Rethinking Tourism Models in the Platform Era of the Sharing Economy Implications for tourism marketing and management

Over the last three decades, tourism has experienced significant changes due to the emergence of digital platforms and services, which have transformed the industry and its associated ecosystem (Briel & Dolnicar, 2021; Buhalis et al., 2020). Digital platforms have emerged progressively as competitors for long-established (physical) suppliers of goods and services traditionally provided locally or via agencies, and often using face-to-face communication. Since its inception, tourism has been a key contributor to the economy as well as an early adopter of new technologies aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction (Buhalis et al., 2019). Not surprisingly, the sharing economy has capitalised on tourism's favourable pre-disposition towards innovative technologies by developing a number of online platforms, which have grown rapidly to become household names (e.g. Airbnb, Couchsurfing, ToursByLocals, EatWith, and SocialCar, among others). However, the homogeneous term 'sharing economy' encompasses, mostly, a myriad of online relationships and activities by individuals and organizations (Reinhold & Dolnicar, 2021). This rather eclectic phenomenon includes different types of exchange and interaction between individuals, who rent, lend, trade, barter, or swap goods, services, transportation solutions, space, or money using the Internet as their main channel for this (Möhlmann, 2015).