Tourism Governance Research Articles

Emergence of governance in cross-border destinations

This paper seeks to describe the processes through which cross-border tourism networks emerge and to identify the main elements that foster the consolidation of shared tourism governance structures. The case study analyses a process that initiates and solidifies cross-border structures in the Cerdanya Valley – Catalan Pyrenees region through a thick description of their evolution. Major findings include five main categories of factors influencing emergence processes of cross-border destination making: institutional similarity, bridging actors, leadership and entrepreneurial capacities, close relationships, and serendipity. Insights for managers and stakeholders involved in cross-border destination development and management are provided in the discussion.

Work at the Periphery: Issues of Tourism Sustainability in Jamaica

The tourism industry in Jamaica, as elsewhere in the Caribbean, has provided government interests and tourism stakeholders with increasingly profitable economic benefits. The development and prosperity of the ‘all-inclusive’ vacation model has become a significant aspect of these benefits. Vacationers from North America and Europe are particularly attracted to tourism destinations providing resort accommodations that cater to foreign visitors, offering ‘safe spaces’ for the enjoyment of sun, sand, and sea that so many leisure-seekers desire. Safety and security are progressively becoming more relevant within the contexts of poverty, crime, and tourist harassment that are now commonplace in many of these island destinations. This model of tourism development, however, represents a problematic relationship between these types of hotels and the environmental, political, and economic interests of the communities in which they are located. The lack of linkage between tourist entities and other sectors, such as agriculture and transportation, leaves members of local communities out of the immense profits that are generated. Based on a review of relevant literature and ethnographic research conducted in one of Jamaica’s most popular resort towns, this paper considers the ways in which the sociocultural landscape of a specific place is affected by and responds to the demands of an overtly demanding industry. Utilizing an anthropological approach, I explore local responses to tourism shifts, and analyse recent trends in the tourism industry as they relate to the concept of sustainability.

Rural Tourism Governance: Determinants of Policy-makers’ Support for Tourism Development

ABSTRACTGovernance is now generally accepted as a convenient conceptual term to characterise contemporary patterns of collective decision-making, particularly in the local public domain. However, there is a dearth of research into the attitudes of rural governance policy-makers towards tourism, despite the influence of the local rural policy arena on tourism development in rural areas. In order to fill this gap, this research aims to explore governance factors that influence rural decision-makers’ support for tourism. A cross-sectional field survey was designed and applied on the LEADER1 network in Hungary and analysed by multivariate data analysis methods. Results highlighted differences in the preferences of local planners regarding the dimensions of integrated rural tourism (IRT). In particular, findings suggest that local rural planners favour those qualities of IRT that enhance complementarity, sustainability, stakeholder and sectoral integration over the scale of IRT.

Governance of red tourism in China: Perspectives on power and guanxi

Because of its ability to harbor social values, norms, and beliefs, heritage is heavily politicized through tourism development. Despite the importance and universality of the politics of heritage in the tourism context, its political dimensions remain insufficiently explored. This study maps the major roles that governments play in China's red tourism development along a political hierarchy from the perspectives of power and guanxi, two decisive social concepts in China. The government's main roles are identified from both top-down (e.g. planner and designer, resource organizer and provider, and coordinator) and bottom-up (e.g. supporter, executor, and guanxi builder and maintainer) directions. Moreover, the underlying factors that shape these roles and associated issues are also discussed. Managerial implications with respect to public engagement and future research directions are recommended.

Role of Information Technology in Kerala Tourism Industry

Information Technology had great impact on different industries; tourism is not exempted from that. In almost all the countries had adopted new technologies for attracting tourists. Kerala is also traveling in the same way. The Kerala Government Tourism Department has offered several tourism services through on-line and the government claims that they offer better services than the others. So it is very important to know whether the tourists are satisfied or not. This research focuses on the tourists perception towards the Kerala Tourism website services as well as to know the Information technology has any significant role in Kerala tourism industry. The study has two objectives i.e., to study the perception of tourist towards the technological approach of stakeholders and to study the role of Information technology in tourism industry. Three districts were selected as a sample area from the State of Kerala. From among these three districts there is 150 tourists was selected as a sample population. Chi-square test was used to ascertain the hypotheses.H0 : Information technology has no significant role in tourismH1 : Information technology has there is a significant role in tourismThe study result conclude that information technology has significant role in the tourism sector, and also identified the weaker section of the Kerala tourism website and has made valuable suggestions for improving that.

