Tourism value chains revisited and applied to rural well-being tourism

The tourism value chain is a popular and informative topic both in research and in the practice of destination planning and management. This article delivers a critical review of the conceptualizations of value chains in tourism. Two different approaches are identified. First, destination logic addresses the consumption steps and processes of the tourists and comprises the various needs for products and services. Second, supply chain logic, which, from an enterprise perspective, takes into consideration the composition of products and services with supplies from across business sectors, thus recognizes wider contributions to the economics of tourism. With reference to rural well-being tourism, the study outlines strategic alleys within these two logics. In the context of rural well-being tourism, gains for destinations can be achieved from both logics, but local rural areas may increase advantages of tourism with a profounder embracement of supply chain logic.