Exploring Barriers to Innovation in Tourism Industry – The Case of Southern Region of Poland

This paper provides evidence for different factors hampering the innovative activity of micro, small and medium-sized tourist enterprises (MSMTEs). Innovation barriers are identified and explored within the framework of innovative chain of the regional tourism along its three main dimensions: organizational, environmental and innovation-process specifics. Empirical evidence is obtained through surveys conducted in 2012 in the southern region of Poland. The questionnaires were administered to representative samples of local tourist business stakeholders (MSMTEs, local governments, economic self-governments, tourists, local communities). The main conclusion is that the organizational, environmental and innovation-process related barriers to innovation in tourist sector appear to be closely and mutually interrelated. Furthermore, most of identified barriers emerge or tend to aggravate at the interfaces between local tourist business stakeholders