Final-Comunicació EUTO

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Turisme i Esport i creaci de xarxes ONIT UdG

1 Oriol Sallent i Bonaventura

Generation of cohesive social networks in Sports Tourism Destinations Banyoles

as a case study

Oriol Sallent i Bonaventuraa

, Ramon Palau i Saumellb

and Jaume Guia i Julbec

aONIT Research Group, Girona, Catalonia;

bONIT Research Group, Girona, Catalonia,

cONIT Research Group, Girona, Catalonia

(Received 1 november 2009)

Special Interest Tourism (like culture, sports or gastronomy) as an avenue for local

development has generated a high variety of entrepreneurial initiatives, tourist products

and policy plans. Evaluation of these schemes outcomes is normally measured in

economic or social (labour) figures. But in a long term strategic view, the creation and

strengthen of networks with subjects within the community should be of a first priority.

In Catalonia, the national tourist body (CTB) has created the Sports Tourism

Destination (STD), a label that certificates locations that fulfil all requirements the CTB

consider necessary for a competitive sport training and competing location. Destinations

interested in adhering to this initiative have to create different entities that with sport

clubs, sport retailers and other stakeholders, usually not involved in the tourism

destination management. Is this an effective tool to create new sport tourism networks

that thrives marketing opportunities and local development, or is just a bureaucratic

requisite without any further consequence?

This communication illustrates a study on how two tourist destinations are engendering,

or not, sport tourism networks after being certified. Through semi-structured interviews

and archive data research, we analyze the different multidimensional embedded

network ties (Hite, 2003) within the involved stakeholders with the aim of evaluating

the community participation and the network strength. The method and theoretical

process can be relevant to other special interest tourism as mentioned above.

Keywords: sports tourism, social network analysis, tourism destination management,cohesive networks, Catalan Tourist Board policy

Introduction

As destination competitiveness becomes increasingly critical in the global economy, so

does the focus on understanding how collective interorganisational relationships and

partnerships are formed and managed, and how they evolve over time(Pavlovich,

2003:215). This is especially important if the most strategic goal is to foster local

development. In that case, the consolidation of networks is essential, since a group of

interacting bodies in a community (for example, a tourism destination) that establishes a

specific and creative relationships with their environment and with the regional

networks, can create territoriality added value(Dematteis & Governa, 2005).Most of the studies in the extensive body on tourism destinations has focused on

studying destination image and characteristics from a specific destination perspective

(Shih, 2006), and comparatively little attention has been given to the network structure

of these destinations. In the case of sports tourism, the involvement of sport clubs, sport

shops and other sport stakeholders, bring about a shift to community study which goes

beyond the tourist destination. Although there is a certain interest in the study of

partnership in sports tourism (M. Weed & Bull, 2009), Snape and Stewart (cited by

(Webb, 2005:138)) state that in overall terms there has been a greater emphasis

placed on establishing partnership processes without measurement of the quantifiable

outputs.


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If partnerships are the key to achieving sustainability, then it is imperative that

partners learn to avoid the inertial impediments and improve the odds of success

(Gray, 2007:30) and moreover, that we can evaluate the evolution of such a network.

But neither one, nor the other is an easy task. Many factors can obstruct partnership like

past history of mistrust, differential framing of issues and other process and institutional

issues (Gray, 2007) and, moreover, tourism destination networks are amongst themost complex dynamical systems, involving a myriad of human-made and natural

resources (da Fontoura Costa & Baggio, 2009:4286).

This paper is based on the belief that an analysis of the structure of a network of actors

provides useful information on the competitiveness of a destination (Scott, Cooper, &

Baggio, 2008) and that cohesive network structure of destinations is an important

element in the effectiveness of schemes and policies (Pavlovich, 2003). Therefore, this

pattern is of strategic relevance for a destination and authorities should nurture

relationships using communication and sharing of information because, as expressed by

Scott, Cooper & Baggio, by defining this cohesiveness, the organization of tourism will

be better understood and directions for the improvement of communication efficiency

identified (2008:176).

