Tourism clusters could help local destinations

Developing tourism ‘clusters’ in which organisations, not restricted by political boundaries, can work together could be the answer to some of the current problems faced by regional tourism destinations.

Joshua Hills, a doctoral candidate with Southern Cross University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, is investigating the effectiveness of clustering and how the concept could be applied across tourism destinations.

His research is part of an international project involving Southern Cross University, the University of Newcastle, the University of Flensburg in Germany and ESCP-EAP European School of Management in Berlin. The project is funded through an Australian Research Council International Linkage Grant. The chief investigator on the project is Professor Kerry Brown, who holds the Mulpha Chair in Tourism Asset Management at Southern Cross University.

Professor Brown said the project was looking at capturing the benefits of regional clustering for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Mr Hills said cluster theory was a model of economic development, which aimed to ensure businesses worked together more efficiently and in a unified way to enhance the overall competitiveness of a region.

“While the potential benefit of tourism is widely recognised there is plenty of debate about how tourism should be managed at the local destination level to ensure the competiveness of the region,” he said.

“We know clusters work in other industry areas. In Switzerland for example they have successful watch-making clusters and Silicon Valley is another example of the benefits of clustering.”

One of the features of clusters is that the participants are not determined by political boundaries, but by areas of common interest.

Mr Hills said the management, and specifically the marketing, of many tourist destinations was often based on local government boundaries, rather than where the tourists go and what they do.

“Another barrier to tourism development is the perception of many tourism operators that other operators within the destination are their competitors,” he said.

“Primarily my research aims to establish a framework for developing clusters, which will be directly relevant to places such as Coffs Harbour and other regional tourism destinations.”

His project will compare two semi-developed tourism clusters – the Tweed Gold Coast and the Baltic Coast, which is a cross-border region spanning Germany and Denmark.

“I’ll be looking at what is working for them and how to improve clustering advantages and then apply new understandings of the success factors to other locations,” he said.

As part of his project, Mr Hills is travelling to Germany in early September to present his initial research to an International Cluster Conference and to visit the Baltic Coast region.

Mr Hills is the recipient of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management PhD scholarship. He has also been the recipient of a Coffs Ex-Services Club scholarship and a Telstra Country Wide Honours Faculty of Business scholarship.

Photo: Joshua Hills will be travelling to Germany as part of his research into tourism clusters.