It is well recognized that the local borders of a tourism destination are not easy to delineate as they are constantly changing through complex practices and discourses due to historical, political, and economic factors. In fact, recent studies suggest that actual tourism destinations should be delimited on the basis of tourists’ consumption patterns, instead of on conventional administrative boundaries (Blasco, Guia & Prats, 2014). This is particularly so in places where local destinations lie on the border of their countries, where there is easy access to and from the cross‐border neighbouring destinations, and there is the added value of the cross‐border experience for visitors.

It is argued that the particular location of regions with such conditions calls for an integrated governance of the cross‐border destination as a whole. However, achieving collaboration has proved to be a problematic process due to differences in interests among stakeholders and their changing dynamics. In this context, some historical studies on the development of local tourism organisations have helped to gain insight into their genesis and managerial implications (Beaumont & Dredge, 2010; Dredge, 1999, 2001, 2006; Dredge and Pfor, 2008; Reed, 1999).

There is, though, little knowledge of local governance in cross‐border Settings (Timothy, 2001). We aim thus at gaining further understanding of the processes through which crossborder destinations relational structures emerge. Firstly, by way of a case study, we seek to describe the processes through which networks emerge and shape opportunities and constraints for cross‐border integrated governance at the local level. We also seek to find the main elements that either foster, or constrain both the initiation and consolidation of shared cross‐border managerial structures in this type of destination.