Innovative Tourism Startups and Business Model: Challenges in Application

Innovative startups emerge as key contributors to boost economic growth by the exploration of new market opportunities and introducing novel products/technologies and novel ways of organizing processes and activities. Although innovative tourism startups assume a relevant role as drivers of innovation and sustainability, they are facing increasing and pressuring challenges related to digital transformation and the concrete application of some digital technologies. Therefore, in Italy, facilitations have been defined by the lawmaker to promote national tourism and support their activities in the underlined field. Starting from these assumptions, the study intends to identify the state of the art of innovative tourism startups by developing an overview of the evolution of their business models (from 2014 to 2023) and the legislation affecting their development in Italy.