A cross-sectional perspective on the development of the tourism area life cycle model through the implementation of open innovation rough the implementation of open innovation

The development of tourism areas, conceptualized as cyclical evolutionary change, requires innovative solutions across the full spectrum of tourism offerings. However, earlier concepts developed in the 20th century, overlook many aspects of contemporary relevance – particularly the potential of open innovation. Accordingly, the objective of this article is to attempt an integration of the most widely adopted Tourism Area Life Cycle model with an open innovation framework. The research design was based on a systematic literature review of the two underpinning concepts – Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) and Open Innovation (OI) – that adopts three modern perspectives – cross-sectoral collaboration, digital technologies, and adaptive management – as transversal axes for analysing each phase of the cycle. The outcome of this integration is the identification of mechanisms and timing for generating, sharing, and sourcing open innovation at each stage of tourism-area evolution. The analysis highlights areas where the TALC model can be refined and extended through the lens of open innovation.