Spatial competition and agglomeration in the visitor attraction sector

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical contribution to understanding spatial competition by examining visitor attractions in two contrasting clusters of lower and higher levels of agglomeration of businesses in Cornwall, the UK. The study found that competition is mainly for customers and labour and is related differently to the levels of agglomeration, spatial proximity and thematic product similarity between visitor attractions at the local compared to the regional scale. Location can be used differently for employing ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ competitive strategies. The study contributes to the knowledge on the spatiality of competition and the locational strategies of service businesses

The role of clustering, cooperation and complementarities in the visitor attraction sector

Cooperation and complementarity are important but understudied components of tourism clusters, in general, and of the tourist attraction sector, in particular. This paper addresses product similarities, in general, and thematic similarity, in particular, in the context of spatial proximity and clustering among tourist attractions. These relationships are examined by exploring cooperation between tourist attractions in two tourism clusters in Cornwall, UK. Interviews with attraction managers and other key informants, and case studies, reveal that tourist attractions have established cooperative–complementary relationships of production based on external economies at both the local and the regional scales. Differences between the two clusters in terms of interviewees' perceptions of the relationships between factors indicate the importance of understanding the specific features of individual clusters