.

With the aim of showing a methodology to describe cohesive network generation, a

particular sport tourism project from the Catalan Tourist Board has been analysed.

Thus, this paper draws on literature on ties, partnerships and tourism destination to

provide an analytic framework. First it is discussed the most important sport tourism

and network analysis concepts before developing a description of the Sports Tourism

Destination (STD) policy from the Catalan Tourist Board (CTB). It then makes use of

qualitative data based in a study on different Catalan STDs to examine how this

initiative foster partnership and consolidated sport and tourism, private, non commercial

and public networks. This analysis provides the means to make a first conclusion thatwould need further research, which can be important in the investigation of the

structural cohesiveness of destinations against a background of shifting organizational

structures for tourism in Catalonia.

Sports tourism

DefinitionWe consider Sport Tourism as all forms of active and passive involvement in sporting

activity, participated in casually or in an organized way for non-commercial or

business/commercial reasons, that necessitate travel away from home and work locality

(Standeven & de Knop, 1999:12). This is a relative new field of research but that has

exploded in research and publications (M. Weed, 2009). Two different kind of sportstourism offer can be found in the market: The Active Tourism, where recreational sports

activity is the base of the product (horse riding excursions, rafting or ski resorts) and

specifically Sportive Tourism, based in the competition side of physical activity (sport

events for participants and spectators or training products and facilities for abroad teams

and sports individuals) (Sallent, 2008). Both strategies have been frequently encouraged

as avenue to generate local development.

There has been little research on the direct relation of sport tourism and local

development, and from this, mostly on the importance that sports have in the tourism

economic process (Higham, 2005; Hinch & Higham, 2004).

Theory of networks


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The theory of networks is centred in the complex world of relationships between

people, groups and communities. A social network is a structure made of nodes (usually

individuals or organisations) connected by one ore more kind of ties. A network is

generally defined by a specific type of relation linking a defined set of persons, objects,

or events and thus, the properties of those networks studied by academics have to do

with the structure of these relations (Scott, Baggio, & Cooper, 2008:1).Networks can be shaped by a group of actors that are studied as interdependent more

than as independent and autonomous unities (Wasserman & Galaskiewicz, 1994:xiii).

Apart from individuals, groups or organizations, these actors can be corporations,

countries, social entities, tourism destinations, etc.

The second aspect to study in networks is ties within subjects. The relational ties within

different actors are channels to transfer resources (either materials, like money or

immaterial like information, political support, friendship or respect) (Wasserman &

Galaskiewicz, 1994:xiii).

We can differentiate two approaches into the study of ties. The first one is trying to

establish the cohesiveness and efficiency of ties and is particularly attentive to the

structure of networks. In her complete study on relations in business, Julie Hite (2003)

presents a multidimensional taxonomy of the different features a relation within two

subjects can have. From a certain relation (personal, competency economic and

hollow social) every new dimension or combination causes a new complexity level:

the bidimensional embeddedness (functional economic and social, isolated personal

and economic, latent personal and social) to the full embeddedness.

The second approach is engaged in studying hiperconnectivity and evaluates innovation

and creativity in social networks, based on the external relations with other nodes or

networks they generate. For this field of research it is of a high importance the

classification of Mark Granovetter based in the transmission of information withinsocial networks. Granovetter (1973)(1985) identifies two groupings of network

relations: strong ties that an actor has with others within a linked group, and weak

ties that an actor has with others in external groups. Strong ties are formed by clusters

of people in congruent and strong relationships, with each person knowing what the

other knows. (Pavlovich, 2003), thats why they are long term ties based in confidence

and collaboration within the different actors. On the other side, Weak ties are those

that are disconnected with the stronger social group. The weak ties assist in bringing

new information into the network, while the strong ties support the knowledge creation

processes which embed strategic capabilities into the network. Considering the

strength of weak ties (Granovetter, 1973), it is probably clearer and more adequate to

call them external, while we call strong ties, internal Pavlovich (2003) demonstrated the need for organizations to have a portfolio of

network-oriented relationships (internal supportive ties), and external partnerships (to

source new and current information opportunities) which also supports the ideas of local

development of Governa and Dematteis based in the Territorial Local Systems

(Dematteis & Governa, 2003).

