Complex Systems, Information Technologies, and Tourism: A Network Point of View

There is a growing interest in complexity science as a framework for understanding social and economic systems. This article aims at presenting this approach giving a brief overview of the complexity framework and illustrating some of the methods in order to allow the reader to gain a deeper appreciation of this perspective. The role of information management and information technology in tourism, emphasized on numerous occasions, is examined in this context. It is argued that this framework can offer tools and techniques able not only to better understand the general state from a theoretical point of view, but can also provide practical guidance in specific situations. As an example, the structure of the community of websites belonging to Italian travel agencies is analyzed.