Tourism Destination Management&governance

This study analyzes the relationship between the development of tourism policy of Spain and Portugal and their effects on regional imbalances. Despite the proximity of the two countries and their specialization in tourism, there are few comparative studies on tourism of the two Iberian countries. The study focuses on the two major phases of tourism policy: the period of mass tourism and post-Fordist stage. In the conclusions we refer the debate on the existence of a model of development based on tourism to the Latin countries of Southern Europe and we note the export process of Spanish low cost tourism model to other countries.

Lot of research efforts has been deployed to understand how tourism destinations work and how to face the challenge of its management. As a dynamic phenomenon, at this point of the 21st century, in a truly global, digital and hyper-connected industry, the topic of tourism governance needs to be revisited.
Tourism destination can be observed as a business ecosystem, with a higher and higher level of complexity -mainly because of the increasing interactions among its constituents and the consequent increasing difficulty to anticipate the outcomes of individual actions-, which, in addition, is tried to be managed under the smartness perspective enabled by technology developments. As a result, a new lens is necessary.
That proposed lens is the result of the integration of three originally isolated theoretical approaches: Business Ecosystem Theory, Complexity Theory and Smart Tourism. Therefore, this paper aims to present the concept of Smart Tourism Business Ecosystem (STBE), built up on the foundations of them.
Insights into various concepts will be presented and combined, such as stakeholders within the ecosystem and external influencing factors, complex adaptive system and its corresponding self-organization capability, together with the recent developments of smart tourism destinations based on a cutting-edge technological infrastructure.

Government and development agencies have promoted community-based tourism (CBT) as an alternative means for socioeconomic development in many developing countries. However, scholars have criticized CBT as having little success in the field. In spite of the insights gained from earlier investigations, CBT projects have not been deeply analyzed as collective organizing activities. In community tourism, rational individuals work together to achieve common goals making it essentially a form of collective action. Analyzing the interplay of personal interests and as affected by various forms of incentives could provide a new way of understanding success and failure of CBT. Employing categories of Collective Action Theory, this paper examines a community tourism project in the Philippines and seeks to provide insights on why it failed, in spite of initial financial and technical supports of the external organizers. This study argues that the formal organization collapsed because of exhausted selective incentives that led to the weakening commitment of its members.

Stakeholder collaboration is acknowledged as an important part of tourism destination planning and management. However, not all destination stakeholders have the same level of power and influence in collaborative activities or decision-making, with some groups able to exert more influence over the process. The purpose of this study was to identify and categorise the various types of power that influence stakeholder collaborations in tourism destination planning and management and determine which stakeholder groups hold these powers. A case study approach was adopted and data was collected from publicly available secondary resources. The study results show that four different types of power (coercive, legitimate, induced and competent power) were evident in stakeholder collaborations. Coer-cive power was mainly held by government and public sector agencies while DMOs and large private organisations were found to hold strong legitimate power. Induced power was exerted by federal, state and local governments; educational institutions and consulting firms tended to possess competent power.

Purpose – Dark tourism and, more specifically, visitor experiences at Nazi concentration camp memorials are emerging fields of research in tourism studies and destination management. This paper builds on this growing body of knowledge and focuses on the World War II Nazi concentration camp at Dachau in Germany to explore the psychological impact of the site on its visitors as well as critical self-reflection processes triggered by this experience.

Design/methodology/approach – This micro-netnography resulted in fifteen online semi-structured interviews carried out with people who visited Dachau between 2003 and 2015. The interviews involved participants from eleven different nationalities and a range of age groups.

Findings – This study has shown that emotions that surface during a tourist’s visit to a concentration camp destination can linger well after they have left the site. In fact, feelings of sadness, depression, anger and existential questions can haunt visitors for a considerable amount of time after their visit. Further reflections by visitors also included a more critical appreciation of world affairs. This is of particular significance when considering the behavior of tourists in an urban setting.