Both, the measurement of cohesiveness and innovation provide us with a complete

assessment of the network efficiency which is crucial when creating competitive

advantage (Scott, Cooper & Baggio, 2008b) generating innovation (da Fontoura Costa

& Baggio, 2009) and producing integrated tourism experiences (Scott, Cooper et al.,

2008).


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Tourism Destinations as Social Networks

Since the appearance of Butlers resort cycle the development of tourism destinations

has become one of the most popular topics in the tourism literature (Shih, 2006:1029).

A tourism destination can be seen as a geographic space where a tourist society meets

an ordinary community (geographical definition of Frisk, 1999 cited by (Camprubi,

2009)) or a complex system where different elements like attractions , accommodation,transportation and others coordinate in order to provide a satisfactory experience to

tourists (Comas & Guia, 2005). This approach drive us to social network theory with

destinations considered as collaborating networks of complementary organizations tied

together to provide the final product(Scott, Cooper et al., 2008), prevent the scarcity of

community amenities and resources, avoid the potential negative impact of sudden

disasters and tourism development on the socio-cultural and natural environment and

finally balance the paradox of a fragmented supply and an all-in-one experience

demand (d'Angella & Go, 2009).

In analyzing these systems of destination as social networks we can identify the three

basic elements of interest: actors, resources and relationships. In a destination,

stakeholders are heterogeneous in size and function, consisting of commercial operators,

public coordinating organizations and non-commercial private entities. The resources

may include knowledge, accommodation and facilities availability, professional

services. Third, in destination networks, a variety of relations can be identified (Scott,

Cooper et al., 2008) depending upon a range of relevant variables including, among

others, the traditional networks existing within the tourism or not tourism community,

the availability of resources, the organizational structures, the strength of the local

commercial and entrepreneurial sector, and the existence of a lead player to stimulate

partnership formation(Webb, 2005).

Probably the most studied relationship within tourism destinations networks is

partnership. As stated by Webb, not only partnerships between the public and private

sectors have increasingly been seen as an effective way to identify and implement the

necessary controls, incentives and investment to optimize the beneficial effects of

tourism within a destination area, but even the success of any strategy will, in no small

measure, be determined by the industrys ability to collaborate and cooperate through

effective partnership working to turn words into action (2005:138). However,

partnership success is far from assured; it experiences slow progress or truncate their

effort without realizing their goals because of their sheer scope, diversity of levels and

diverse interests. Potential partners often start from fundamentally different value

premises and world views, and construct very different understandings of what is atstake and how problems should be addressed (Gray, 2007).

Although creating effective (efficient and innovative) networks based on partnership is,

resuming, a difficult task, establishing coordinated linkages between organisations

within a tourism destination context become a critical factor in achieving strategic

leverage (Pavlovich, 2003). In this intricate and challenging process, the dynamic and

complex nexus of relationships within and among stakeholders (Scott, Cooper et al.,

2008), (da Fontoura Costa & Baggio, 2009) will evolve from competition to

cooperation and collaboration (Watkins & Bell, 2002) in the moment that the network

becomes more cohesive and relations develop more complex embeddedness dimensions

(Hite, 2003).

Sports Tourism Destination (DTE)


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Sports Tourism in CataloniaCatalonia is one of the most important tourist destinations in Europe with more than 25

million tourists (see table 1) staying an average of 7,4 nights per trip, being Barcelona

the region receiving more visitors (although staying shorter).

