection with the growth of innovation and technology, however its links to the tourism service sector have not been analysed sufficiently. This paper therefore provides an overview of the theoretical knowledge about knowledge-based economies and services, its connection to tourism and sustainability. The subsequent research focuses on a comparison between the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) and the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI). The KEI serves as a benchmark for a country with regards to the level of knowledge usage, whereas TTCI presents the grounds on which sustainability can contribute to the overall competitiveness of countries. The statistical comparison is used to either prove or refute the hypothesis that competitiveness in the tourism sector is dependent on the level of knowledge.