Cross-border tourism

Abstract

Tourism has played a critical role in regional development and integration for cross-border destinations. Although improved infrastructural interconnectivity and technologies facilitate cross-border mobilities, there are some inherent and external roadblocks to cross-border tourism such as institutional complexity and the current immobility situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By taking the case of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), which spans geographical and institutional borders, this chapter traces the policy-based networking and development phases of the GBA and identifies people's changing perceptions of the GBA destination image before and during the pandemic. On the basis of interviews and longitudinal surveys, the authors concluded four pillars of cross-border tourism collaboration and a sense of local belonging in adjusting marketing strategy during and after the pandemic. The GBA case provides important implications for cross-border tourism planning and management in the post-pandemic era by addressing how a cross-border destination has been affected by the pandemic but also remains resilient.