Abstract
The present paper reviews the innovation literature related to tourismand examines the twin problems of operational definitions andmeasurement of innovation in the tourism sector. A conceptual model isthen proposed by which the most relevant aspects of innovation and themost relevant aspects of the "tourism experience" can be integratedconceptually, and which can guide the development of related operationaldefinitions and measurements and lead to a standardization of, andtherefore an ability to aggregate, tourism innovation statistics acrossproducts, providers, markets and geopolitical regions. The model firstcategorizes innovations along two dimensions: an "invention-adoption"continuum and an "impact-on-the-tourism-experience"dimension, whichincludes accessibility, affective transformation, convenience and value.How the use of these categories can direct attention to importantdefinitional and measurement issues are discussed as is how their usecan improve the comparability of tourism innovation data collected fromdisparate sources. Finally, a third dimension, the economic impact ofthe innovation, is introduced to the model. The paper concludes withimplications and guidelines for future research aimed at validating themodel described.