Competitor Perceptions in Tourism Coopetition

Our study aims at understanding how coopeting tourism managers perceive their competitors. Competitor perceptions are consequential because they have implications for interfirm relationships. Collaboration with competitors offers benefits otherwise unattainable, such as improved destination marketing, more successful attracting of tourists, increased tourism product complexity, and better service, but is used to various degrees by tourism firms. We use a purposeful sampling procedure for maximum heterogeneity to select interviewees from Polish tourism DMO member firms. We inductively code and thematically group their perceptions to find that tourism managers develop a detailed understanding of collaboration with competitors and precisely identify their competitors, but interpret this so as to either facilitate collaboration or to remain in rivalrous mode, depending on their behavioral disposition. We propose a framework for developing perceptions with mindsets in a pivotal role.

Automated summary

Our study aims to understand how tourism managers perceive their competitors, finding that they develop a detailed understanding of collaboration with competitors and identify their rivals precisely, interpreting this to either facilitate collaboration or to remain in rivalrous mode, depending on their behavioral disposition.