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The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the evolution of the tourism ecosystem within a circular economy, considering relevant factors that influence the transition towards the circular economy model.

This reflection is carried out from an organisational perspective and employs a strategic management approach combined with a neo-institutional theoretical lens.

Four scenarios are identified after selecting several pertinent internal and external dimensions, which will help to understand the form and pace of the expected transition towards a tourism circular economy.

Other variables could have been used for the scenario creation aim, which can be deemed a limitation.

Tourism operators can position themselves within this framework to analyse their conditions in order to address this unavoidable strategic change.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first academic work written in this line of research.

This study aims to propose that the institutional environment exerts pressure on the behavior of wineries toward wine tourism development (WTD) and the effect of this influence confers legitimacy to the business of wine tourism.

Structural equation modeling through partial least squares was applied to estimate and validate a model using data from a quantitative survey in the universe of 62 wineries with a wine tourism component along the Alentejo Wine Route in Portugal. The proposed model is based on institutional theory through an inter-organizational perspective of wineries.

The results show that WTD coexists with a highly institutionalized environment, exerting distinctive mechanisms of external pressure together with the search for social legitimacy through actions and practices on the part of the involved wineries. However, the relationship between legitimacy and organizational performance in wineries with wine tourism is not validated.

The specific sample of the Alentejo wine companies does not allow the results to be generalized. Future studies should replicate the proposed research model using other geographic areas.

The results are particularly interesting for managers of wineries and should be considered in the decision-making and strategic processes regarding wine tourism.

The use of institutional theory in the wine tourism context is novel and original. This study fills a research gap by conducting an empirical investigation of wine tourism based on institutional theory, which allows the identification of exogenous factors that can influence and impose restrictions on the organizational behavior of winery companies toward wine tourism.

Halal tourism is a growing segment that represents a potentially attractive niche. However, although increasing, it is still a young and residual area of academic research. This paper aims to explore its concept, boundaries and various streams to offer a clarifying vision for researchers and tourism managers.

A systematization of the state of the art was carried out based on the papers contained in Web of Science and Scopus databases. Moreover, papers not indexed in these repositories (conference papers, book chapters, etc.) were searched through scientific social networks mainly.

In spite of recent efforts, halal tourism is a field of study still in a very early stage; however, on a practical level, the number of halal products and services is starting to increase worldwide. Nevertheless, there are challenges for the tourist industry in moving towards the authentication of the halal tourism offer, including among them the role of new technologies and the digital economy.

This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of halal tourism research. It highlights its main areas, gaps and questions for debate. In this line, a research agenda is proposed.

The first problem when diving into this topic is the confusion caused by a number of terms intended to designate the same concept, in addition to the lack of a shared interpretation on what Islam requires from tourism services to secure their acceptability. This paper aims to contribute to the clarification of what halal tourism is, as it seems to be the most appropriate term to refer to practices allowed when travelling, in accordance with the Islamic law.

A synthesis of the current situation was carried out, based on the papers contained in Web of Science and Scopus databases. Moreover, a consultation of tourism experts was implemented to extract a number of practical implications for the promotion and development of this segment.

As the literature review suggested, halal tourism is a field of study that is still in a very early stage. In spite of this fact and the ambiguity found, halal tourism can be understood as the offer of tourist services designed to meet the needs of Muslim tourists in accordance with their religious obligations.

It is imperative to offer halal services (food, worship facilities, etc.) to attract this type of tourists. However, the diversity of interpretations has prevented the existence of one single certification. The lack of knowledge on this market is the main obstacle to overcome.

This paper contributes to clarifying the conceptualization of halal tourism. It takes a theoretical review and experts’ view as a preliminary step to study this topic in more depth.

This paper contributes to addressing the research gap relating to the absence of a systematic analysis as to how new technologies can support the application of circular economic principles in the tourism industry through the promotion and articulation of a start-up ecosystem able to feed tourism organizations with circular economy solutions.

A sample from a population of start-ups, mainly Spanish, linked to the circular economy was gathered and analyzed; in addition to secondary data, a survey was designed and administered for the purpose of primary tourism industry data collection.

A holistic start-up ecosystem for circular tourism is taking shape, facilitated by interactions between tourism and other economic activities, with the aim of tackling a diversity of circular economic objectives. The interest from start-ups in the circular economy for tourism seems to be rising, with attention given to certain technologies in line with the trend toward digitization and automation processes. Nevertheless, the potential for growth in the application of Technology 4.0 remains significant. Finally, the circular principle of reduction (energy and food waste) has emerged as a key objective in tourism.

The article provides insights on the application of circular economic principles in tourism through its interaction with a specialized start-up ecosystem able to support a paradigm shift toward circular tourism.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many restaurants and catering businesses have introduced or improved online food ordering and delivery services (OFODSs). This study aims to identify service quality expectations about OFODSs, to examine their content and to suggest management strategies to meet these expectations.

Adopting a qualitative method, four focus groups were conducted amongst Italian users of OFODSs.

