Philipp Wassler

Master in Tourism Destination Management dissertation by TDM student Philipp Wassler (December, 2010).

Lazise is a popular tourism destination situated at the shores of Lake Garda, Italy’s biggest and most popular lake.

During the past six decades Lazise has experienced a steadily growing flux of tourists from mainly Northern Europe. The main inbound market is Germany which has proven to be loyal and resistant as much as growing, while other North-European countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands have been increasing during the last years.

The long history of cultural exchange between foreign tourists and locals makes Lazise the ideal platform for a host-guest relation analysis and the researcher’s personal work-experience in the location facilitates the understanding and interpretation of the results.

It is hoped that the results can assist Lazise in competing with other destinations and that a contribution to the recognition of the importance of host-guest relations within the tourism field can be given and the following goal for the research has been formulated:

‘Investigate and analyze the host-guest relations in Lazise with an interpretive approach in order to clarify and explain the mutual understanding and misunderstanding’

In order to deal with the high level of complexity that a host-guest relation analysis requires in order to be realistic and tangible, the choice for an Interpretive Approach was taken.

The Interpretive Approach distinguished itself from more traditional research-methods by not being merely objective but rather based on the personal interpretation of the researcher. Typical methods employed for this type of research are case studies, politics, ethics, participatory inquiry, participant observation and visual methods.

In order to avoid excessive stereotyping and prejudgments a process of self-reflection was chosen as a first step for the researcher. This contains analysis of literature about the researchers own cultural background and reflection on the personal experiences related to the destination.

The next step was the relevant definition for the host and guest community in Lazise. Clustering was applied in order to create a realistic overview of both communities. The heterogeneity within the communities and their correct representation has been a major challenge for the research.

Following the definition of the host and guest respectively, background theory on the relative cultural traits of the involved nationalities has been gathered and their possible behavior in tourism has been investigated. Major possibilities of understanding and misunderstanding between host and guest have been identified.

Secondary sources such as journals, books and various online databases were considered in this phase of the research.

The primary research was conducted in the chosen tourism destination during a two week stay in Lazise. Amongst participant observation, unstructured interviews were held with the previously chosen clusters in both communities until the stagnation point of relevant information was reached. During the stay in Lazise the context was carefully observed.

In the last phase of the research a ‘Third Space’ was shaped in which the researcher has created a final interpretation of the level of understanding and misunderstanding  between host and guest in Lazise. In this final interpretation the context of the destination has met the analysis of both communities and a hermeneutic circle has been created in which the whole and details meet in order to create an overall understanding of the host-guest relations in Lazise.

It was concluded that culturally spoken the German culture reaches a higher level of understanding with the host community than the emerging Danish and Dutch markets. This is partly caused by a higher degree of cultural similarity, partly by the longer period of cultural exchange between locals and German tourists.

The overall conclusion does not show major problems in understanding and the minor facts of irritation are most likely to disappear during the next years if the main inbound markets persist.

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