(Table 1)

Considering that it is difficult to obtain a general overview of the Catalan tourist offer(Catalan Tourist Board, 2006b:26) and that the lack of information about the demand is

a pendent subject for the Catalan tourist industry (2006b:30), having clear and

trusted figures for sports tourism in Catalonia is even more challenging. Catalonia

boasts an important array of heritage in natural resources, paths, marine coast, sport

facilities but the sports tourism product is still not consolidated neither well known,

apart from certain exceptions (rafting in the Noguera Pallaresa, trekking certain path in

the Pyrenees and diving in the Illes Medes, for the active sports tourism; for the sportive

tourism being FC Barcelona and the Formula I, the main attractions).

The Catalan Tourist Board policy in Sports Tourism has been focused in two different

plans: For the active sports tourism, since 1997 it runs theActive Sports Tourism Club

(Club de Turisme Actiu) which assembles some of the companies and local

administration that propose activities in this specific field. For the sportive tourism,

since 2001 it has created the Catalan Sports Tourism Destinations (Destinaci Turstica

Esportiva)

The Sports Tourism Destination initiative

The brand Sports Tourist Destination (STE) is a Catalan Tourist Board project started in

spring 2001 and identifies those destinations which, thanks to their characteristics and

resources, may become an ideal spot for sports clubs, federations and athletes wishing

to improve their performance. In essence, aims to create a model that serves as a guide

for the sports tourism development in Catalonia.Each STD will be certified in one or more sports according to the fulfilment of certain

criteria concerning sports facilities and sport clubs, sport shops, tourism infrastructure

and services and the destination management.

For the STD management, a specific DMO is created: The Managing Commission

shaped by a representative of all involved sectors, and theExecutive Coordinator

responsible for the operation.

Currently there are eight STD certified and three more are in process, including the city

of Barcelona

Stakeholders in the STD:

The different actors involved in this project are grouped in two different organisms:

1. Supralocal level: The CTB is promoting the project. Designates an auditor for

each destination that seeks for certification with the function of monitoring and

evaluating. Once the certificate is attained, the audit keeps going every two

years. Apart from that, the CTB periodically organizes meetings to define the

strategic marketing, and generates a specific product line for sports tourism in

Catalonia which includes the promotion of all kind of sports.

Other stakeholders in the supra local level are national and international sport

federations, specialized tour operators, hotel chains, etc.

2.

Locally: As said before, the project requires two management bodies organizingthe specific local actors directly involved in the initiative: theManaging


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Commission and theExecutive Coordinator, with the functions described in the

following table.

(Table 2)

In addition to these actors directly involved in the project, there are other local actors

implicated, as other councils, environmental sectors, sport educational centres, othersports not certified, etc. These agents have no direct representation in the Managing

Commission.

The way the different stakeholders relate to each other in the Managing Commission, is,

in our opinion, one of the great opportunities of this model. The requirement of creating

a consortium with different actors, who are not used to work together but must agree to

create competitive products and make strategic decisions, is a starting point for a

sustainable DMO.

Another interesting element is the creation of the Executive Coordinator, responsible for

maintaining the daily operation. The integration of professionals allows a more

dynamic, applied and business oriented operation.

Case study

ObjectiveThe aim of this specific research was trying Social Network Analysis as a method to

illustrate the capacity ofSports Tourism Destinations, the branding and product

development strategy from the Catalan Tourist Board, in generating effective networks

within the sports tourism DMO representatives.

(Figure 1)

MethodologyAs mentioned before, here the cohesion of a destination interorganisational network,

measured using Network Analysis, is seen as one indicator of effectiveness (Scott,

Cooper et al., 2008) and therefore, we focused on the measurement of characteristics

such as density and the description of the component of the embedded social

relationships (with the three components described by Hite).

To analyze completely the full effectiveness, the innovative and dynamic aspects of

sports tourism DMO networks should be investigated. With this the purpose, new

relations with outside agents and external contributions were specified. These

capabilities grounded in the destination through the process of becoming a sports tourist

destination could be, for example, conferences, educational programs, etc. Anyway, this

aspect would need a deeper investigation.

