NOT JUST VERYGC -PRECONDITIONS FOR COLLABORATION AT THE GOLD COAST-

Amongst the many preconditions of collaboration identified by the literature, this paper focuses in particular on the conflicts that characterised the growth of the Gold Coast as a tourism resort starting in the early the 1970``s and 1980``s, as described and reported in books related to the history of the Gold Coast, academic reports, govermnent and city council documents and local newspaper. Findings revealed that the VeryGC destination branding process that occurred at the Gold Coast in the year 2006 lacked of preconditions that theory proposes as critical for collaborative processes to happen. These findings could therefore be linked to previous research that described the VeryGC destination branding process that occurred at the Gold Coast not in terms of collaboration but in terms of power and conflicts. Findings also confirm that strong egos, personalities and conflicts of interests are good descriptors of the social enviromnent of the Gold Coast previous to the VeryGC destination branding process which is consistent with what theory suggests to be preconditions for collaboration not to occur