A STRATEGIC-RELATIONAL APPROACH TO TOURISM POLICY

•A strategic-relational approach was used to assess state-led tourism marketing.•Coordination of the tourism marketing of Athens was relatively ineffective.•Attitudes to this coordination altered when Athens hosted the Olympic Games.•After the Games optimism waned that institutional problems could be overcome.•The organisation of tourism marketing was affected by past path dependency.

Government is often prominent in tourism policy making and policy initiatives for destinations. It is important to understand whether and how government coordinates the tourism policies and activities among different actors, institutional arrangements and administrative levels, and how such government influence may evolve temporally. This issue is explored from a new institutionalism perspective that considers the co-evolution of structures and practices that shape tourism policies and activities. Use is also made of a strategic-relational approach to social theory to understand structure and agency relationships. These perspectives are applied to understand continuities and changes in government involvement in tourism marketing policies for Athens, Greece from 2000 to 2008, a period when the city staged the 2004 Olympic Games.