Originality/value – This research builds on previous dark tourism studies related to the onsite emotions experienced by visitors to concentration camp memorial sites and their travel motivation but takes this knowledge further by exploring the hitherto uncharted longer-term post-experience impacts of these sites on their visitors. Recommendations for dark tourism destination practitioners and academics are also provided based in a critical discussion of the research.

This paper introduces the Smart City Hospitality Framework, which could serve as the foundation for a destination design driven approach to urban tourism governance and dealing with overtourism issues. This conceptual framework is purposely designed to stimulate collaborative (informed) reflections on overtourism and urban tourism development that could support system analyses, problem structuring and development of transition agendas and pathways within the context of turning urban tourism into a transition arena that contributes to setting in motion a sustainability transition at city level. It merges the dimensions of sustainable development (environmentally responsible and equitable economic development) and city hospitality (the extent to which the city acts as a good 'host' to all its 'guests', including residents and businesses). Resilience resides at its centre to highlight the temporal aspects of these dimensions, and their interdependencies. To show how this framework can serve as the foundation for destination design efforts in practice, a short description of (experiences with) serious game-playing sessions that employ its logic in six European cities is provided.

Branding is a complex concept to apply to a destination. One of the main challenges is the functional definition of the brand. Which area does the destination brand cover? It is relevant to acknowledge that political borders of a destination are not necessarily the same as the destination brand borders.
The present article is a case study, which was a result of a consulting project requested by the Municipality of Cascais. Cascais is located in the Lisbon metropolitan area of Portugal. Described are the challenges faced by the Cascais Municipality in adapting its brand portfolio to a new context and different environment.
Quantitative methodology was applied to understand the relevance of four destination brands for the tourism industry in the Cascais Municipality. A questionnaire was developed and applied in Spain and Britain, the two main tourist markets for the Cascais Municipality.
From the research, it could be concluded that nationality influences the evaluation of destinations. It was also concluded that the environment where a brand exists is dynamic, not static. Therefore, the strategy developed for a brand has to be adaptable. This means that the brand role and mission might change over the years. Future investments and support for certain destination brands must be constantly questioned.

Science shows us that there is a very close relationship between chaos and order so that one leads to the other following an endless process. Therefore, if chaos provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic is the prelude to a new order, this means that a window of opportunity is open to rethink the tourism industry and rebuild it from a new vision more aligned with the major challenges of humanity. It can be hoped that the demonstrated resilience of this economic activity will once again become evident, but also a change in the behaviour of governments, tourists and operators in the sector. On the foundations of the lessons that should have been learnt from this crisis, it is critical to be able to find new ways of acting that respond to the challenges of a reality altered by the disaster of the already mentioned pandemic. In this sense, it is argued that those new ways (with inertias to reverse and actions to explore) should be framed within a new model of tourism governance built on three main pillars: new core values, enhanced management capabilities, and a renewed alliance with society.

This is an opinion piece about research into tourism policy and governance to date and where future research should be undertaken. There is much greater need for policy relevant research that is clear about common definitions of terminology, adopts more consistent methodologies in data collection, challenges the dominant pro-growth rhetoric, and is written in a style accessible to policymakers. Researchers have long argued for a more meaningful role for host communities, but in a time of rapidly increasing tourism and the threat of overtourism in many destination “hot spots”, it is no longer an option to stifle their voices.

Decisions related to goal-determination and the selection of methods to achieve the goal are referred to as policies. Although the term generally refers to a decision or action, it actually can also be a negative decision or even a non-action/non-decision. Policies are established in any kind of organization, but when we refer to “tourism policy”, we usually mean some form of “public policy” which relates specifically to government decisions at any level from local to international. Governance, on the other hand, is how organizations deal with reaching these decisions. So, while governance is a fairly straightforward concept, albeit with many challenges, tourism policy is not, largely because the term “policy” is very fuzzy and tourism is a social construct that refers to a specific behavior: that of traveling to and staying in places outside one's usual environment. This behavior is controlled by policies, legislation and regulations written for many other purposes, such as controlling or facilitating the flow of capital and investments, the transportation of passengers and goods, worker rights, safety and security, or environmental protection. And that's where the trouble starts, because really, the appropriate development of tourism is highly dependent on decision-makers who have little regard for or knowledge of, tourism.

