Co-creation of tourism knowledge

Co-creation has become a buzzword in many social science disciplines and business studies as well as in the field of tourism studies. Everybody is supposed to work together to create ‘more value’, ‘better experiences’ and to enhance knowledge transfer. While no exact or clear-cut definition exists of co-creation, it often refers to ways in which producers and consumers of a particular product or service jointly produce it partly or in whole. In the private sector, it denotes a shift in the organization of production where consumers or users are enabled or encouraged to participate in the making of a product or experience as in the case of tourism. In design studies it has been used in a similar sense to reflect on and work with the relation between designers and end users (Sanders & Stappers, 2008; see also Chapter 6).