Cross-border tourism in the Southern Caucasus : the Silk Road as a facilitator for joint products

The Belt and Road Initiative could increase the connectivity and the accessibility of destinations along the Ancient Silk Road. The success of a Silk Road tourism route, which passes between many countries within Asia and Europe, depends greatly on cross-border cooperation between neighboring countries. This book section aims to explore the factors of cross-border tourism via a qualitative research approach in the Southern Caucasus. The results reveal that a set of hard and soft factors - on a transnational scale, but also on a local scale - determine the development of cross-border projects and routes that support value creation within the participating countries.