Institutional Thickness and Regional Tourism Development: Lessons from Antioquia, Colombia

Salvador Anton Clavé,Natalia Restrepo

doi:10.3390/su11092568

Salvador Anton Clavé, Natalia Restrepo

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092568

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: May 3, 2019
Citations: 13	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Rovira i Virgili University

Abstract

Researchers from different social sciences are increasingly interested in studying the role of institutions in regional development. Nevertheless, from the perspective of regional tourism development analysis, the role of institutions has been explored limitedly. Based on the institutional thickness approach, this study analyzed the role played by institutions in regional tourism development through a qualitative research procedure applied on a Latin American region. The study examined the institutional presence, the levels of interaction, the structures of domination and/or coalition patterns, and the common agendas in 28 institutions related to tourism in the region of Antioquia, Colombia. Results from this empirical analysis show that institutions play a decisive role in regional tourism development for reasons such as the allocation of economic resources, leadership, and interaction among stakeholders. Knowing these dynamics can be useful to boost better management and planning of tourism destinations throughout governance, coordination, and common agendas, and to enrich the debate on regional tourism development.

Highlights

From different perspectives institutions have been considered central elements in explaining the evolution of regional economies and a wider group of researchers have increasingly generated empirical and analytical evidence of their role in regional development processes [1,2]
According to the idea that institutional thickness should focus on the perceptions of regional economic agents on their institutional environment [43], this section operationalizes the concept through the research findings with the aim of describing each institutional thickness feature in the regional tourism development of Antioquia
In Antioquia, the findings show that certain actors can play a decisive role in regional tourism development, whether this is influenced by a greater allocation of economic resources or strong leadership and interaction capacity in relation to other institutions/organizations

Summary

Introduction

From different perspectives institutions have been considered central elements in explaining the evolution of regional economies and a wider group of researchers have increasingly generated empirical and analytical evidence of their role in regional development processes [1,2]. In this context, Institutional Thickness, theorized by Amin and Thrift [3], is considered a key condition to promote economic development as well as mobilize actors, organizations, and resources. Some contributions have recently started to discuss, not explicitly, the role of institutions in regional tourism development from the evolutionary economic geography approach [7]

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