Complexity in the governance of tourism networks: Balancing between external pressure and internal expectations

Zee, Egbert van der; Gerrets, Anne-Mara; Vanneste, Dominique

doi:10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.07.003

Cited by 48 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Previous studies have reported that tourism governance needs to adopt a holistic understanding of social factors such as citizen participation and collaboration among stakeholders [9,10]. At the organization level, it was shown that networks significantly contribute to tourism governance [11][12][13] and that collaboration and cooperation represent an essential aspect of tourism destinations [14]. In particular, recently increased interest has occurred for collaborative, community-oriented tourism governance models [14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative Governance in Tourism: Empirical Insights into a Community-Oriented Destination

Bichler¹,

Lösch²

2019

Sustainability

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Governance offers valuable guidelines to steer and direct destinations. Recent tourism governance research has explored the role of multiple actors in governing destinations but has not comprehensively investigated the underlying collaborative governance (CG) processes such as face-to-face dialogue, trust-building, shared understanding, or supporting factors such as institutional setting or leadership. The objectives of this paper are to determine the drivers and barriers of CG in a community-oriented destination in South Tyrol (Italy). This aims to reveal the processes that drive collaboration between stakeholders. For this reason, the paper builds on a qualitative case study with 20 semi-structured interviews with key informants. The results highlight that destination leadership is an essential driver of CG. However, several barriers to CG emerged. First, the findings show that institutional transformation led to a lack of trust and increased insecurity. Second, the inclusion of salient actors such as residents in the decision-making and implementation phase is scarce. Third, our findings highlight that a shared understanding of future development directions is missing between stakeholders. The contribution of this paper is a refined assessment of CG in tourism with special attention to the role of leadership and institutional settings. The derived implications target the role of leadership to foster the development of a shared understanding and to embark on a collaborative learning process that provides visible and tangible outcomes in turbulent times.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative Governance in Tourism: Empirical Insights into a Community-Oriented Destination

Bichler¹,

Lösch²

2019

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Cooperation projects emerge with difficulty if participants do not invest enough time, opinions are too divergent or benefits are not immediately visible or comprehensive [61]. It seems that there is a gap between theory and practice, as network managers still spend most of their time and energy on traditional power-related tasks, such as the "top-down" provision of information, and thus focus is needed on how tourism networks can be sustainably managed [64]. The successfully complex network of interdependencies and relationships at the "destination triangle", made up of governance, supply side and demand side, and the exact roles of intra-destination network relationships and relationship management are improving the quality of tourist experiences [65] posing a sustainable destination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Agritourism and Cooperation: Comparisons between an Island and a Mountain Region in Greece

2019

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The lack of understanding and definitional inconsistencies regarding agritourism and the importance of cooperation in sustaining this kind of tourism are underlined in the literature. This study analyzes the perceptions of agritourism and cooperation from actors in the sector using a plurality of methods, including unsupervised (a) text mining and (b) sentiment analysis with the use of a lexical database, as well as (c) supervised qualitative data analysis. Based on the assumption that destinations with different geographic characteristics have different features and products, two different destinations as for its accessibility and tourism recognition were selected for comparison: (a) an island—Lesvos in the North Aegean Sea, and (b) a continental mountain region—Plastiras Lake, in Greece. The data were collected from personal in-depth interviews and with the use of semi-structured questionnaires. From a methodological perspective, all three methods provided unique insights on the study’s themes, and the overall image of agritourism and cooperation was positive. A common understanding seems important for cooperation and networking; however, training is needed not only for effective promotion of agritourism, but also for cooperation techniques, benefits, trust-building mechanisms and best practices.

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“…Involving all stakeholders is a rather difficult process to manage for the DMO. Destination managers, in general, have limited coercive power over the manifold number of entities making up the destination and determining the tourist experience [40]. This fact makes coordination and quality management by DMOs a challenging task [41].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Management of Tourist Destinations: A New Approach to Strategic Management at the DMO Level by Integrating Lean Techniques

et al. 2020

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Destination management organizations have a key role to play in the governance of tourism destinations, in managing destination networks and in ensuring good cooperation between stakeholders. Although, destination management organizations (DMOs) are atypical organizations, their operations are evaluated according to their organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This study aims to propose a framework to improve the management of the tourist destination through an innovative approach that interconnects strategic management and Lean techniques to increase efficiency and productivity in operational processes, organizational efficiency and effectiveness at the DMO level. The framework developed in this study interconnects the analysis of the internal environment through the Value Chain and the Lean Six Sigma methods identified to be suitable for application in the management of the tourist destination. Testing of the practical application of this framework was done for Association for the Promotion and Development of Tourism (APDT), which is the DMO that ensures the management of the tourist destination of Brasov, Romania. The research contributes to the optimization of the processes at the DMO’s level. The framework developed in this study can be implemented by practitioners to improve the management of the tourist destination. The paper also offers future research directions.

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Complexity in the governance of tourism networks: Balancing between external pressure and internal expectations

Cited by 48 publications

References 46 publications

Collaborative Governance in Tourism: Empirical Insights into a Community-Oriented Destination

Collaborative Governance in Tourism: Empirical Insights into a Community-Oriented Destination

Perceptions of Agritourism and Cooperation: Comparisons between an Island and a Mountain Region in Greece

Improving the Management of Tourist Destinations: A New Approach to Strategic Management at the DMO Level by Integrating Lean Techniques

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