Stakeholder Management in Tourism Destinations

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, sustainable tourism development has increased researchers’ interest in studying tourism stakeholder behavior in tourism destinations. Simultaneously, global market dynamics have highlighted the demand for more emphasis on tourism stakeholder management. Stakeholders are of major importance for tourism destinations and play a decisive role in sustainable destination development. The past decades have seen a major shift from shareholder-participation towards stakeholder-orientation for organizing, managing, and governing destinations. These approaches have important implications for tourism, which constitutes a fragmented industry with diverse actors jointly providing holistic tourism experiences.

This Special Issue addresses the analyses of the stakeholders in tourism destinations from the supply- and demand-side perspectives, and of the layers of institutions, businesses, and entrepreneurs. It is observed that destination governance has shifted from focusing on powerful and elite stakeholders to a more holistic and open definition of other stakeholders. Previous research shows that stakeholder engagement fosters the legitimacy of destination governance, secures the efficiency of destination management, and contributes to the equality of participation and benefit distribution. Particularly, local residents constitute an important group of stakeholders, as they are the most knowledgeable about local history and culture, and are the best informed about local circumstances. Local residents, however, are less understood in terms of their role as stakeholders in destinations.

Yet, little research has explored the notion of stakeholder engagement in the context of leadership networks in destinations. In addition, small- and medium-sized enterprises in tourism, which are often family-owned and -managed, show special dynamics when co-creating tourist experiences and sustainability of tourism, especially when these enterprises are engaging with other stakeholders. Thus, many questions need to be addressed and more research is necessary in order to advance understanding of these knowledge areas.

Furthermore, stakeholder management can affect the wellbeing of communities and can foster innovations in both maturing and evolving tourism destinations. So far, processes of stakeholder management have been important for achieving sustainability in tourism destinations and for creating public acceptance for tourism through collaborative practices. In addition, digital technologies offer new possibilities to responsively engage and interact with stakeholders, and to advance concepts and processes of stakeholder management.

For this Special Issue in Sustainability, we invite colleagues who conduct research in the field of “Stakeholder Management in Tourism Destinations” to submit their research papers. We welcome research from a broad methodological background (e.g. conceptual, mixed methods, case studies), and invite researchers from all over the world to submit an abstract of up to 500 words by email to the editors of the Special Issue, who will provide feedback on suitability and acceptance. We particularly invite submissions from authors in developing and emerging economies, as well as research that focuses on destinations in these areas.

In this vein, we invite papers addressing issues related, the following but not limited to, the following areas:

• Stakeholders’ role in sustainable tourism development
• Stakeholder theories and models in tourism
• Social theories and stakeholder relations
• Stakeholder engagement under the blurring notion of the concept of stakeholders
• Leadership of stakeholder networks
• Management of tourism stakeholders
• Linking governance and stakeholders in tourism
• Local residents and communities as tourism stakeholders
• Innovation, product development and stakeholders’ role and management
• Quality of life as perceived by stakeholders in tourism destination

Prof. Dr. Mike Peters
Dr. Birgit Pikkemaat
Prof. Dr. Chung-Shing Chan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Stakeholders’ role in sustainable tourism development
• Stakeholder theories and models in tourism
• Social theories and stakeholder relations
• Stakeholder engagement under the blurring notion of the concept of stakeholders
• Leadership of stakeholder networks
• Management of tourism stakeholders
• Linking governance and stakeholders in tourism
• Local residents and communities as tourism stakeholders
• Innovation, product development, and stakeholders’ role and management
• Quality of life as perceived by stakeholders in tourism destination