This paper presents an overview of the current state of research into tourism networks, by providing a systematic
literature review and relational citation analysis of 98 scientific papers focusing on network collaboration in tourism
destinations. The aim of this study is to get a better understanding why the promising theoretical claims of potential benefits of networked collaboration in tourist destinations are so little supported by empirical evidence. This paper shows that there are two explanations for this lack of empirically proven benefits. First, progress is hampered by the lack of integration within the field of tourism network studies. The citation analysis identified the existence of different sub-fields of research. These sub-fields apply different approaches towards tourism networks, both from a
theoretical and from a methodological perspective. There is little cross-fertilization between the sub-fields and integrative
studies are still scarce. Second, while many studies show interesting and promising findings, the field would make more progress, if researchers would reflect more systematically on the relationship between network goals and projected outcomes, and on the most suitable methodology to test the effects of the desired network development in a comprehensive way. Since networks thrive on the perspectives of future benefits that accrue from network participation, there is a need for empirical proof of these network outcomes. Examples of best practices should be provided which visualise and explain the benefits of networks. Tangible, quantitative benefits have to be found in order to stimulate tourism entrepreneurs investing time and money in local tourism networks.

The re-emerging acceptance of tourism as a pathway to development has culminated in
widespread adoption of the trade by many poor countries. Ghana is one such country and,
over the past three decades, has sought to use tourism as means of diversifying its economy.
The substantial amounts invested in tourism by the government make it imperative
to continually evaluate tourism performance and outcomes as a tool for socio-economic
development. Yet, to date, very few studies have placed Ghana’s tourism experience under
the spotlight. This paper focuses on how the trade has evolved into a major economic
activity. It assesses the country’s interventions in the tourist trade over the years and it
examines the performance of the tourist trade, first as an economic activity and second
within its expected role as an agent for overall human development. By and large, the
findings suggest that Ghana’s tourism development experience has been characterized by
mixed fortunes. While there are indications of impressive macroeconomic gains, there
have been challenges in the quest to translate these into the expected developmental outcomes
at the more disaggregated communal and individual levels. Some weaknesses, notably,
defects in policy, a powerless public sector, and low human capacities are suggested
as contributing to the current state of stagnation the sector is experiencing

Based on the WEF Travel & Tourism Report data, this study deploys k-means cluster analysis to build a global typology of national destination governance. Previous studies have focused on case studies, while this chapter focuses on classification of different destination types, by deploying indicators a set of following relevant indicators: wastewater treatment, fixed broadband internet subscriptions, ground transport efficiency, quality of roads, quality of railroad infrastructure, reliability of police services, ease of finding skilled employees. The results present a four-cluster solution of national destination governance types, as well as their major characteristics. The chapter than provides and discusses important implication for theory and practice of destination governance.

When visiting a place, people sometimes experience something which goes beyond physical or sensory properties. This is often referred to as ‘sense of place’ or ‘genius loci’. In urban design literature, sense of place is often attributed to three elements namely physical setting, activity and meaning. This presentation will consider one element, namely meaning, and examine the extent to which meaning of place impinges on the tourist experience.
Buildings and urban spaces communicate meaning. Meanings are partly the result of codification based on a system of pre-determined meanings and partly are acquired over time as people give to space historical associations derived from events. The meaning of buildings, spaces and artefacts are subjective and can be read and interpreted differently by different people in accordance to their background and culture.
Narrative is one of several ways how the tourist can derive meaning from the experience. By means of narratives, tourists are able to visualise past events, a process reinforced by heritage sites which enable tourists to see, and even touch, tangible evidence. This makes the narrative more real and thus the tourist experience more interesting and enjoyable. The narratives may be about the people of the place and therefore they provide an insight to the national identity of the country or region. Different typologies of tourists can be identified including those whose primary motivation for the tourism activity is a search for meaning. To illustrate the relation between tourism experience and meaning, I refer to my doctorate research on the tourist experience in Valletta.

