Strategy implementation in the Alpine tourism industry

Tourist regions with long tradition and years of experience often have a hard time implementing strategic management concepts. This is due to decision‐making and management processes at the level of tourism policy and the different levels of the tourism organization. These levels were bogged down for many years and aggravated the task of carrying out the required modifications. With the example of the Alpine region South Tyrol, this paper explains the errors that are likely to happen in the formulation and implementation of strategic concepts. The idea was to use a concrete example to explain the interdependence of the individual elements of strategic management from vision to implementation while, at the same time, elucidating the barriers and the sources of resistance to change at tourism organizations.