Tourism Planning and a Nation's Vision: A Review of the Tourism Policy of Sri Lanka

As tourism is a vector of development, governments try to coordinate planning with national development objectives. In Sri Lanka, a post-war country, tourism has been perceived as a tool for post-war reconstruction and reconciliation. A blueprint document; the ‘Sri Lankan Tourism Development Strategy 2011-2016’, whose objectives are to distribute national economic benefits through tourism to economic development and national social cohesion, is guiding tourism development. Can it really be a bridge for reconstruction? This conceptual paper aims to assess the tourism reality in post-war Sri Lanka in the light of the blueprint document, by reviewing the policy with regards to; public or private tourism development, domestic or international tourism, special interest or mass tourism, tourism supply or resources focusing on the distribution of benefits. It concludes identifying gaps between the government tourism strategy, socio-economic and political situation. It contributes to the literature on Sri Lankan tourism development post-war, notably to review the tourism blueprint in its recognition and helps to build a body of knowledge on understanding tourism policy in the context of national reconstruction and social cohesion.

Research Note:A Study of the Business Cycle of the Hotel Industry in Taiwan

This paper exploits a Markov regime-switching model to study the business cycle of the hotel industry (BCHI) in Taiwan from January 1999 to September 2011. The aggregate hotel room sales earnings are used to examine the business cycle of the Taiwanese hotel industry. The Markov regime-switching model detects two distinct regimes of the BCHI: a high-growth regime (HGR) and a low-growth regime (LGR). The average growth rate of HGR (LGR) is 4.12% (0.35%). The corresponding standard deviation in the two regimes is 5.60% and 0.30%, implying that LGR is more stable than HGR. The probability of the hotel industry staying in LGR (HGR) is 97% (66%) and the expected duration of HGR (LGR) is about 3 (39) months. Moreover, this study shows that the tourism market growth is significant in causing the hotel industry to stay in the HGR. The empirical findings provide useful information and policy implications for government tourism policymakers and tourist hotel managers.

Perceptions of climate change in a tourism governance context

Climate change is projected to be a major change factor for many tourism-dependent communities around the world. While this fact is broadly acknowledged in the academic community, there is still lacking evidence of how local tourism actors in different geographical settings perceive climate change, and how climate change impacts are projected to affect the respective tourism governance systems in the future. Based on empirical evidence from a mountain-tourism community in the Alps, the perceived vulnerabilities are laid open in a participatory focus group research approach, and future development paths as well as their effect upon local destination governance are discussed. Special attention is given to existing and future cooperation patterns, with the overarching goal to understand how perceptions of climate change influence future adaptation paths, and what role cooperation plays in implementing climate change adaptation measures on a local and regional level.

Sustainable Tourism in Practice: Promoting or Perverting the Quest for a Sustainable Development?

Sustainable tourism has achieved the status of being the superior goal in Norwegian government tourism policy, and is attaining much attention in the international scientific and political discourse on tourism. However, have policies on sustainable tourism and related concepts actually managed to make tourism more sustainable? This article seeks to address this question by first presenting the history of sustainable tourism and related concepts, and specifically analyzing how the triple bottom line approach has influenced the prevailing understanding of the concept of sustainable tourism. The article concludes by claiming that prevailing EU as well as Norwegian national policies aiming to make tourism more sustainable most likely will result in “sustaining tourism” more than actually making tourism more sustainable. The article uses Norway—the “home of the Brundtland report”—as an illustrative case for the discussion.

Assessing and planning resilience in tourism

This research note reflects the lack of work on tourism governance and resilience with regard to interrelated impacts of global environmental change. For tourism management, assessing and planning resilience is of growing importance since change processes and their interrelations have become more complex in a globalized, accelerated world, placing tourism under pressure to respond and adapt to various factors. Adaptation and transformation processes to changing environmental, social and economic conditions require initiatives by various tourism actors with different functions in the tourism supply chain, and on different scales of governance, to be able to assess, plan and manage resilience over time. Resilience as a concept has much explanatory power that requires more attention in tourism research, both from a quantitative network governance and a more qualitatively informed research perspective.

