Network marketing of tourism SMEs in a cross-cultural context: Trust establishment in a cross-cultural context or 'when cultures collide'

Tourism SMEs are often the backbone of the tourismindustryand their marketing efforts have an impact on theperceived image of a destination. SME marketing istherefore important to the success of the companyitself, as well as destination competitiveness. Relationship- including network marketing appear tobe suitable marketing tools for tourism SMEs, whichoften operate internationally. Theresearch aim of this paper is therefore to find outwhether cultural differences play a role ininternational relational network marketing oftourism SMEs, in order to determine if, and how, theprocesses need to be adapted to different countries. In order to explore how cultural differencesinfluence networking and trust establishment,literature is reviewed and discussed with experts.Further, a case study is conducted on the network-and trust establishment of the NPO Sustainable TravelInternational in the USA and the UK. The interdisciplinary nature of this paper leads tothe results contributing to international marketingresearch, SME marketing- as well as destinationmanagement theory. This paper is therefore interestingto professionals from those fields.