Emerging Importance of Institutional Capacity for the Growth of Tourism Clusters: The Case of Antalya

Abstract

Local development literature, recently, emphasizes the crucial role of institutions, institutional thickness and institutional capacity in addition to other classical factors of development in the competitiveness of regions. This paper attempts to analyze the role of tourism institutions and institutional capacity in the growth performance of tourism clusters. It uses not only the primary data gathered through structured interviews, but also the secondary data. This paper differs from previous research not only by discussing institutional capacity specifically for tourism literature but also by employing a quantitative method of analysis for explaining the factors influential on the growth of clusters. The findings reveal a very significant positive relation between the increase in institutional capacity and the growth of tourism clusters in Antalya.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express her gratitude to Prof. Dr Ayda Eraydın for her comments on a previous version of this paper. Thanks go also to Dr Emma Terama for her critical reading of the paper.