Pro-poor tourism in protected areas – opportunities and challenges: “The case of Fayoum, Egypt”

Pro-poor tourism (PPT) improves the livelihoods of local communities in developing countries including Egypt. Fayoum, one of the poorest Egyptian governorates, has a variety of attractions, which can generate tremendous economic opportunities for local people. This paper aims to determine the barriers to (PPT) development in Fayoum and to examine how positive impacts can be improved. Quantitative approach is used to achieve the aims of the study. Questionnaire forms were collected from employees in governmental tourism industry and local people in Fayoum. The main findings of the study are as follows: there are several barriers to (PPT) development in Fayoum's protected areas, and the development of (PPT) in protected areas is positively affecting the livelihoods of local people in Fayoum.

PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVING THE GOVERNANCE OF TOURISM IN LITHUANIA: INTERACTION OF THE NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVELS

Although much emphasis is placed on the discussion of tourism governance issues, this topic remains relevant for many countries and there are still several open questions. There are still no clear governance borderlines between activity areas of different institutions in Lithuania, the functions often overlap and co-ordination is weak. The article, therefore, addresses two problematic issues – what factors impact the interaction of the national and municipal levels of tourism governance and how to improve the interaction and synergy of the national and municipal levels of tourism governance? Purpose of the article – disclose the interaction of the Lithuanian tourism governance at the national and municipal levels identifying the prospects for improving the Lithuanian tourism governance. In the article the literature interpreting the issues of tourism governance and the prerequisites for its interaction and synergy has been reviewed and systematised, the factors hindering and enabling the development of tourism on the national and municipal levels have been identified, the improvement model of tourism governance has been provided. The improvement scheme of the Lithuanian tourism governance based on the on the new public governance principles and on the interaction between the national and municipal levels has been provided and the prospects for improving the Lithuanian tourism governance for the period up to 2020 have been proposed. JEL codes: H83, L83, Q57.

Governance for sustainable tourism: A review and directions for future research

Over the past two decades there has been a growing interest in the topic of governance in the context of several domains of the social sciences. More recently, the growing attention given by investigators to governance and its implication for tourism development has raised several core questions. However, research is still fragmented and different interpretations of the governance concept might lead to multiple reflections. This paper aims to present and discuss some fundamental theoretical issues related to governance within the context of tourism, tourism destinations and sustainable development. Conceptualisation, dimension and scale of governance are presented based on a literature review. This approach will also be used to do a synthesis of the main methodologies that have been used so far for data collection and analysis in scientific studies within these fields. The paper argues that the concept of governance is multidimensional and that there are no standardized solutions to ensure success through a universal approach to governance. Private and public sector and other actors are being forced to promote synergies within the same geographical area of intervention in order to face global competition and governance arrangements can facilitate this. The review also reveals that there is still only limited systematic and comparable empirical evidence of the role of governance in sustainable tourism destinations. Finally, because governance might represent a new pattern of interaction between government, private sector and society to cope with old and new problems or to create new opportunities to develop a sustainable tourism, some pathways for future research on this topic are also identified.

Co-management as a Framework for the Development of a Tourism Area Response Network in the Rural Community of Curanipe, Maule Region, Chile

Crises have the potential to highlight both opportunities and challenges. Such was the case for the coastal town of Curanipe, Maule Region, Chile, which was devastated by an earthquake and resulting tsunami in 2010. The natural disasters resulted in communication breakdowns, which highlighted the intricacies in the hierarchy of the tourism industry and government agencies and the need for coordinated partnerships between the private and public sectors. This paper applies the theory of co-management to tourism crisis management. The Tourism Area Response Network (TARN) is presented as a co-management approach to fostering closer partnerships in tourism crisis management and communication among the appropriate actors of Curanipe. More specifically, the key characteristics, outcomes, and related dimensions of co-management are applied to the development of TARN in Curanipe.

