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Coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition of actors) is still a relatively new concept in business, management, and tourism. However, several coopetition studies have focused on tourism and tourism destinations. Also, compilation literature reviews of tourism and tourism destinations have been published (Rusko, 2018). This chapter focuses on underlying coopetition networks of tourism and specifically of tourism destinations. Because of the typical features of tourism destinations, multifaceted connections in competition and cooperation – and coopetition – are present in everyday business and activities among actors of the destination. These coopetitive relationships cover several levels, they are present in micro, meso, macro, and meta level interplay of tourism destination. Furthermore, the analysis shows that several studies about coopetitive networks in tourism destinations do not use terms “macro” or “meta” though these seem to be the main levels of the studies. This only reveals the fertile dimensions of coopetitive networks in tourism. These various relationships form coopetitive networks that represent several dimensions and levels of actors, competition, cooperation, and coopetition. This chapter introduces these multifaceted perspectives of coopetition networks, which have been described in the contemporary literature about tourism and tourism destination.

This chapter focuses on the coopetition features of tourism and specifically of tourism destinations. Because of the typical features of tourism destinations, coopetition might be a particularly important theme in the literature on tourism. However, the number of tourism studies that have focused on, or at least mentioned, coopetition is surprisingly small. Regarding tourism destinations, co-location causes different forms of coopetition situations, which are not very common in geographically diffused industries. Furthermore, the basic idea of one joint tourism product, such as the experiences of a tourist in a tourism destination, forces the (competing) suppliers of services in the resort to cooperate. Co-location causes a situation in which the competing firms in the area have joint branding and marketing activities. Destination marketing organisations are an important form of coopetition activities in tourism. In addition to co-location, seasonality is one of the specific features of coopetition in tourism destinations. This study combines the outcomes of several publications and other empirical materials about coopetition in tourism.