Nel presente lavoro si intendono evidenziare le criticità e le opportunità che, ad oggi, caratterizzano il turismo in Italia. In particolare, si individua il tema chiave della governance quale argomento di specifico dibattito, approfondendo le complesse relazioni che intercorrono tra PA e turismo, considerando ed intendendo quest"ultimo come "meta-settore" economico di consumo, un'attività, cioè, trasversale a molti altri comparti per i quali spesso assume il ruolo di finanziatore compartecipativo. La governance del turismo in Italia è frammentata tra una miriade di enti che con differenti titoli e mansioni sono chiamati a decidere su specifici temi di un settore economico di per sé eterogeneo e complesso. Da una tale configurazione deriva una parcellizzazione delle competenze e dunque un"inefficienza del sistema che colpisce anche il modello di finanziamento. Si pone pertanto in forte evidenza la necessità di elaborare modalità e configurazioni innovative per riorganizzare e razionalizzare gli enti di governo del turismo al fine di ottimizzare il sistema e liberare risorse. Dal confronto di alcune esperienze di finanziamento esistenti, che possono essere di impulso a tale processo di rinnovamento, si apre alla necessità di considerare in un quadro organico le competenze in materia turistica (costituzionalmente riconosciute) e la fiscalità locale (anche nell"ottica del processo federalista in atto in Italia) capace di esprimere un modello di governance ottimale.

Community approach to tourism envisions self-sufficient communities in developing countries through self-managed sustainable touristic enterprises. Though earlier studies have analyzed community tourism projects in many parts of the world, less attention has been given to the relational dimension of local tourism organizing activities. Using Social Network Analysis, this present case-study examines how social networks sustain community tourism in Pamilacan Island, the Philippines. The study argues that failure of formal tourism organizing activities does not necessarily mean total loss of community tourism industry. Local people continue to participate in and benefit from the industry by engaging in informal transactions. The case demonstrates that villagers are capable of addressing the problems of limited resources, internal conflicts, and competition by restructuring their social networks to gain access to resources and build mutual support.

Nature-based tourism generates opportunities for rural communities in developing countries. However, the growth of the private tourism sector without effective regulation can negatively impact natural destinations. The main objective of this research is to understand main socioeconomic impacts of Baños destination in Ecuador and to know the attitude of the private stakeholders facing them. In the first part of the study, the opinions of 50% of private stakeholders (accommodation, restaurants and travel agencies) have been collected. The results of the survey are compared among different collectives, revealing their level of comprehension and awareness regard to the reality of such impacts. In the next part of the research, the incomes of various entrepreneurs that operate in the same natural attraction of destination are collated. This last analysis shows a strong inequality in the incomes distribution and its origin in the monopoly of a natural resource. The investigation opens new research topics, such as the impacts tourism evolution, collaborative management models and research methodologies applicable to similar contexts.

Egyptian tourism has been hit by years of political upheaval and militant violence. Egypt's tourism authorities expect the number of tourists to drop by 13 percent in 2015/2016, compared to the year before, reaching 9 million tourists and revenues are expected to fall by 15 percent compared to last year, dropping to $6.2 billion. Egypt depends on the tourism sector as a main contributor to the country's GDP and has been engaged in attempts to revive the ailing sector that has been reeling from years of political turmoil. To deal with the tourism crisis, the Egyptian authorities agreed to allocate $5 million to support the sector. They agreed to launch a massive campaign to promote internal tourism. However, this is not enough, better management techniques should be adapted in Egyptian tourism industry. Tourism governance could be a useful tool for managing Egyptian tourism. This could be beneficial because tourism is a sector of activity that involves multiple interrelationships among various types of stakeholders intervening in the production of goods and services consumed by tourists. Indeed, this study overall objective is to analyze governance and positioning of local actors face to manage tourism, in order to establish parameters for more effective tourism management, giving answer for questions like: what are the various issues of governance planning in relation to the development of Egypt as sustainable tourism destination?, and what is the level of commitment of stakeholders to get effectively and efficiently management?.