We have analyzed three destinations differing on tourism importance, how sport is an

important part of their lifestyle, and the objective when asking for certification:

Banyoles, Lloret de Mar and Santa Susanna. These regions were chosen to allow for

comparison between destinations at different stages of development and cohesiveness

(Table 3)

For each case the relevant figures, apart from the number of inhabitants, were those

related with the importance of tourism industry and for sports social life.

1. For the first item, the number of hotel beds was chosen as the most pertinent.

Observation and interviews confirmed that sports tourists mostly overnight in


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hotel and apartment accommodation. Being the last a complicated figure to

obtain because of the high number of illegal apartments.

2. For the second item, we selected the quantity of sport clubs as the significant

figure.

After the first interview we realized that Lloret de Mar was a complicated destination to

study as it never created a DMO with representing stakeholders but opened it to everyentity willing to do sports tourism business. Considering that there are nearly 150 hotels

and more than 10 local incoming agencies, a truthful research was out of our means.

Nevertheless, we made an estimated representation after the information gathered from

sports and tourism council.

The destination network was built in the following way: The actors participating in the

sports tourism DMO (orManaging Commission) were considered the nodes of the

network whose links are the relations among them. In some case the stakeholders were

representatives of the different tourism sectors (accommodation, restaurants, transports,

incoming agencies, sports clubs, sport shops, etc.) which gave a very easy to control

network. In the case of Lloret de Mar, as we just commented, this was not the situation.

In each destination we started the first network approach through an open in-depth

interview with the Executive Coordinator who provided an initial list of the stakeholder

organizations present in the Managing Commission and had a first contact with their

links. The picture we got from this first interview was contrasted with knowledgeable

informants (da Fontoura Costa & Baggio, 2009:4287) and random stakeholders

consultations. This triangulation helped to back up and classify and identify the

relations within stakeholders and their evolution from the certification day.

In order to differentiate the relations within the destinations stakeholder we use the

multidimensional theory of Julie Hite discriminating the economic, personal and social

capital component of ties. We gave special care to the measurement of social capital andpersonal component:

1. As described by Hite, social capital can be manifested through four attributes of

obligations, resource accessibility, brokering and structural embeddedness

(2003). This component of the social relationships of relationally embedded ties

is probably scarce in big populations or in the business industry, nevertheless in

a community of Banyoles or Santa Susanna it can be said that there is nearly

never more than one degree of separation between stakeholders or, said in other

words, all relations possess a social capital component as every person in the

local community (apart from specific population like immigrants) can relate

with any other by just one bridge For that reason we calculated the social capital

component as being present from the beginning on.2. The personal relationships element is also hard to measure as everybody has a

different connotation for it. For that reason, three different questions were

established to be central to compute it, one related to personal knowledge (Do

you know personally the first familiar circle (husband/wife, children?), another

related to affect (Would you phone her/him if you would not know anything

from her/him in the last three months?) and, finally, related to sociality

(Would you be sitting with her/him and speak about how life is going on, for

more than half an hour?).

At least two observation periods were established:

1. The moment when the sports tourism DMO was created2. The moment of investigation (year 2009).


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Exceptionally, in Banyoles an intermediate interval was created as it became important

to explain the evolution.

All information was translated into two (or three in the case of Banyoles) matrix

depending on the period of time, combining each stakeholder with the others.

This investigation used social network analysis techniques and the interview responses

were coded and analyzed using the program UCINET 6.0 (Borgatti, Everett, &Freeman, 2002) to picture the resulting network evolution, both in density and

centrality. In these graphs, each node is connected with to one or more by arrows

reporting some kind of relationship (economic or personal). The position of each node

comes out from the number of links and the positions of the other actors to which it has

link. The visual representation enables the destinations development comparative study

and allows the identification of critical stakeholders. In addition, quantitative

characteristics can also be determined such as centrality, density, and modularity.

