Interkulturelle Unternehmenskooperationen im Tourismussektor im Spannungsfeld von Konflikten und deren Lösungsansätzen

Abstract

Abstract

Research on tourism in recent years has concentrated primarily on aspects of sustainability, regional development and the increasing diversification in the forms of tourism, while the central protagonists in the worldwide expansion of tourism, namely the tour operators, continue to occupy a subsidiary position in scientific debate, in spite of increasing globalisation and the associated challenges to the actors involved. This contribution presents an intercultural research project which is integrated into an application-oriented, interdisciplinary network of projects. The chief research aim of this project is to study the potential and risks of intercultural co-operation in the tourist sector, using the example of bilaterally co-operating German and Moroccan tour operators. It is the project’s conceptual premise that the success or failure of a cross-border co-operation is not merely attributable to a purely economic understanding of co-operation, but rather should also take into account the cultural dimension of cooperation. Central to the discussion are those conflicts with which actors in German and Moroccan tourism are confronted in their everyday intercultural interaction, approaches to their resolution and an evaluation of German-Moroccan co-operation in general, especially in the context of conflicts arising.