An application of stakeholder theory to advance community participation in tourism planning: the case for engaging immigrants as fringe stakeholders

Abstract

Community participation has long been viewed as an important tenet of tourism planning, and there is general consensus among researchers that engaging all stakeholder groups contributes to tourism sustainability. However, there are gaps in the literature, and challenges in practice, that call for further research. Among these are the dynamics of heterogeneous community groups and that not all community subgroups have equal opportunity to participate in tourism planning. This paper attempts to advance community participation by drawing on progressive approaches to stakeholder theory in the management field and by exploring, for the first time, the engagement of immigrants in tourism planning as fringe stakeholders, representative of present and future community dynamics. Bringing first generation immigrants as an important but less studied segment within the broader host community into focus moves tourism planning toward a more inclusive approach to community engagement, reflecting increased diversity and change in host communities.

Policy decisions and tourism: unintended consequences or deliberate neglect – reactions to the ban on term time holidays in the UK’s South West

“…Just as previous studies have highlighted different reactions to tourism development within the host community (e.g. Jurowski and Gursoy, 2004;Khazaei, 2015), so there are different reactions to policy amongst tourism firms within the same region.…”

“…Using stakeholder theory as a theoretical lens, it also provides an example of the difficulty inherent in drafting and implementing tourism policy given the diversity of views inherent in what is commonly regarded as a homogenous group (Paddison and Walmsley, 2018). It is argued this perception of stakeholder group homogeneity as it relates to 'the industry' remains underresearched, although it has found greater recognition with regard to host communities (Khazaei et al 2015).…”

“…Stakeholder Theory as originally discussed within a management context by Freeman (1984) was soon adopted by others, including the sustainable development movement (e.g. Environment and Development, 1987) with the recognition of three key stakeholder groups of community, government and industry (Khazaei et al 2015).…”

Tourism Development and its Effects on the Urban Economic Environment: Indexed Studies Analysis in Scopus Database

“…A disponibilidade dos diversos serviços ligados diretamente ou indiretamente à atividade turística, bem como a capacidade das áreas urbanas em atrair turistas dos mais diversos segmentos, posiciona todos os componentes de uma destinação como stakeholders dessa atividade e, portanto, são importantes elos para o planejamento da destinação e desenvolvimento de produtos turísticos (Khazaei, Elliot & Joppe, 2015;Merinero-Rodríguez & Pulido-Fernández, 2016). A maior visibilidade turística de áreas urbanas favorece o planejamento da atividade nesses espaços, importante para atração de investimentos públicos e privados, com o propósito de criar uma melhor experiência de viagem aos visitantes.…”

Advocating community integrated destination marketing planning in heritage destinations: the case of York

“…Despite this, there is a corpus of research devoted to achieving a consistent theoretical and conceptual understanding of destination communities and the marketing process (Dinnie, 2008;Fyall and Garrod, 2004;Marzano and Scott, 2009;Morgan & Pritchard, 2004;Wang et al, 2009). Although there exists a substantive body of research on community participation, as highlighted by Khazaei, Elliot and Joppe (2015), residents are amongst the least engaged in tourism. There is, then, the need for a deeper understanding of effective community engagement in governance structures.…”