The birth of Web 2.0 tools has created a new paradigm for word-of-mouth communication. Bearing in mind the relevance of tourists as agents in destination image-formation processes, this research discusses the new role they play in this paradigm, and how it affects and modifies the seminal typology of image-formation agents originally proposed by Gartner [1994. Image formation process. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 2(2), 191–216. doi: 10.1300/J073v02n02_12]. The results focus on the effects of Web 2.0 tools on the credibility, market penetration and costs for the destination of tourists' actions as image-formation agents. Implications for destination marketing organisations are also considered and discussed.

The past two decades of tourism research have seen a growing interest in the relationship between tourism and justice. Some of this attention has focused on the just or unjust outcomes of mainstream tourism, and how it could contribute more to justice. Other research has directed the attention to the justice outcomes of alternative forms of tourism, where their increased commodification and de-politicization has limited the potential justice benefits enormously. Yet, a clear conceptualization of justice tourism is still lacking, and its theoretical grounding is still too limited. This paper addresses these concerns and aims to clarify the concept of justice tourism and advance a conceptual framework where types of justice tourism and justice through tourism are systematically identified and classified. Moreover, from the proposed conceptual framework, posthumanism emerges as a promising ethical regime with which the commodification and depoliticization of justice tourism could be reversed, and its increasing co-optation by neoliberal capitalism curved. Posthumanism’s affirmative ethics and political responsibility, along with its political forms of solidarity and advocacy, can become an effective mechanism for radical transformation and a crucial catalyst for justice in tourism and tourism research.

The analysis of tourism destinations as territorial agglomerations, that is, industrial districts and clusters, has been given attention in this journal in recent years. In these analyses, tourist companies closely situated in a territory or space are claimed to benefit from available shared resources. These papers, however, do not focus on the key role that innovation and the relationships among actors have on the evolution of tourism destinations. In trying to close this gap, we use the notions of system of innovation and social network analysis, and apply them to the tourism industry, to introduce the Tourism Local Innovation System (TLIS) model. This model can be used to assess the innovation capacity of tourism destinations and, also, to design relational network structures that favour innovation. Finally, by using social network analysis methods to draw a destination's relational network map, we present the case of Costa Brava Centre (Mid-Costa-Brava) — the most visited destination in Catalonia, which at the same time is the most visited region in Spain — as an actual example of TLIS.

An important amount of literature have focused on analyzing the consequences of sport events, particularly on the economic impacts; however as is often claimed, impacts also occur on the environment, culture and society. As sport events are intensive in stakeholders’ relationships, the creation and strengthening of networks among these stakeholders should be a first priority of strategies aiming at building events’ legacies. The purpose of this study is to explore the generation of effective networks in a regional triathlon event using social network analysis theory and techniques. Ten key stakeholders from the sports and tourism areas were interviewed before and after the first edition of the event in 2009 and the data collected were analyzed by means of social network analysis software. Findings indicate that there is an evolution in the structure and complexity of the network, affecting both the social, personal and economic components of relationships and the connectivity among local and external stakeholders. Subsequent implications for managers are drawn to plan strategies that ensure the effectiveness of the event in terms of positive legacies.