Obstacles to achieving cross-border tourism governance: A multi-scalar approach focusing on the German-Czech borderlands

Abstract

This paper aims to identify distinctive obstacles to the establishment of tourism destination governance in both transnational and within-country borderlands. Analysis of the German-Czech borderlands, a region also incorporating within-country borders between three German federal states, indicates the multi-scalar and political contestations of cross-border tourism collaboration. Local tourism projects are generally successful, both on a transnational German-Czech level and between the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia. However, structural cross-border destination management does not exist because of (transnational) multi-scalar institutional alignment problems and (internal) tourism-specific destination-level power contestations. Understanding destination management processes in borderlands, therefore, requires: (i) explicit multi-scalar analysis; (ii) recognition of both transnational and within-country contexts; (iii) more cross-pollination between tourism planning and cross-border governance research.

Collaborative Governance in Tourism: Empirical Insights into a Community-Oriented Destination

“…The governance of destinations, which are strongly shaped by touristic activities, is becoming an increasingly important topic [1][2][3]. Research has investigated the principles of tourism governance under varying settings [4,5]: At an institutional level, research has concentrated on the role of governance for economic performance [6,7], but recently social and environmental aspects of governance have received increased attention [8,9]. Previous studies have reported that tourism governance needs to adopt a holistic understanding of social factors such as citizen participation and collaboration among stakeholders [9,10].…”

Tourism, Local Communities and Environmental Governance: Analysis of the Souss Massa Nature Park Governance in Morocco

“…It is also important to conduct a discussion between the government of the Republic of Indonesia and the government of PNG to manage the border area. In the case of German-Czech borderland, Stoffelen et al (2017) mentioned the importance of structural cross-border destination management with the multi-scalar approach between the two countries in order to develop tourism destinations in the border area. It is a very good practice to be applied in the management of border tourism in Indonesia.…”

Untitled

“…It is also important to conduct a discussion between the government of the Republic of Indonesia and the government of PNG to manage the border area. In the case of German-Czech borderland, Stoffelen et al (2017) mentioned the importance of structural cross-border destination management with the multiscalar approach between the two countries in order to develop tourism destinations in the border area. It is a very good practice to be applied in the management of border tourism in Indonesia.…”