Destination management in crisis - the case study of the Czech Republic

HOLEŠINSKÁ, Andrea. Destination management in crisis - the case study of the Czech Republic. In ATLAS Annual Conference 2015. 2015.

Basic information

• Original name: Destination management in crisis - the case study of the Czech Republic
• Authors: HOLEŠINSKÁ, Andrea (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: ATLAS Annual Conference 2015, 2015.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50600 5.6 Political science
• Country of publisher: Portugal
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: stranka konference
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14560/15:00086222
• Organization unit: Faculty of Economics and Administration
• Keywords in English: destination management; cooperation; development; Czech Republic
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Destination management was considered as a mature form of managing a destination (Bieger, 1996). However, the strong process of globalisation and consolidation has made the concept of destination management transformed (Bieger, Laesser, & Beritelli, 2011). The cooperation among stakeholders is still the fundamental principal of destination management but its structure and strategy have totally changed. Regarding the strategy, the central point is the market and therefore destination management is focused on production and sales processes. Concerning the structure, changes are connected with the decentralization that is based on small and middle-sized entrepreneurs (a destination of community-type). In this context the most discussed issue is tourism destination governance (Beritelli, Bieger, & Laesser, 2007; Nordin & Svensson, 2007; Baggio, Scott, & Cooper, 2010; Pechlaner, Volgger, & Herntrei, 2012). Briefly described development of destination management is valid for highly-developed destinations, such as the Alpine regions. The completely different situation is in the Central Europe countries, e.g. the Czech Republic, Slovakia, or Slovenia, where the development was stimulated neither by the demand-side, nor by the market but by the political-economic preconditions (Holešinska, 2013). Through the case study of the Czech Republic, this paper presents how the external conditions influence the function of destination management, specifically the planning process and particularly the setting of the corporate strategy. Moutinho, Rate, and Ballantyne (2011) highlighted the importance of effective planning to cope with uncertainties. The current framework of the Czech tourism policy seems to be a risk (obstacle) for further development of destination management and thus it is up to the destination management organizations whether they can manage this process or stay balancing on the edge of precipice. The qualitative research included questionnaires and interviews and addressed all the destination management organizations (DMOs) that operated in the Czech Republic in the year of 2014. Totally, 42 DMOs (93 %) were examined. The study reveals that due to the external conditions the cooperation has the form of the partnership with informal relations. The structure is made up by a dominant unit, see a company-type destination (Bieger, Laesser, & Beritelli, 2011) and from the strategy point of view, the cooperation is more task-orientated with territorial and supply-side perspectives (Bieger, Laesser, & Beritelli, 2011).