Volume 15, Issue 2 - Special Issue: Humanistic Management in Tourism Guest Editors: Volker Rundshagen, Dirk Reiser, Nicolai Scherle

Tourism policy traditionally focuses on the nexus of tourist-resident interaction and has the duty to balance the often-conflicting interests. In policy practice and academia alike, the evaluation of the nexus seems to be dominated by utilitarian ideas and concepts focusing on the objective outcome. This perspective is closely linked to a Hegelian-induced philosophy of an objective mind. In contrast to that, the paper advocates for an imperative-based perspective, as proposed by Kant, to ensure a more humanistic approach. To facilitate that approach, it derives the ideas from the legal science technique of practical concordance to balance the freedoms and interests of all parties involved without proclaiming superior knowledge.

So far, only a minor proportion of businesses – across all economic sectors – has a business model designed to meet the complex requirements of the UN 2030 Agenda. The transformation to a more sustainable economy for the benefit of people and the planet, let alone honouring the principles of Humanistic Management, remains a Herculean task. This article presents family-run companies from the hospitality and tourism industry that have succeeded in aligning their corporate structures, products, and operations with Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda, building the bridge to –and, in part, explicitly integrating –principles of Humanistic Management. A systemic approach serves as the conceptual-theoretical framework, providing a valuable basis for better understanding the role of individual companies in the complex overall system of the 2030 Agenda. Based on three case studies, presenting findings from expert interviews with selected managing directors or owners of family businesses, it becomes clear that this type of business is particularly well suited to successfully manage the multi-layered challenges of a transformation due to its inherent characteristics.

Ideas of (a more) humanistic management have taken hold in multiple tourism contexts. In particular, we can see this in specific niches of tourism such as sports-related mobility and adjacent forms of athlete and fan travel, it has become more commonplace to pay attention to questions of ecological integrity as well as sustainability. Rather than being mere rhetorical exercises to create the appearance of more responsible practices (a ‘CSR façade’), substantial changes seem to be underway, through which authentic transformation towards genuinely humanistic management practices may be possible. We take the case of the inclusion of sustainability considerations in the organisation of team and fan travel alongside professional football in Germany to highlight such incremental change. While far from constituting mass phenomena, any such reforms have the capacity to set a trend, and to re-orient business practices across larger industries. Based on a qualitative case study of five professional football teams in Germany and their recently adjusted mobility activities, we argue that sports-related tourism and mobility management has the capacity to create role models in steering societies towards more sustainable, and hence: more humanistic modes of action.

The use of storytelling in destination marketing is well explored, but the role of events in this is under researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how two different trail running events in Innsbruck, Austria, use elements of storytelling within their communications strategy in the lead-up to the event, and how stories about the two events are interwoven to create a shared meaning around the image of Innsbruck as an alpine-urban destination. Stories on the event websites, social media, local and national media, and in promotional material are thematically analysed to examine the similarities and differences in storytelling approaches. Findings reveal that both events use a combination of three specific elements – people, place and experience – but different strategies when tapping into each other’s story and hence shaping the overall story of the destination. As such, the paper makes theoretical and practical contributions to the event marketing body of knowledge.

Zusammenfassung Viele Kultureinrichtungen im ländlichen Raum haben mit der Umsetzung von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) im Tourismusmarketing zu kämpfen. Die Kultureinrichtungen benötigen deshalb Möglichkeiten für die Qualifizierung ihres Personals. Tourismusorganisationen spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Bereitstellung entsprechender Angebote. Im Rahmen einer Interviewstudie wurde deshalb untersucht welche Angebote zur Qualifizierung im digitalen Kulturtourismusmarketing von Seiten der Tourismusorganisationen bereits vorliegen und unter welchen Umständen sie von den Kultureinrichtungen im ländlichen Raum genutzt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass zwar bereits einige Angebote vorliegen, diese sich jedoch häufig nicht explizit an Kultureinrichtungen richten. Die Kultureinrichtungen machen von selbigen Angeboten oftmals auch noch nicht Gebrauch. Den Tourismusorganisationen wird daher die Etablierung spezifischer Angebote für Kultureinrichtungen und die Etablierung zusätzlicher Austauschformate empfohlen. Des Weiteren sollte eine Sensibilisierung kommunalpolitischer AkteurInnen stattfinden, die Angebote sollten auf verschiedenen Ebenen verbreitet und starke FürsprecherInnen etabliert werden.