Destination marketing strategies often rely on the development of strong destination brands to reinforce the competitiveness of tourism places. The place branding literature emphasises the benefits of bottom-up branding as an inclusive approach to all of the stakeholders of a place, but many place branding strategies are actually enacted top-down with limited stakeholder participation. In this context, the present article analyses the destination brand development of the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, the country’s most prominent tourist destination. A mixed research design based on an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with local ‘expert’ stakeholders were used as methods to explore how the city’s branding strategies have been affected by destination-internal dynamics and mechanisms. The findings show that Cartagena is embedded in a context of governmental issues, low stakeholder collaboration, resident exclusion and disagreement about what the brand should stand for. These factors were identified as the main reasons of why the current destination brand has not been accepted by most stakeholders. The paper contributes to the growing literature on top-down place branding policies and develops practical recommendations for destination marketers which could help the destination brand development to move forward

evidence from post-earthquake Christchurch -Theme: The traditional concerns of tourist research, that include images of destinations, their marketing, the role of networks within and between destinations, spatial patterns, chains of distribution and issues of accessibility to destinations Abstract submitted The pioneering work of Butler (1980) and the prominent contribution of Weaver important bases for the study of tourism management (Butler, 1980, p. 5), the understanding of "regulation associated with the tourism sector" (Weaver, 2000, p. 217) and the assessment of the tourist activity at destination level. These works, however, do not identify the institutions, the actors and the drivers leading destinations from one stage of the destination life cycle to another. In particular, they do not assess the importance of actors and the role of networks in the planning, management and marketing of tourist destinations.

The aim of this contribution is to present the structural constraints faced by the Cypriot tour-ism industry on its path to changing its product portfolio, previously dominated by the beach tourism segment. Using a heuristic approach, the current processes are viewed from the angle of the change from a Fordist to a post-Fordist production scheme. The persistence of traditional governance and power structures hinder the transition and the emergence of new leadership structures and stakeholder interaction patterns. The limitations of this paper are that the findings are only preliminary because they result from a research project that is about to commence.

The use of 2.0 web technologies for destination marketing purposes was rising during last years and nowadays the use of social media as marketing tools is an actual hot topic on tourism research.
DMO’s also tried to exploit these tools in order to attract the so called digital generation, but they faced the problem of credibility and trust. Tourists tend to untrust official information thinking that it is biased. On the other hand the peer to peer tourism information exchange is perceived as a better source because apart of coming from nonofficial sources it is based on experiences and emotions of individuals.
So this paper examines a marketing strategy already applied at the Costa Brava destination that is combining the peer to peer information exchange, so the noncontrollable image, with the emission of the official idea of the destination experiences.
We call this strategy blogtrip. Instead of inviting traditional press or travel agents, the blogtrip invites relevant travel bloggers that have a positive digital reputation, trying to
transform these bloggers into ambassadors of the destination.
The main outputs of this paper are the methodological  approach used to develop and manage blogtrips, and the measurement of the marketing impact of this strategy. As
conclusion this new destination marketing strategy helps to catch the attention of the digital generation tourists.

