Changing Approaches Towards Open Education, Innovation and Research in Tourism

There is a widely held assumption that the Internet provides opportunities to rethink and reorganise the knowledge interaction and dissemination between industry, education and research. Web 2.0 technologies are emerging as teaching and learning tools, but there is still no striking evidence to support the above-mentioned assumption. Accordingly, the purposes of this article are to, first, discuss the challenges in tourism education and address in brief the declining role of universities as knowledge monopolies and their emerging role as open knowledge mediators. Second, to present open innovation paradigms and address issues of knowledge accumulation and dissemination in tourism and the new role of the university. Third, INNOTOUR, an experimental Web 2.0 innovation hub for tourism, is presented. Preliminary learning experiences using the INNOTOUR platform as an advanced tool for collaborative, open source education in tourism are outlined. Finally, we point out collaborative challenges for international tourism research and teaching. We argue that there is a compelling need to build grounded theory and consolidated practice that will advance the quality and efficiency of tourism education through the use of a wide span of interactive technologies and committed teaching methods, facilitating dynamic, interdisciplinary and international learning experiences.