KM and IC in the processes of value creation within the Tourist Industry and Mountain Tourism Destinations: a research on Abetone, in the Pistoia Mountains

This paper assumes that the gap between the needs of the stakeholders and the local offer mainly arises from the lack of processes and tools of creation and management of collective knowledge. This research aims at highlighting the Intellectual Capital role and the Knowledge Management processes in the value creation for the destination’s stakeholders.The approach is theoretical-empirical. The first section, in the wake of KM studies, points out the intellectual capital components and the processes of development and spread of the knowledge for the competitiveness in the mountain tourist destinations. The second section examines the results of an empiric research in Abetone aimed at different categories of stakeholders. The objective of the present study is to survey, with reference to the processes of value creation for the tourist, some dimensions of intellectual capital and to focus on the destination Abetone and on its enhancement tools. The methodology includes collection of data and sources at disposal about the characteristics of tourist supply and demand in Abetone, focus groups with local stakeholders, social network analysis linked to the destination, interviews, questionnaires addressed to the stakeholders and tourists.