Tourism Value Chain Governance

Abstract

Over the past two decades, researchers and practitioners have given considerable attention to issues of tourism value chain governance. To establish a systematic understanding of the current research contributions and gaps, this study provides a review of published studies on the topic. Various dimensions of tourism value chain governance, namely, policy, destination management and marketing, integration of distribution channels, and sustainability of the tourism value chain, are examined. Content analysis is used to provide quantitative evidence and hence a more objective evaluation. The results show that research on tourism value chain governance remains limited, and the development of each dimension unbalanced. An agenda for future research is proposed, given the indications that both qualitative and quantitative investigations are needed to establish the most appropriate governance models for tourism value chains.

Analysing governance in tourism value chains to reshape the tourist bubble in developing countries: the case of cultural tourism in Uganda

“…VCAs are able to take most effects of tourism on the host economy into account, to assess the competitiveness of the tourism products and to focus on local economic development. In a tourism value chain, actors are interlinked and they collaborate to produce and distribute value for tourists (Song, Liu, & Chen, 2012). In its most basic form, the tourism value chain consists of the interrelations between 'nodes' formed by actors of tourism planning, primary suppliers, tourism intermediates, and tourists (Romero & Tejada, 2011;Song et al, 2012).…”

“…Because of this central position of the state in the governance of the tourism value chain, the multi-level planning system of a country is a central factor in defining the structure of value chain relations (Romero & Tejada, 2011;Song et al, 2012), thereby having a key influence on the potential to enable or constrain the creation of local linkages. To optimise tourism impacts, tourism planning should be integrated in the overall development strategy, plans and contexts of a country or region (Bramwell & Lane, 2011;Kauppila et al, 2009;Timothy, 1998).…”

“…Since the consumption of the tourism product is spatially fixed in the destination and international tourists are generally not familiar with travelling towards developing countries, tourists tend to purchase packages of individual sub products, such as air transfer, local accommodation and local transport, from tourism intermediaries (Mosedale, 2006;Song et al, 2012). In this process, nationally based tour operators, partly or fully owned by foreign investors, act as agents for global tour operators by coordinating in-country tours on the destination scale (Christian et al, 2011).…”

“…The above picture reflects a situation that increasingly empowers large tour operators in the sense that they socially and spatially shape the tourist bubble by controlling both tourist movements and their activities in the destination (Song et al, 2012). The strong position of tour operators results in a situation in which disempowered local stakeholders are depending on them for developing and marketing tourism products.…”

Benefit Segmentation of Outbound Summer Package Tourists

“…Value is created not only by the firm itself but also by different companies located across different areas or even countries (Song et al 2012). Firms can both compete and cooperate (Bendoly et al 2004).…”