Recent advancements in tourism business, technology and social sciences

Abstract

Even without directed actions, the process of globalization continues, and the direction in which it is heading strengthens the belief that methods and tools should be adapted to the new realities (Stiglitz, 2017). Tourism, trade, and technology can amplify the prospects of economic growth, job creation, and increased productivity. Economic welfare and social development are in a mutual relationship (DaSilva et al., 2019; Zhang & Zhang, 2004). Therefore, new ways of using traditional factors of production emerge, along with new rules for organizing activities to address the emerging realities in the various social sciences (S,erban, A.C., Jianu, I., Katsoni, V., 2023). Tourism is a multifaceted reality in today’s world and offers scope for global development and diversification while its resilience is now a proven quality. Indeed, it has become one of the principal pillars of the world’s economy with 10% of global GDP directly or indirectly derived from the presence and exigencies of the tourism industry (Cassar, G., 2020). The thousands of destinations that exist and the many more that emerge from time to time, look at advancements in the tourism business, technology and the social sciences for direction, guidance, and support. Academia is one of the most powerful and enlightening sources that these destinations bank upon for their future. The professionals in the tourism sector, of course, also offer their expertise through years of hands-on activity and a strong dose of experience and good practice. Yet, many of the tourism operators look to researchers, academics, and associate professionals to propose novel and tested remedies for a changing world scenario challenged by environmental catastrophes, health and safety challenges, technological inventions, economic pressures, social exigencies, and myriad other difficulties and permutations. Tourism, as it has now been shown, is as fragile as it can be strong. Its strength is tested every day. Its fragility is experienced each time a crisis—global or local—crops up. Policies are introduced by world bodies, regulations and laws are enacted by national governments, while further rules are sometimes forced upon operators, sectorial stakeholders, tourism operators, destination management entities, and dependent sectors. At times (most times) this creates tension and confusion as to how one should proceed. IACuDIT’s mission is to contribute to the paradigm changes needed, which closely relates to the 2023 conference theme: Recent Advancements in Tourism Business, Technology and Social Sciences. The aim of this conference is to promote constructive, critical, and interdisciplinary conversations on the challenges emerging in the various sectors of the tourism industry by bringing together researchers, communities, industry, and government stakeholders. This is hereby fully achieved. A list comprising of 36 interdisciplinary conference topics was included in the call for papers. The numerous papers submitted through virtual and poster presentations were considered for publication. All those accepted for the conference were double-blind peer reviewed in two phases. Thus, all the abstracts submitted were in the first stage peer-reviewed by two experts in the field to ascertain their relevance to the conference theme and for their contribution to the academic debate. A total of 182 abstracts were reviewed of which 124 were found relevant. All accepted proposals were offered the opportunity to submit full papers for the conference proceeding, utilizing the comments from the first phase of double-blind peer review. This resulted in 105 papers being submitted for inclusion in the Springer proceedings in Business and Economics. These full paper submissions were once again double-blind peer-reviewed by two experts in the field, as well as by the editorial team. During this second cycle each submission was reviewed for: (a) relevance to the conference theme, (b) quality of the paper in terms of theoretical relevance and significance of the topic, and, (c) contribution to the academic debate. The contributions were thematically selected and are arranged in the present proceedings according to the order of their presentation. The subthemes covered by the conference were further categorized into five distinctive parts, which were distributed in two volumes.