Zeszyt naukowy - całość - Wydział ZarzÄ dzania i Ekonomiki Usług

46
Agita Donina
and particularly – to the tourism sector. Tourism cluster formation and analysis in
the world is growing, given the importance of tourism sector growth in the overall
national development. Still it is neglected area of research as well as practical implementation
(S. Nordin 15 ). Starting from 80ies – 90ies of the last century, several
authors analyzed cluster concepts and clustering possibilities in tourism sector. The
tourism cluster concept can be defined as a complex group of different elements,
including services carried out by tourism companies or business (lodging, restoration,
travel agencies, aquatic and theme parks, etc…); richness provided by tourist
holiday experiences; multidimensional gathering of interrelated companies and
industries; communication and transportation infrastructures; complementary activities
(commercial allotment, holiday traditions, etc.); supporting services (formation
and information, etc); and natural resources and institutional policies. (Cunha and
Cunha/ Montfort)
More general definition is given by Dias 16 , who says that the tourism cluster
may be perceived as a geographical concentration of cultural, social, environmental,
economic and labor intensive activities where local actors and institutions interact
and cooperate as to increase the value of a product.
Cunha and Cunha 17 propose definition that predicts that cluster is formed by
companies bound up to tourism products and these companies and institutions are
spatially concentrated and have vertical and horizontal relationships. The relations
between enterprises and institutions and a tourism cluster can be understood in two
ways (Cunha and Cunha/Rodrigues 18 :
1. Horizontal – by the creation of strategic alliances, where agreements can be
between enterprises that have the same principal activity or between enterprises
working with the same group of customer satisfaction, but offering
different product components to the customers.
2. Vertical – by the creation of strategic nets, where there is the establishment
of a unilateral supplier customer relation among the partners in such a way
that the object activities of the agreement are fulfilled by one of the parts,
which gives its output to the other in exchange for a payment (Cunha and
Cunha/ Rodrigues 19 ).
14
S. Cunha, J. Cunha, Tourism Cluster Competitiveness and Sustainability: Proposal for
a systemic model to measure the impact of tourism on local development, “Brazilian Administration
Review” 2005.
15
S. Nordin, Tourism clustering and innovation – path to economic growth and development,
ETOUR, 2003.
16
17
18
19
A. Dias, Tourism as a leverage sector in the new model of economic growth.
S. Cunha, J. Cunha, op.cit.
Ibidem.
Ibidem.