Barriers to Interorganizational Learning for Innovation: A Case Study of a Sustainable Tourism Destination

Abstract

The path to sustainable tourism is marked by challenges and innovation hurdles. This chapter addresses obstacles in learning for innovation faced by tourism actors pursuing certification for sustainability. Sustainability certification signifies environmentally, economically, and socially responsible practices, and can be awarded to businesses, destinations or products. However, challenges such as lack of expertise, high costs, and competition can hinder adoption. Recent research indicates collaboration networks can overcome these barriers, fostering knowledge exchange, learning and innovation. This chapter adopts an organizational learning approach to examine the barriers to learning that a tourism destination experienced when obtaining a sustainability label. The research question is: what barriers to collective learning for sustainable innovation do tourism destinations meet when getting certified? A qualitative case study was conducted on a Norwegian tourism destination with a collective sustainable tourism certification, involving stakeholders and officials. Findings underscore that the sustainability destination label has provided the tourism destination with a context in which learning and innovation for sustainability can take place. Yet, our findings point towards disruptions as well. Three barriers emerged: 1) sustainability goals, 2) user experiences, and 3) knowledge integration. These impede progress towards more sustainable practices, expanded further in the chapter.