Exploring Tourism Policy, Planning and Governance in the Transformation of Nigeria Economy

This study examined tourism policy, planning and governance in the transformation of Nigerian economy. The specific objectives of the study include; highlight the implication of tourism personnel ineptitude on tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria; the extent at which poor funding has affected tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria; the extent at which lack of commitment and dedication of tourism personnel has affected the tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria; the extent at which poor policy implementation has affected the development of tourism industry in Nigeria; the extent at which corrupt tendencies of tourism officials has affected the development of tourism industry in Nigeria. The methodology used for the study is both qualitative and quantitative in nature. This include the use of Strategic Relational Approach (SRA) with identified focus group within the Nigerian Tourism Development. Corporation and State Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Ogun-State as well as the use of structured survey which involves the preparation of formal lists of questions concerning the study sent to the selected respondents of tourism personnel at their respective ministry. The implication of the study is that it will address the problem of tourism staff incompetence, poor funding of tourism sector by government, poor policy implementation, uncared attitudes of some tourism staff towards their work, and corrupt tendencies of tourism officials. The study will further bring about sanity to tourism industry in Nigeria, and enhance its sustainable growth and development with tremendous positive impact on the Nigerian economy with a view to giving it a jolt to prominence.

The Impact of Sustainable Tourism and Good Governance on Biodiversity Loss in Malaysia

The importance of forest in providing the natural habitat for plants and animals; storing hundreds of billions of tons of carbon; buffering against flood and drought; stabilizing soils, influencing climate change and providing food and home for the indigenous people has led the international community to protect them from further destruction in the future. In addition, the sustainable tourism is a key source of income and employment for local communities, which, in turn, provide strong incentives to protect biodiversity. For such reasons, and given the capacity limits of environmental resources coupled with the quantitative growth of tourism, there is an urgent need for the development of tourism to take biodiversity seriously. In this study we investigate the impact of sustainable tourism and good governance indicators on biodiversity loss in Malaysia for the period 1996 to 2012. In this study we employed the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Dynamic OLS (DOLS) and Fully-Modified OLS (FMOLS) which is efficient in small sample to estimate the long-run model of biodiversity loss (proxy by deforestation rates). Interestingly, our results found that good governance and sustainable tourism do contribute in mitigating biodiversity loss in Malaysia.

¿Existe gobernanza en la actual gestión de los destinos turísticos?: Estudio de casos

Resumen es: En la literatura sobre gestion de destinos turisticos es cada vez mas utilizado el termino gobernanza. La creciente complejidad de las relaciones entre l...

Comparative analysis of a tourism cluster in the Baikal region: role of cooperation as a factor of development

The article investigates cooperation in the field of tourism as a factor and feature of tourism clusters development. The analysis of tourism clusters development, trends and most common forms of cooperation between the participants in two regions of the Baikal region (Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia) was carried out based on the results of interviews with representatives of tourism business, education and government. The results indicate that compared with European practice, the areas of cooperation of Russian tourism sector enterprises with other economic actors are less diverse. Some attributes of cluster development based on cooperation are indicated in the Republic of Buryatia, whereas they are missing in the Irkutsk region, although two regions are the objects of a number of national and regional development programs aimed at tourism clusters development.

Promoting Food Safety and Food Security in Rural Tourism Destination

This study was conducted at two villages, Ban Mae Kampong, Mae On, Chiang Mai and Ban Pa Miang, Muang, Lampang, Northern Thailand. This community is supported by Thai government tourism ministry to develop their skills in order to create and offer rural tourism. The study focus on community member groups who are involved with rural tourism activities; Homestay members, food preparation management members, tour guides, community leader groups, in order to assess the acceptance, collaboration and preparation of safety indigenous food menu and food security management where will support rural tourism community objectives. This study was carried out as in a participatory stage which included various seminars and workshops of rural tourism management concluded from homestay services, Thai herbs medication beneficiary, basic and applied nutrition concepts, indigenous healthy food productivity with standardized recipes, food safety handling and food security management for preparing food for themselves as well as suitable for tourism consumption. In addition of this useful vegetarian calendar information, which is highly appropriate serving as a tool for their daily meal management.

‘This is Not a Trivialization of the Past’

This article examines the revitalization of Jakarta’s colonial district, Kota Tua, as tourist site and lieux de memoire. After long neglect due to postcolonial silencing of colonial history, Kota Tua’s metamorphosis into a place of leisure represents a burgeoning tempo doeloe trend in post-New Order Indonesia. Yet Kota Tua is also a locus of clashing modalities of memory. While government tourism promotions produce a consumable spectacle of colonial aesthetics, a new generation of history enthusiasts intervenes with alternative, playful memory practices, in which the suppressed memories of the colonial past become a resource for critical awareness.