I will show the results from the study of Banyoles, a city of 17.000 inhabitants, 35 sport

clubs (one of them with more than 9,000 members) but only 284 hotel beds. It was the

first STD to be certified, a bottom-up initiative that was afterwards overtaken by the

administration as they saw a clear and understandable way to promote the tourism

sector.

Banyoles sports tourism DMO network descriptionThe Banyoles City Council and the Pla de lEstany County knew this initiative through

the local incoming travel agency that had contacts with the Catalan Tourist Board

because four years ago they generated a project together. From that moment it began a

stage which main goal was to create consensus and complicity within the different

administrations, compromise required to be eligible for a pilot project. This was not an

easy task considering that, at that time, the Town Council of Banyoles and the CountyAdministration were ruled by different political parties who had a fierce rivalry.

However, both governments decided to jointly promote the project and appointed the

local incoming agency to make the necessary arrangements. During this period, this

company did an important task of communication to create a favourable opinion

towards this project in the community.

After two audits, the summer of 2003, Banyoles Pla de lEstany was officially

certified in the sports of triathlon, swimming, rowing and kayaking, road cycling and

mountain biking, Moreover, it was the pioneer of the STD in Catalonia.

2003

In the following frame, where the components of established relationships are recorded,it can be seen the situation in 2003, where only some economical components of

relationships were visible. It must be kept in mind that there was already a base line of

social capital component assumed in all relationships.

(Table 4)

The graph resulting from this data collection confirms a network with low density and

illustrates the incoming agency high centrality. The sport club has also an important

array of ties in comparison to other stakeholders. Is interesting to note the sports shop

isolation and the importance of the restaurant, relevance that without doing the graph

was not anticipated by any of the interviewed people.

(Figure 2)


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2006

This is the highest point of performance for the DMO when some relations have

reached full embeddedness and tourism and sports council have created new ties.

The private sector, apart from the incoming agency is far behind the administration,

consequence of being an unstructured destination. It must be said also, that the

administration did not allow much decision involvement from the private side.

(Table 5)

In the resulting graph it can be observed the new position of sport shop and sports

council and the tourism council movement to the centre. It is, undoubtedly, a much

more cohesive network, with the incoming agency and the three administrations leading

the project and without isolated stakeholders. It is also worth to note that the

councilman (politicians) from three different areas where involved at that stage of the

process.

(Figure 3)

2009

After municipal elections in 2006, the new council, and specially the county

government do not give the same support to the project, and that situation worsens later

with the financial crisis that stops many economical relationships.

Moreover, the change of four of the most important people in front of their

stakeholders entities helped to dismantle the network.

(Table 6)

Nevertheless, some ties still keep strong, like the ones created by the tourism council,

the participation from the sports councilman, the role played by the sports club and four

new personal components in the relationships (compared to six years ago, there are 2full embeddedness relationships).

It is interesting to note the loss of density in the graph visualization and how the tourism

and sports council keep the networks central role and Tourism County gets cut out

from it. Also the incoming agency is not anymore so relevant because of the loss of

business related operations. From the other side, the sports club is gaining in weight.

The result is, however, more cohesive and dense that the one in 2003.

(Figure 4)

Conclusion

The tourism destination generally comprises different types of complementary andcompeting organisations, multiple sectors, infrastructure and an array of public / private

linkages that create a diverse and highly fragmented supply structure. Networks help to

integrate this complex and fragmented offer, while securing tourist experience when

they pass from provider to provider (Pavlovich, 2003).

In relation to Social Network Analysis as a tool to describe the generation of cohesiveThis study has offered a case-specific illustration of this investigation with the help of

methodologies derived from network analysis that has helped to understand the

structure and cohesiveness of destinations management organisations.

The analysis of the networks of key stakeholders in the three case destinations provides

an important picture on the current and potential structure of sports tourism in Catalonia


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as a way to structure a community into a tourist destination because it adopts a whole of

destination approach and does not focus on any single element.