The results reveal three dimensions of expectations, each comprising two categories that can be set along a continuum: (1) basicness of expectations (ranging from implicit to explicit), (2) accuracy of expectations (ranging from fuzzy to precise) and (3) attainability of expectations (ranging from realistic to unrealistic). Content may refer to technical, social, economic, legal and technological aspects. To meet customer expectations, the following strategies are suggested: customer reassurance, flexibility, continuous improvement, customer education, adaptation to customers' requirements and monitoring of exceptions.

This study provides specific activities in which restaurants and catering businesses could invest to enact the management strategies that emerged from the analysis.

This paper proposes a new classification of expectations and framework for improving OFODS quality by managing customer expectations.

The purpose of this study is to present the state-of-the-art scientific research in the intersection between smart tourism and social networks to better understand the role of the latter (such as Facebook and Twitter) in the development of the smart paradigm in tourism, e.g. how the relationship between smart tourism and social networks has been observed by authors, or the techniques and analytical tools that are most broadly used to take advantage of available data in social networks to feed a smart logic in the management of tourism companies and destinations.

A systematic search in scientific databases (such as Web of Science and Scopus) was performed, with December 2018 as a closing date. Once duplications were eliminated and the adequacy the outputs obtained verified properly, a total of 61 documents were considered for this study, most of which were journal articles.

The characterization of research in this area with both a bibliometric and bibliographic analysis.

The presentation of a detailed picture on the content of the research carried out in the abovementioned intersections: evolution over time; most prolific authors, institutions and countries; journals, conferences and publishers that have paid more attention to this topic; type of research performed, objects of study, methodologies used and main contributions.

The proposal of a research agenda in the field under study. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no a similar work carried out in this field.

The whole economy is in a transition process from the linear to the circular paradigm. The tourism industry is no stranger to this paradigm shift, so the purpose of this paper is to stimulate a reflection on the major challenges and opportunities derived from this transformation.

To inspire discussion, desk research was carried out based on scientific databases (Web of Science and Scopus mainly). This scholarly approach was complemented with another, using internet search engines to find additional documents of a professional nature that could provide extra pieces of evidence about the application of circular economy (CE) in tourism.

The state-of-the-art in this field is presented, characterized by the scarcity of the scientific literature available and the lack of a common understanding of this concept, with a limited scope in its use. Further, there are very few well-documented initiatives on the CE in the tourism industry. Therefore, this is still an under-researched area that inevitably will deserve much more attention in the years to come. Nonetheless, as a certain degree of terminological confusion was identified, this work is an attempt to help in the conceptual clarification of the CE, with its particularities when is applied to the tourism industry.

The CE concept is a relatively new, but inescapable, paradigm whose application will contribute to a more sustainable tourism industry. The tourism industry has a significant role to play in economic transformation which is ongoing, because of its multiplier effect on the whole economy and its capacity to encourage circular flows among its suppliers and customers. Additionally, it is important to boost this transformation awareness among businesses and consumers, together with some stimuli, particularly for SMEs, with more limited resources for innovation. Effective coordination within the complex and fragmented policy environment is also needed among the various interacting levels (European, national, regional […]) that influence the tourism sector.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first work carried out to systematize what the literature says about the intersection of the CE and tourism.

This review highlights the need for a tourism industry turnaround combining changes in its governance and in its social success metric.

Although debate was ongoing before the pandemic with the sustainability approach as the main reference, the crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 has multiplied and amplified the voices calling for change in order to counteract the inertia of a return to the pre-pandemic “business as usual” scenario.

This review led to a proposal that combines a tourism governance framework and its principles, with a conceptualisation of social success and guidelines for building a metric for its measurement.

This resides mainly in a transition from a public–private partnerships (3Ps) model to a new scheme of public–private–people partnership (4Ps). The P for “people” represents the need for an alliance with society to contribute to the recovery and transformation that the tourism industry is currently experiencing. In this process, local communities should be empowered to play an active role in it. In the proposal elaborated, host communities are the focus of its conceptual architecture. To-date, analysis of the application of the 4Ps model to tourism is almost unexplored, despite the significant practical implications of a power re-balancing in decisions related to tourism planning and development. In addition, a social success-driven metric supported at the institutional level will contribute to redefining priorities in tourism destinations'/companies' strategies.

The authors want to study the connection between institutional theory and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the set of hotels with three, four and five star situated in Galicia (Spain) and in the Northern region of Portugal. The authors aim to see whether there is a contrast of isomorphic behaviour in the institutional context of both regions.

A quantitative study in which the authors apply the partial least square (PLS) technique, a methodology based on structural equations models using the software Visual-PLS. The authors intend to study the relationships between the pressures of institutional context and CSR practices, together with the relationship between legitimacy and these practices. The focus of the proposed model is based on the system theory.

The main findings of this research clearly show that hotels are incorporated into an institutional context marked by enforced and regulatory pressures.

The proposed research model can be replicated using other units of study, sectors, geographic areas, among others, due to the explanatory capacity of the theoretical framework used.

The originality of this work derives from the main contributions based on the theoretical framework (institutional theory and CSR), the object of study and geographical area (three, four and five star hotels located in Galicia and in the North of Portugal), the context (economic crisis), the field of study (private sphere) and the type of organizations (profit making).