A three dimensional knowledge management framework for hospitality and tourism

Purpose – In pursuit of an alternative competitive strategy for tourism's underperformers and particularly for niche markets such as tourist destination islands, this paper aims to introduce a framework that caters to the post‐modern tourist. Design/methodology/approach – Through a pilot study, the framework was introduced to senior hotel managers on the island of Crete. The framework explores how hotel managers can best use their employees’ knowledge in order to increase their market adaptability and develop unique capabilities. Findings – The results demonstrated that managers scored highly in their ability to leverage knowledge gained from the market, whereas they gave less importance to their employees’ valuable, internal knowledge. In the majority of cases tested, senior managers lacked an overall knowledge strategy. Although the pilot study's findings cannot be generalized, they can help us anticipate the maturity levels of hotel managers towards knowledge management and contribute towards building a future research agenda for developing the framework further. Originality/value – The paper introduces a framework that caters to the post‐modern tourist. It is three dimensional, as it combines the disciplines of knowledge management, business strategy and marketing.