Trigger events, moments, and destination evolution in a post-socialist context.

Abstract

For over three decades the states of East-Central Europe have negotiated the transition from state socialism in a way that reshaped every aspect of politics, economy and society. However, the impacts of post-socialist restructuring on the evolution of tourism places have received limited attention. We contribute to this debate by examining how processes of post-socialist reform have unfolded in Băile Herculane (Romania), radically disrupting its development path. Drawing on insights from evolutionary economic geography we conceptualise post-socialist restructuring as a ‘moment’ of change which produced impacts and new conditions which, in turn, dramatically reshaped the destination’s evolution. Twenty interviews were undertaken with tourism stakeholders in the town. The impacts of the moment of post-socialist restructuring included a rapid decline in demand for domestic tourism, leaving the town dependent on state-sponsored social tourism. In a context of falling wages, many skilled hospitality workers left the town. A flawed privatisation process failed to inject the capital and expertise necessary to reinvigorate the accommodation sector. Tourism policy-makers (both national and local) did little to address the decline in tourism, while local economic actors had limited scope for innovation or entrepreneurship. The post-moment conditions of the town were characterised by a significant reduction in traditional tourism activities and under-investment in tourism infrastructure. However, there was some development of new tourism products, which shifted the geography of tourism activity within the town. Băile Herculane therefore demonstrates a range of pathway trajectories including path dependence, path contraction/downgrading, but also limited path renewal. This case demonstrates the impact of post-socialism in (re)shaping destination trajectories and affirms the value of evolutionary economic geography for understanding local-scale and place-dependent processes and outcomes that shape destination evolution