Abstract
In tourism, the interaction between supply and demand is mediated by the unique territorial structure of destinations, which is integral to the tourism experience. Accordingly, market equilibrium is determined by the interplay between the complementarity and substitutability of the various components of the tourism product and the availability of local resources. Similarly, tourists’ experiences are linked to destinations’ attractions, around which firms shape their offerings. This thesis unfolds the microeconomic foundation of tourism destinations, focusing on the issue of coordination among local firms, seeking to understand its relevance and measure and model it. It examines how both formal and informal, relation-based, coordination can manage and integrate firms’ dissimilar competencies in a product that meets tourism demand. Despite its critical importance for the functioning and competitiveness of a destination, coordination is scarcely addressed in existing literature and is scattered across disciplines, thereby calling for systematic research. Thus, this thesis consists of three studies that adopt complementary perspectives, ensuring theoretical triangulation: the first study seeks to increase our conceptual understanding of coordination, the second focuses on its operationalization and measurement, and the third models its economic impact. All studies adopt a multidisciplinary approach and rotate around the inherent characteristics of the tourism industry. The first contribution investigates the constituent dimensions of coordination among tourism firms to develop a unifying framework that transcends disciplines and terminologies. It systematically reviews past studies from top tourism and hospitality journals using an adapted version of the PRISMA protocol and applying a thematic synthesis. It identifies four main dimensions of coordination, categorizing them into antecedents, enablers, actions, and outcomes. Findings show that coordination is a multidimensional phenomenon embedding the personal and business spheres, encompassing response strategies, interorganizational relationships, and formal agreements. The second contribution seeks to operationalize and measure the formation, management, and evolution of coordination among tourism firms within a destination by developing a cohesive indicator system that integrates diverse dimensions across the micro, meso, and macro levels. The indicator system is developed starting from a comprehensive literature search, which informed a preliminary categorization of firms’ coordination indicators. This categorization was subsequently validated through a Delphi survey, involving leading scholars and practitioners to ensure its rigor and relevance. The resulting 19 quantitative and qualitative coordination indicators underscore the complexity of the construct, highlighting the importance of prioritizing accuracy and relevance in measurement over simplicity in treatment and calculation. The third contribution explores the economic effect of the introduction of a destination card in a tourist destination as an interorganizational coordination tool. It builds on previous research by employing a model à la Hotelling involving two substitute firms and a complementary one to capture the complementarity and substitutability among tourism goods and services. The results delineate the conditions under which greater social efficiency is achieved by all actors (firms and tourists) collectively or is accompanied by a reduction in consumer surplus. This thesis demonstrates the pivotal role of coordination within a destination, showing that its centrality persists even when both destination and coordination are critically examined through a multidisciplinary approach, and when existing models are extended in their explanatory power.