Potential for Applying Open Innovations in Tourism

For more than a decade the so-called “open innovations” attract the attention of academic circles and business. In the modern competitive and dynamically developing tourism it is of paramount importance for companies to be innovative and use diversely the potential for updating their products and services. The goal of this article is on the ground of a theoretical characterization of open innovations to determine their particularities and present variants for applying them in the sector of tourism. The paradigm of open innovations in tourism is based on the understanding that innovative processes are put in practice not only in the framework of tourist companies, but they also integrate a number of subjects from the outside in order to increase the potential of innovations and changes. The success of open innovations depends on the abilities of tourist companies to create effective networks with other stakeholders: suppliers, partners, clients, institutions, non-governmental organizations and others.