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From Clusters to Smart Specialization: Tourism in Institution-Sensitive Regional Development Policies

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  • Maximilian Benner

    (Institute of Geography, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg 69120, Germany)

Abstract

In the European Union and its neighborhood, regional development has increasingly come to focus on agglomerations during the last three decades. Notably, during the 1990s and early 2000s, clustering was the major policy focus in regional development. Currently, the concept of smart specialization is applied all over the European Union and is attracting interest in the EU’s neighborhood. The tourism sector particularly tends to agglomerate regionally and even locally. While there is a large body of literature describing tourism clusters and while tourism features as a priority sector in many regional development strategies such as smart specialization strategies, there is a research gap on policy approaches applying agglomeration-oriented policy concepts to tourism destinations in an institution-sensitive way. This article argues that both cluster policy and smart specialization can be of considerable value for institution-sensitive tourism development, either when adapted to the specificities of the tourism sector or when integrating tourism development into wider, cross-sectoral strategies of regional development. Such a policy can be a valuable tool for local and regional development, provided that policies are designed in an institution-sensitive manner and respond to the particular institutional context prevailing in a tourist destination. The article illustrates some preliminary thoughts for institution-sensitive tourism development through cluster policy and smart specialization in Cyprus, Israel, and Tunisia.

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  • Maximilian Benner, 2017. "From Clusters to Smart Specialization: Tourism in Institution-Sensitive Regional Development Policies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:5:y:2017:i:3:p:26-:d:104881
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    16. Benner, Maximilian & Hirth, Jana & Kraatz, Fabian & Ludwig, Katja & Schrade, Jessi, 2017. "Regional development in the context of economic reform: The case of Limassol," MPRA Paper 76834, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ina Sabalenka & Yuliya Krupenka & Uladzimir Ganski & Weidi Zhou, 2021. "Regional Tourism Clusters Sustainability Modeling Taking into Account Sociocultural Factors," Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development, Sciendo, vol. 43(4), pages 457-467, December.
    2. Maria Plotnikova, 2018. "Green Tourism Development In Smart Communities," Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, Publishing house "Baltija Publishing", vol. 4(3).
    3. Benner Maximilian, 2020. "Overcoming overtourism in Europe: Towards an institutional-behavioral research agenda," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 64(2), pages 74-87, June.
    4. Magdalena Kogut-Jaworska & Elżbieta Ociepa-Kicińska, 2020. "Smart Specialisation as a Strategy for Implementing the Regional Innovation Development Policy—Poland Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Benner, Maximilian & Buzin, Johannes & Hoffmann, Jakob & Taifour, Ahmad Azzam, 2017. "Inclusive local development: A strategy for Heraklion, Greece," MPRA Paper 81323, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Benner, Maximilian, 2019. "From overtourism to sustainability: A research agenda for qualitative tourism development in the Adriatic," MPRA Paper 92213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Maximilian Benner, 2020. "The Decline of Tourist Destinations: An Evolutionary Perspective on Overtourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-14, May.
    8. Maximilian Benner, 2019. "Smart specialisation and institutional context: What does it mean for path development?," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_05, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    9. Biagi, Bianca & Brandano, Maria Giovanna & Ortega-Argiles, Raquel, 2021. "Smart specialisation and tourism: Understanding the priority choices in EU regions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Benner, Maximilian & Engin, Melda & Sperber, Leon & Trendl, André, 2017. "Cross-border regional development in Gibraltar," MPRA Paper 81209, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Benner, Maximilian & Michael, Dollinger & Elisa, Gliesner & Rouven, Pelz, 2017. "Upgrading a tourism cluster: The case of Eilat," MPRA Paper 81175, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Luiz Carlos De Santana Ribeiro & Thiago Henrique Carneiro Rios Lopes & Rosa Lívia Gonçalves Montenegro & José Roberto De Lima Andrade, 2018. "Employment dynamics in the Brazilian tourism sector (2006–2015)," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(4), pages 418-433, June.

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