Establishing an agenda for innovation research in tourism and hospitality: an interdisciplinary comparative review

This study establishes an agenda for research on innovation in tourism and hospitality (T&H) through a systematic comparison of studies on innovation in the T&H literature with mainstream management literature. It reveals that the management literature has a greater focus on the firm itself. Accordingly, T&H firms – and future innovation studies in this sector – need to place a greater emphasis on organizational performance rather than concentrating primarily on visitor experience and service-based performance. Better use of data to monitor and evaluate the performance of T&H firms and tourism destinations, to inform innovation, could improve innovativeness. Studying the ways T&H firms can protect innovative practices, intellectual property and trade secrets and the mechanisms to strengthen policies for innovation, particularly related to employees and sustainability, is also warranted. This research provides directions to advance innovation research in T&H, which can, in turn, promote greater innovation in this increasingly competitive sector.