A comparative case study analysis of two UK marketing consortia: Drifters and Waterways

Abstract

Marketing consortia represent an increasingly popular means by which tourism organisations are able to accomplish collective and organisational marketing goals. However, few case studies have been published that address marketing issues in inter-organisational collaborative initiatives generally, and more specifically the reconciliation of intra-sector competition within marketing consortia. Within the context of inland waterway hire-boat holidays in Britain this paper explores the collaborative behaviour of two contemporary marketing consortia: the Inland Waterways consortium and the Drifters consortium. The paper compares and contrasts their respective approaches to the marketing of inland waterway hire-boat holidays in Britain and the means by which they attempt to reconcile intra-sector competition. Information derived for the paper originates from two primary face-to-face interviews and two previous studies published by the authors.¹ The paper concludes by discussing the basic principles of collaboration which arguably should be met in order to maximise mutual gain from membership of marketing consortia.

Keywords

Inland waterway hire-boat holidays collaborative marketing marketing consortia intra-sector competition domestic tourism long- and short-break tourism

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