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Purpose This study aims to identify pitfalls in the use of cooperation for the implementation of digital applications in rural cultural tourism marketing and derive practical implications for avoiding them. Design/methodology/approach A total of 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the participants of the cooperation project around the Web app “The Legend of the Call of the Mountain” in the Zugspitz Region in Germany. Findings The study has identified four key pitfalls: challenges in the long-term financing, destination-specific characteristics of rural areas, doubts about the use of evaluations and the limited horizon of many cultural institutions. Research limitations/implications Because of the qualitative approach and the single case study, the results may lack generalisability. Therefore, future research should place the results to a larger scale, for example, with a mixed methods approach. Practical implications Practical implications can be derived from the study for avoiding pitfalls and thus for a successful use of such cooperation projects. The implications draw attention to the different possibilities of long-term financing, the important role of a central tourism organisation, the special possibilities of evaluations and the important role of general awareness raising for the added values of such cooperation. Originality/value By examining an exemplary cooperation project, the paper fills an existing research gap, as there has been little knowledge in empirical cultural tourism research about the special conditions for using cooperation to implement digital applications in rural cultural tourism marketing.

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