Cultural Tourism Governance and Stakeholder Collaboration: A Comparative Study of Management Frameworks

Abstract

Good governance and partnership between stakeholders are important determiners of sustainable cultural tourism development. Although the topic of destination governance is gaining academic interest, little empirical studies have comparatively investigated the role of various management frameworks in the collaboration of various stakeholders and the effectiveness of destinations. The research examines structural links between the mechanisms of cultural tourism governance, the synergy of stakeholders, the trust, the performance of sustainable destination through a comparative view of two different management systems. Based on the collaborative governance theory and the stakeholder theory, there was a conceptual model developed and empirically simulated through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Key tourist stakeholders such as the public authorities, or private tourism operators and representatives of the community were taken to gather the data. Measurement model test established good reliability and validity, acceptable factor loadings, composite reliability, average variance extracted (AVE) as well as discriminant validity. Results of structural models indicate that transparency of governance, the participation mechanism and the institutional coordination are highly effective in improving the collaboration of stakeholders which consequently has a positive impact on destination sustainability and performance. Multi-group analysis also shows a strong distinction in the strength of the path in diverse governance structures, and the efficacy of the participatory and network-based governing structures have a better effectiveness than others. The results add to the body of the tourism governance literature by providing empirical support to the mediating position of the stakeholder collaboration in the context of cultural tourism. In practical sense, the research study provides policy implications of how these systems of collaborative governance should be improved to encourage inclusive, robust and sustainable cultural tourism advancement.