The three case studies individually demonstrate the utility of NA in

understanding destinations and their stakeholders

describing the dynamic condition of the Sports Tourism Destination DMO

analyzing structures and linkages, comparing cohesiveness degree between destinations

highlighting weaknesses in destination structures

The analysis offers us a picture of a dynamic and growing in complexity network

structure that limits the extent of constraint an individual organization may proffer

within the network (Pavlovich, 2003).

In relation to the process of generating cohesive and innovative sport tourism DMO

in Sports Tourism DestinationsCatalan Tourism Strategy Plan (Catalan Tourist Board, 2006b) aims the consolidation

of partnership and includes it in three of nine programs of actions. An effective way

could be this, compel it from regional schemes that influence local policies.

The goal of creating cohesive, effective networks has not been achieved completely.

Although the process foundation has been settled, we speak of relations of cooperation

where no long term and no full commitment are due, away from collaboration

relationships (Watkins & Bell, 2002). In addition, shortage of resources (financial

crisis), changes in political commitment, inappropriate objectives, no stakeholders

decision involvement and replacement of key members, are the main reasons not to see

final cohesive and innovative networks. If this structure had been completely developed

maybe they wouldnt suffer from this resources scarcity and create initiatives where no

investments are necessary.However, in the destinations where the process has initiated some results can be seen,

which is a light on this hard process of partnership building (Gray, 2007) and suggests

that these destinations are in the process of developing a more strategically oriented

destination system (Pavlovich, 2003). Bottom-up initiatives leaded by policy and

management concrete approaches can develop cohesive destination networks by

ensuring integration of diverse points of view, careful attention to process dynamics

and effective implementation of agreements, not to mention attracting the diverse

partners to participate in the collaborative process (Gray, 2007:31).

This background highlights the need to understand the way that destinations are

organized and to investigate their efficiency and competitiveness, for example, throughthe role of improved communication and the importance of proactive skilled leadership.

Limits of researchAn important limitation for this research is the number of stakeholders, like in Lloret de

Mar. Another one is to categorize the importance of external ties.

We also consider that the communication links within stakeholders should be studied,

because with a redistribution of centrality in communication it can be that there is a highlevel of independent information access between the other stakes.

Future research

There can be a possibility to study the communication ties, because with a redistributionof centrality in communication it can be that there is a high level of independent


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information access between the other organizations, so it is necessary to establish

mechanisms that inspire, stimulate and support the process of communication (Webb,

2005).

Another field of study will be how sport events can create a similar / different network

evolution

Finally, an important area of future research will be to simulate destination networks,based upon their own follow up and feed-back (Scott, Cooper et al., 2008).

It would be interesting to show the results to the stakeholders because the visualization

of the relationships and structural positions of the resulting graph makes the approach

especially useful, as the structures can be easily interpreted by managers and

communicated to the destination stakeholders themselves

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Tables

Table 1. Catalonian Tourism 2008


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Note: (Observatori Turisme Catalunya, 2009)

Table 2. Management functions of sports tourism DMO (managing commission) and

executive coordinator

Incoming tourism in Catalonia

Catalan: 7.010.000

Spanish: 5.362.000

Foreign: 14.888.000

Destination by overnights

Costa Brava: 27%

Barcelona: 20%

Costa Daurada: 20%


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Source: Own made from CTB internal documentation (Catalan Tourist Board, 2006a)

MANAGING COMMISSIONOnce the destination is certified, supervise the executive

coordinator, controls that guidelines are followed and

generates a Director Managing Plan

Members (for example):

Representative from the council administration,

tourist and sports area (councilman and officer)

Representative from the most important sportfacilities

Representative from the accommodation sector

Representative from the clubs of certified sports

Expert in the certified sports

Representative from the sports shops

Representative from the restaurants

Representative from the transport

Other representatives that the destination may

consider important (ecologist groups, incoming agency,

etc.)

