Digital Ecosystems, Complexity, and Tourism Networks

Tourism has experienced quite relevant changes since when Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), in all their forms, have started to permeate the society, the industry, and the markets. As an effect, a new concept has gained the attention of both researchers and practitioners, that of Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE). It arises from the deep interaction between the digital world and the ensemble of individuals and organizations that compose the complex domain of tourism and mainly for what concerns tourism destinations. Here we go beyond the known considerations on the important role of ICTs and show how the virtual and the real components are strongly coupled and co-evolve forming a single system. The conceptual framework used is that of complexity science and, in particular, the methods of network science. These allow to well assess both the structural and dynamic characteristics of these complex digital ecosystems. Several examples from the recent literature show how these methods have been applied so far and the validity of the outcomes, as, besides a pure academic interest, they can help in providing a deeper and better knowledge of the issues considered and can, thus, inform policy and governance activities. Moreover, the network approach allows the possibility to simulate structural changes, mainly on the virtual side, that can provide more suitable environments for improving or optimizing certain features of the system (e.g., attractiveness, innovativeness, etc.), crucial to provide a good basis for a sensible and harmonic tourism development.