What Tourism Project Managers Need to Know about Co‐operation Facilitators

Regional tourism development today is often project based. Complex tourism networks are being created and the task of the appointed tourism project managers is to synchronize actors, activities and resources, i.e. to co‐ordinate attractions, facilities and transportation. How to manage these multi‐level–multi‐actor co‐operation networks is a task tourism project managers have to master. Co‐operation facilitators, factors that help at the outset of co‐operation and further facilitate the progress of the co‐operation process, have been identified in previous research. A reconciliation of these co‐operation facilitators is needed. A preliminary framework of facilitators was therefore first compiled in this article. This framework was then used as an interview guide to gain insight into the content and structure of the co‐operation facilitators from the tourism project managers' perspective. The qualitative data collected from the four case studies carried out, gave us a reason to elaborate the framework of co‐operation facilitators. The meaning the project managers attribute to the facilitators, the extended framework, and their opinions about how ideal tourism projects should function were used to extract four managerial reflections that tourism project managers need to be aware of.