Collaboration gaps and regional tourism networks in rural coastal communities

Abstract

Tapping into and creating broad networks is integral to connecting communities and destinations to wider flows of tourists and ensuring local benefits from tourism development. However, little research has probed how communities build these connections. This article examines how tourism stakeholders perceive and practice the work of network-building and assess the challenges they face in pursuing this work in regional tourism development. Drawing on survey and focus group data from Atlantic Canada, we identify “collaboration gaps” between the perceived value of network-building and related social practices. Social practice theory is used to analyse tourism network-building and explain why collaboration gaps exist and persist. Our analysis found three gaps: between meaning and practice; vertical collaboration gaps related to the scale of network-building; and horizontal collaboration gaps related to the range of actors involved in tourism networks. These collaboration gaps can be addressed through a focus on meaning, competencies, and materials as means to foster successful collaborations and overcome gaps.