RESPONSIBLE BODIES (HOLDERS)

Council and/ or County administrationFinancing the project and regulate guidelines.

Although they take note to the Managing Commission opinions, they have the

last word in important decisions.

EXECUTIVE COORDINATOROnce the destination is certified, carries out the Director

Managing Plan and manages the day to day necessities

(information to interested groups, assistance to sports

tourists on spot, creation of sports tourism products, etc.)

Profile:

The executive coordinator must know the destinationtourist sector (number and kind of accommodation,

transport, resources, complementary activities, etc), the

sports infrastructure (facilities, sport associations, sports

competitions). Must be able to create sports tourismproducts and commercialize it. Finally must be able to

assist the visitors at any time, in any day of the year and

in the language spoken.


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Table 3. Figures of three certified Sports Tourism Destinations

LOCATION POPULATION

(2008)

Inhabitants

TOURISM

INDUSTRY

Hotel beds

SPORTS

COMMUNITY

Sport clubs

CERTIFICA-

TION YEAR

BANYOLES 17.917 LOW

284

HIGH

35

2003

Aim of STD certification: Energize tourism sector

LLORET DE

MAR

37.734 VERY HIGH

30.004

MEDIUM

58

2006

Aim of STD certification: New tourist image

SANTA

SUSANNA

3.119 HIGH

9.689

LOW

7

2008

Aim of STD certification: Strategy against seasonality

Source: (Observatori Turisme Catalunya, 2009) and own research

Table 4 Components of Banyoles DMO embedded relationships - 2003

BANYOLES STAND POINT 1 2003

Tourism

council

Tourism

council

Sports

Council

Sports

Council

Tourism

County

Econom

y

Tourism

County

Hotels

council

Econom

y

Personal Hotels

council

Hotels

county

Economy Hotels

county

Restaurant Economy

Personal Restaurant

Sport club Economy Sport club

Sport shop Economy Sport

shop

Transport Economy Transpor

t

IncomingAgency

Economy Economy Economy Economy Economy Economy Incoming

Agency


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Table 5. Components of Banyoles DMO embedded relationships - 2006


Tourism

council

Tourism

council

Sports

Council

Econom

y

Sports

Council

TourismCounty

PersonalEconom

y

Economy TourismCounty

Hotels

council

Econom

y

Personal Hotels

council.

Hotelscounty

Economy Hotelscounty

Restaurant Econom

y

Personal Restaurant

Sport club Econom

y

Economy Economy Sport

club

Sport shop Economy Personal Econom

y

Sport

shop

Transport Economic Econom

y

Transp.

Incoming

Agency

Econom

y

Personal

Economy

Personal

Economy

Economy Economy Economy Personal

Econom

y

Econo

my

Economy Incomin

g

Agency

Table 6. Components of Banyoles DMO embedded relationships - 2009


Tourism

council

Tourism

council

Sports

Council

Econom

y

Sports

Council

TourismCounty

Personal TourismCounty

Hotels

council

Econom

y

Personal Hotels

council.

Hotelscounty Economy Hotelscounty

Restaurant Economy

Personal Restaurant

Sport club Econom

y

Economy Sport

club

Sport shop Economy Personal Economy

Sportshop

Transport Economic Econom

y

Transp.

Incoming

Agency

Personal

Economy

Economy Economy Economy Personal

Economy

Economy Incomin

gAgency


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Figure 1. Evolution of effective networks

Source: Own made

COMMUNITY TOURIST

DESTINATION

SPORTS

TOURISM

DMO

STD CERTIFICATION 1

CREATION OF THE DMO 2

INTERNAL COHESION

3

EXTERNAL INNOVATION 4


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Figure 2. Graph of Banyoles DMO relationships - 2003

Figure 3. Graph of Banyoles DMO relationships 2006

Figure 4. Graph of Banyoles DMO relationships 2009

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