Tourism, Public Policy and Regional Development: A Turn from Neo-liberalism to the New Regionalism

Abstract

The use of tourism as a driver of economic development is widely acknowledged. In New Zealand and internationally, tourism is used overtly as a mechanism by which governments are able to address a variety of national, regional and local development objectives. In this paper, we present a critique of recent responses in New Zealand to the task of guiding tourism development from a strategic and collaborative sustainable development perspective. As argued in this paper, the roles and responsibilities of government in tourism were reinvented during the 1980s and 1990s. These changes, inspired by a neo-liberal political ideology to deregulate the New Zealand economy and to restructure the state sector and local government, ultimately included the tourism sector. More recently, however, public sector policy initiatives indicate a shift towards a more pro-active role for the local state (local and regional government) in managing tourism development. This shift, informed by a New Regionalism policy framework, anticipates a devolved tourism planning mandate that fosters longer-term strategic and collaborative planning of the sector in order to enhance the contribution of tourism to sustainable community wellbeing. We reflect on the likely effectiveness of a devolved tourism planning mandate and interrogate the role and potential of tourism to contribute to regional development, as framed by the political philosophies of the New Regionalism.