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Encouraging tourism development through the EU structural funds: a case study of the implementation of EU programmes on Bornholm
Author(s) -
Bull Benedicte
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international journal of tourism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.155
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1522-1970
pISSN - 1099-2340
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1522-1970(199905/06)1:3<149::aid-jtr167>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - tourism , business , private sector , european union , public sector , process (computing) , marketing , economic growth , economic policy , economics , political science , economy , computer science , law , operating system
The Danish island of Bornholm has had success in attracting funds from the European Union structural fund to remedy its declining tourism sector, supporting both private sector development and public tourism services. It is difficult, however, to measure the impact of these funds on the tourism sector. Most evaluations of such support schemes are based on a top‐down approach, with evaluation conducted on the basis of predefined end‐goals. This study takes a different approach, evaluating the programmes on subjective criteria defined by the actors in the tourism industry themselves. Success is defined in terms of the extent to which the programmes have enabled the local tourism industry to overcome what they view as the major obstacles to tourism development. The main findings are that the programmes are most well suited to help the tourism sector overcome tractable problems such as low hotel standards and lack of offseason attractions. On Bornholm, the programmes also have had some success in alleviating problems such as lack of cooperation on a common strategy. This is found to result from the comprehensive network of private and public agencies participating in the process of implementing the funds. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.