Abstract
Conventional approaches to strategic management propose simple product and price tactics that managers can follow after undertaking a sophisticated analysis of a firm’s competitive position. The present paper argues that firms operating within volatile and unpredictable systems ought to review the positioning landscape. They should conceive strategic choice as alternative options for learning about a firm’s environment and about how to transform it. It is possible to establish a number of generic learning strategies (non-deterministic by design) based on basic tradeoffs between types of knowhow that firms can choose to create or acquire. This is especially important, as volatility and diversity seem to constitute inherent and enduring attributes of tourism industrials systems. Then, business strategy in tourism ultimately involves the ability to develop or acquire competencies to experiment with alternative learning methods. Consequently the positioning of tourism firms takes place at the innovation level rather than in terms of pricing or market segmentation.

Key words - Management, Business strategy, Strategic innovation, Tourism Management

By Pascal Tremblay, School of Hospitality and Tourism, Charles Darwin University, Australia