Inter-organizational relationships in time and space: coopetition in tourism destinations

Coopetition, namely the co-presence of cooperation and competition is a new strategy that goes beyond the established business paradigms of competition and cooperation. This type of strategy is increasingly relevant in tourism destinations, for instance in tourism resorts and theme parks, where competing, co-located companies also collaborate. The purpose of our paper is to discuss interorganisational practices of spatially competing co-located actors and organizations. In particular, we address temporal, spatial and process dynamics through which cooperative and/or coopetitive arrangements are formed, maintained, discontinued or resumed. We have studied Italian and Finnish tourism destinations in the regions of Riviera Romagnola and Lapland. Our comparative study shows that cooperation and coopetition among tourism businesses often shift from a prevalently short-term basis to a long term one when public and private stakeholders understand the benefits accruing to cooperation in terms of enhancement of the brand image of the destination and attraction of a higher number of visitors, by leveraging the destination’s multifaceted assets. Last but not least, we contribute to the discussions of coopetition strategy and management studies, tourism management, and practice-theoretical approach