Tourism Lobbying in Bavaria: Between Ignorance, Parochialism and Opportunism

Abstract

The subject of lobbying in the context of destinations is still a largely unstudied research field both in relation to specific destinations and from the perspective of planning. This is all the more remarkable when we consider that—despite its ambivalent public perception—successful lobbying is a crucial success factor in the positioning of destinations on a highly globalized tourism market with its rapidly changing supply and demand structures. In this article, we analyze the current lobbying structures in Bavaria, one of the leading European destinations. Bavarian tourism finds itself in an exceedingly complex situation today caught between diminishing competitiveness, especially considering the persistent investment backlog, and exceedingly ambitious tourism policies. Using semi-structured interviews we investigated how key policy-makers and representatives of the tourism business currently appraise tourism lobbying in Bavaria. From their assessments, we derive recommendations that should help to optimize lobbying structures and processes.

Notes

1. I give, so that you might give.

2. Since 2005, new equity capital regulations for banks within the EU have reduced the credit risks by providing for risk-adjusted interest rates and by requiring banks to back their loans with sufficient own capital. This has changed the lending habits of banks. In future businesses without a good equity base or with a poor credit rating will not be able to borrow as much money as before or only at poorer conditions. Tourism companies traditionally do not have much equity capital, which has an important influence on their credit rating. New sources of business financing need to be tapped. These represent a great challenge particularly for small- and medium-sized companies, which make up the majority of the Bavarian tourism businesses.