The nature, extent, and implications of innovation in tourism are increasingly investigated in academic research, but the policies that affect these transformations in the industry and at tourism destinations are not equally well conceptualised theoretically or analysed empirically. The purpose of this article is, in an analysis of the literature, to interpret the rationale behind innovation policy, and to explain the persisting challenges related to acquisition of an informed foundation for policies based upon quantitative and qualitative inquiries. Observed in a historical perspective, innovation polices have developed from the simple removal of barriers that hamper the pursuit of innovative behaviour in the private sector towards more systemic instruments that facilitate collaboration and knowledge transfer in complex spatial or sectoral economic ‘biotopes’. The article builds a systematic framework of policy instruments for innovation in tourism. New generations of policies instigate a mainstreaming of the innovation agenda in ways that proceed beyond the traditional policy concepts.
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Anne‐Mette Hjalager (2012) studied this question.