Two new papers in top tourism scientific journals are out, both in August, both involved with AIRTH, and both a bit unusual.

 

Ren, C., & Mahadevan, R. (2018). “Bring the numbers and stories together”: Valuing events. Annals of Tourism Research, 72, 75–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2018.06.008

 

Innovation is about bringing new value to the world. Carina Ren, AIRTH founding member, and Renuka Mahadevan have published a paper about valuing events, focusing on Arctic Winter Games organized in Nuuk, Greenland in 2016. It was produced in a unique research collaboration which Carina and Renuka hope will inspire others to follow. They start the story with 1930 Parsons’ Pact between "his powerful colleagues at the Economics Department" and the developing economic sociology. Maybe it's time for at least the "re-collaboration" of the two, or (if the approach will gain traction) re-invention of some of our tourism outlooks.

 

Park, S., & Nicolau, J. L. (2018). If you, tourist, behave irrationally, I’ll find you! Tourism Management, 69, 434–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.06.017

 

Another unique phenomenon was analyzed by Sangwon Park and Juan Luis Nicolau, our founding member. The topic revolves around "abnormal behaviors in the tourist demand" and the reasons for it. Simply said: Why (some) tourists are willing to pay more, despite the obvious fact that the vacation they are about to book is, well, overpriced?