Place Marketing, Governance and Tourism Development. Or How to Design the Perfect Regional Tourist Board?

The principal scope of this paper is to reconstruct the chain-of-command that regards the implementation of a regional tourism development strategy, in particular the tourism marketing policy. Starting point of the analysis was the assumption that the quality of the governance of these organisations is one of the factors that may explain the success of a tourist destination. Thereto, an international comparative study into the role of the organizational structure, of organizing capacity and of governance on the effectiveness of tourism promotion and territorial marketing was organised. By comparing four different case studies, Catalunya (E), Rhone-Alpes (F), Scotland (UK) and Trentino (I), worst and best practices have been identified, and an answer to the question whether there exists such a thing as an ideally structured organisation that deals with territorial and tourism marketing at the regional level has been sought.