Abstract This is an opinion piece about research into tourism policy and governance to date and where future research should be undertaken. There is much greater need for policy relevant research that is clear about common definitions of terminology, adopts more consistent methodologies in data collection, challenges the dominant pro-growth rhetoric, and is written in a style accessible to policymakers. Researchers have long argued for a more meaningful role for host communities, but in a time of rapidly increasing tourism and the threat of overtourism in many destination “hot spots”, it is no longer an option to stifle their voices. Decisions related to goal-determination and the selection of methods to achieve the goal are referred to as policies. Although the term generally refers to a decision or action, it actually can also be a negative decision or even a non-action/non-decision. Policies are established in any kind of organization, but when we refer to “tourism policy”, we usually mean some form of “public policy” which relates specifically to government decisions at any level from local to international. Governance, on the other hand, is how organizations deal with reaching these decisions. So, while governance is a fairly straightforward concept, albeit with many challenges, tourism policy is not, largely because the term “policy” is very fuzzy and tourism is a social construct that refers to a specific behavior: that of traveling to and staying in places outside one's usual environment. This behavior is controlled by policies, legislation and regulations written for many other purposes, such as controlling or facilitating the flow of capital and investments, the transportation of passengers and goods, worker rights, safety and security, or environmental protection. And that's where the trouble starts, because really, the appropriate development of tourism is highly dependent on decision-makers who have little regard for or knowledge of, tourism.

The re-emerging acceptance of tourism as a pathway to development has culminated in widespread adoption of the trade by many poor countries. Ghana is one such country and, over the past three decades, has sought to use tourism as means of diversifying its economy. The substantial amounts invested in tourism by the government make it imperative to continually evaluate tourism performance and outcomes as a tool for socioeconomic development. Yet, to date, very few studies have placed Ghana's tourism experience under the spotlight. This paper focuses on how the trade has evolved into a major economic activity. It assesses the country's interventions in the tourist trade over the years and it examines the performance of the tourist trade, first as an economic activity and second within its expected role as an agent for overall human development. By and large, the findings suggest that Ghana's tourism development experience has been characterized by mixed fortunes. While there are indications of impressive macroeconomic gains, there have been challenges in the quest to translate these into the expected developmental outcomes at the more disaggregated communal and individual levels. Some weaknesses, notably, defects in policy, a powerless public sector, and low human capacities are suggested as contributing to the current state of stagnation the sector is experiencing.

Egyptian tourism has been hit by years of political upheaval and militant violence. Egypt's tourism authorities expect the number of tourists to drop by 13 percent in 2015/2016, compared to the year before, reaching 9 million tourists and revenues are expected to fall by 15 percent compared to last year, dropping to $6.2 billion. Egypt depends on the tourism sector as a main contributor to the country's GDP and has been engaged in attempts to revive the ailing sector that has been reeling from years of political turmoil. To deal with the tourism crisis, the Egyptian authorities agreed to allocate $5 million to support the sector. They agreed to launch a massive campaign to promote internal tourism. However, this is not enough, better management techniques should be adapted in Egyptian tourism industry. Tourism governance could be a useful tool for managing Egyptian tourism. This could be beneficial because tourism is a sector of activity that involves multiple interrelations...

The re-emerging acceptance of tourism as a pathway to development has culminated in widespread adoption of the trade by many poor countries. Ghana is one such country and, over the past three decades, has sought to use tourism as means of diversifying its economy. The substantial amounts invested in tourism by the government make it imperative to continually evaluate tourism performance and outcomes as a tool for socioeconomic development. Yet, to date, very few studies have placed Ghana's tourism experience under the spotlight. This paper focuses on how the trade has evolved into a major economic activity. It assesses the country's interventions in the tourist trade over the years and it examines the performance of the tourist trade, first as an economic activity and second within its expected role as an agent for overall human development. By and large, the findings suggest that Ghana's tourism development experience has been characterized by mixed fortunes. While there are indications of impressive macroeconomic gains, there have been challenges in the quest to translate these into the expected developmental outcomes at the more disaggregated communal and individual levels. Some weaknesses, notably, defects in policy, a powerless public sector, and low human capacities are suggested as contributing to the current state of stagnation the sector is experiencing.

