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Individual businesses from a variety of sectors network and work together to create a successful tourist experience. The interdependencies of organisations producing this experience make cooperation a necessity in destination marketing. This study uses the case of the development of the official NZ website www.purenz.com (purenz) to examine the role, form and process of inter- organisational cooperation in destination marketing. The study confirms that there are considerable difficulties in broadening the marketing role of the national tourism organisation (NTO) beyond destination promotion. The study also finds that destination marketing and destination management are still perceived as separate processes in the NZ tourism industry. This study suggests that there are five levels of cooperation in destination marketing: passive acceptance, support, alignment, contribution and pooling. The levels are based on the different types of input that may be required from stakeholders by the NTO and to achieve each level requires different action on the part of the NTO.

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Sushma Seth Bhat, PhD: Worked for 16 years in the tourism and airline industries before switching to academics. She is currently Senior Lecturer-Marketing, Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand.

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