STAKEHOLDERS’ EXPERIENCES WITH PARTICIPATIVE APPROACH IN TOURISM

Abstract

Tourism stakeholders’ participation is mostly needed for planning purposes because they have better insights regarding various issues present on a local level. A participative approach enables tourism stakeholders to influence and control, to a certain degree, the development of tourism in their community. However, there is a lack of research on stakeholders’ understanding of a participative approach that has been identified. This study uses a qualitative research approach where a focus group (FG) with key stakeholders was employed to examine the mechanism behind the participative approach. Namely, this paper presents the findings about the local stakeholders’ experiences with a participative approach and their opinions regarding how to foster this type of initiatives in tourism settings. Data presented in this paper were collected during a discussion with an FG and processed using thematic analysis. The thoughts and opinions of stakeholders were analyzed by taking into consideration barriers and enablers related to the implementation of a participative approach. The main focus was placed on bottom-up initiatives, but other types were included as well. Identified barriers and enablers were categorized into four themes: approach necessity, appropriate stakeholders selection, correct application of the approach, and stakeholders’ motivation.

Keywords

• bottom-up approach
• barriers and enablers
• tourism development
• focus group