The Maturity of Tourism Networks: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Networks in tourism are a growing phenomenon worldwide and tourism literature has devoted considerable space to networks’ policies, governance forms, competitive advantages and activities. Literature that focuses on networks’ operations generally analyzes what kind of activities are put in place without examining how they are carried out and whether they generate a competitive advantage. To fill this gap, our paper provides a notion of network maturity and introduces a taxonomy of the maturity levels of a network’s operations.

The three-stage maturity model contributes to tourism literature by exploring how networks can evolve from basic to more sophisticated operations. From a managerial perspective, the paper contributes to evaluating network effectiveness and defining paths to improve it.