Design and tourism - four ways that design can contribute to tourism innovation

Abstract

Design has recently garnered the interest of tourism researchers due to its capacity to generate innovations that can transform the tourism industry. To better understand the practical applicability of design to tourism, based on a scoping review, this article delineates the uniqueness and heterogeneity of the field of design and discusses its recent development with respect to tourism innovation. We argue that design knowledge, practice, and thinking can enhance both tourism research and tourism industries and propose four ways that design can contribute to tourism innovation.