The role of social innovation in small-regional tourism development

Abstract

The development of mass tourism has led to several negative economic, social, cultural and environmental problems in major destinations and in the everyday lives of those living there. Social innovation is new solutions (practices, organizational forms, cooperation models) that target social problems and increase the well-being of local communities. In micro-regional tourism, social innovation increases the participation and ownership of the affected communities, improves the local value proposition, and helps achieve sustainable, inclusive economic development — especially in lagging or aging regions. Tourism is one of the keys to the economic diversification of Hungarian rural areas, but traditional development models (infrastructure-centric, top-down) often fail to provide long-term social and economic benefits. In contrast, social innovation – as a community-based development approach based on cooperation and social value creation – offers a new opportunity for sustainable and inclusive tourism development. Based on the literature, the study provides proposals for tourism social innovation projects for the Abaúj region, combining natural (researcher) and artificial intelligence suggestions in its methods.