This study analyses the relationship between the development of the tourism policy of Spain and Portugal and their effects on regional imbalances. Despite the proximity of the two countries and their specialisation in tourism, there are few comparative studies on tourism of the two Iberian countries. The study focuses on the two major phases of tourism policy: the period of mass tourism and post-Fordist stage. In the conclusions we refer the debate on the existence of a model of development based on tourism to the Latin countries of Southern Europe and we note the export process of the Spanish low-cost tourism model to other countries.

Tourism destination management (TDM) is a popular catchword of current tourism research. A research, co-financed by the European Union through the Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme, within the project ’Health &Rural Tourism DM Model’ (project no.: HUHR/1101/2.1.3/0006), was carried out in 2013 to analyse the specialities of TDM in health tourism destinations, the physical and human resources of such destinations, aspects of sustainability and competitiveness, the main factors of success. Primary data were collected by surveys and interviews carried out in six spa towns of Western Hungary. The main findings indicated, that the major natural natural endowment is medicinal water in the research area, tourism infrastructure and superstructure are sufficient, although the range of services, and marketing of health tourism services should be improved. Destination management organisations perform least efficiently in attracting investors. The attitudes of stakeholders...

This paper aims at understanding the existing links between leadership and governance in destinations. The research emphasizes the process through which a subject becomes a pivotal actor in a systemic approach. Once the pivotal actor is legitimated, it is important to verify the relationship between successful leadership and governance choices and configurations.

Purpose
– The paper aims to propose a method of identifying and evaluating leadership potential of stakeholders in emerging tourist destinations and to verify this method in three Polish destinations. Developing destinations miss well-established networking structures and management experiences. The greatest impact on their success is made by the most active stakeholders who are able to pool and mobilise partners and coordinate their efforts to realise common goals.

Design/methodology/approach
– The research is based on a stakeholders’ potential analysis and the network approach. To identify destination leadership, the method – adapted from an axiological analysis of regional development participants – is used and verified in rural, coastal and mountain destinations in Poland. An in-depth analysis of stakeholders representing the public, private and non-profit sectors is conducted to assess their leadership potential. Ultimately, 183 interviews were conducted.

Findings
– Based on literature review, five dimensions of destination leadership were identified, namely, networking capability, analytical abilities, impact capability, economic potential and legitimacy. In emerging destinations, the most influential stakeholders are characterised by strong impact, analytical leadership capabilities and legitimacy.

Research limitations/implications
– The paper provides insights into destination leadership discussion and research. The limited number of verification cases and limited qualitative data analysis could be seen as its limitation.

Practical implications
– Emerging destinations have incomplete leadership. An imbalanced structure of destination leadership may have serious consequences on stability and development of destinations; it also affects the process of identification of potential leaders.

Originality/value
– The paper is original because it proposes an innovative method of identifying destination leadership, especially in emerging destinations.

Keywords
Leadership, Research methods, Poland, Destination leadership, Cooperation, Network approach

This article takes an under-explored approach to politics and social change, focusing not on critiquing per se but on establishing local relations that enable community building. The study objective is to envision a type of politico-economic agency that would contribute to building local relations that are characterized by socially just production of tourism spaces. The topic is explored in the context of tourism economy and related injustices in local communities. The study draws on Lefebvre’s work The Production of Space and its insights on politico-economic subjectivity, difference, and politics. His concepts of ‘abstract’ and ‘absolute’ spaces are highlighted as central in studying social transformations. The proposed view on social change is explored empirically in the context of local tourism politics in the Ylläs destination in the Finnish North. The case study illustrates how in its current mode the prevailing tourism politics is not sufficient to advance socially just production of tourism space. Based on an ethnographically oriented study of the existing everyday tourism realities it is proposed that the injustices are reproduced by a mutual lack of attention to different perspectives between groups. It is argued that dialogical everyday politics is needed for facilitating mutual understanding across difference, and thus widening the perspectives from which local development needs are discussed. The article concludes that critical research should recognize that it is essential to improve inter-group relations in communities if the aim is a just production of space in which the diversity of voices is taken into account.