Destination networks as a tool for minimizing risk and improving the performance of a destination
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The aim of this research is to introduce tourism networks as a tool for minimizing risk and improving the performance in a tourist destination. It also characterizes other motives and factors leading to creating such types of collaborative relationships. Managing of tourist destination in the form of networks is considered as one of the possible approaches to destination governance structures (e.g. Pechlaner, Volgger and Herntrei, 2012). The concept of destination governance is based on cooperation between actors from the public and private sectors. Linkages between these stakeholders can be explored by interorganisational network theories (Alter and Hage, 1993). Nordin and Svensson (2007) explore the impact of governance on destination development and indicate that public–private relationships built on trust, joint risk taking and based on informal structures have a positive impact on the level of growth at a tourist destination. Wang and Fesenmaier (2006) say that crisis is one of the most important preconditions and network-oriented motivations for the tourism organizations to form collaborative relationships, especially when the crisis requires collective action. The submitted research investigates cooperation between the destination management organization (DMO), public sector and tourism firms in terms of potential risks and also reveals contributions and risks, which are derived from the DMO–firm collaborative relations. The theoretical part is based on a literature review and summarizes current knowledge describing destination networks in terms of approaches and research findings. The case study research was conducted as a part of current university research. It gives an account of the experience of the Czech Republic, or more precisely, of the most important stakeholders from East Moravia, one of the most developed tourist regions. The DMO, local and regional government, hoteliers and restaurant owners are the most important stakeholders The data collection was achieved by conducting in-depth interviews and structured questionnaires. The additional data was collected from sources, such as web sites, statistical analysis or databases of stakeholders. Snowball sampling was also employed as a tool for identification of the most important players and partners. The findings mainly focus on network-oriented motives of these stakeholders. The relationships between actors from the public sector are clearly based on trust and are mostly informal. The cooperation between these actors could be considered to be at a high level. The collected data and findings from the preliminary research also show the unwillingness of hoteliers and restaurant owners to cooperate with other segments interested in tourism in this region. |
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