Cross-border tourism destination marketing: Prerequisites and critical success factors

Cross-border collaboration has become more valuable particularly for destinations that have had long-standing disputes in political relations but now seek peace. They are often forced to collaborate and develop economic and political bridges, developing friendships on the way. Although the industry has several cases of such collaboration in practice, this has been a neglected subject in academic studies. Therefore, this study explores the opportunities and benefits from a Turkey-Greece destination marketing collaboration. It seeks to identify catalysts for success through a range of potential instruments, organisations, solutions that remove possible barriers that may hinder a successful implementation. It also identifies the advantages of successful cross-border destination marketing such as being in close proximity in terms of history, culture, attractions and location. Finally, the paper discusses the ways to strengthen the competitiveness of both destinations as neighbouring countries. For instance, through their historical wealth and strategic location, both Greece and Turkey can obtain economic, social and political benefits from tourism that will also lead to peace making in the end. The study also provides implications for the practice and future research.