Tourism governance in post-war transition: The case of Kosova

The aim of this research study was to examine tourism governance in post-war transition with specific reference to the influence of political, economic and social factors, institutional arrangements, collaboration and power relations. Within this context, a crucial objective was to assess the role of mindset. Reviewing the literature in relation to the key concepts, it was discovered that research tends to focus on political and economic transition, whereas the social dimension, despite its importance, is largely neglected. Similarly, tourism governance has been overlooked in studies of tourism in post-war transition. Furthermore, the literature on tourism governance rarely takes the issue of mindset into account. To address these gaps in knowledge, a qualitative research approach was applied to study tourism governance in post-war transitional Kosova. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 56 stakeholders from different sectors of Kosova’s tourism industry and beyond; these were examined using thematic analysis based on Robson’s (2011) five phases. Political, economic and social conditions were found to strongly influence tourism governance; therefore, it is argued that tourism governance cannot be determined without considering these dimensions. In particular, the findings emphasise the importance of acknowledging the social dimension of transition, since, if there is no societal change and advancement from the pre-war era, it obstructs political and economic transition processes, through crucial aspects, for example, educational barriers. Overall, tourism governance was found to be constrained by weak institutional arrangements, limited collaborative efforts, imbalanced power relations between the central government and tourism institutions and high level of politicisation. Thus, the conditions of tourism governance largely reflect the overall conditions of transition in post-war Kosova. A key finding of this study is the importance of ‘mindset’ in being an integral part to Kosova’s transition, and particularly, tourism governance. The findings were used to develop a theoretical framework that can guide future research.