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The project included the case analysis of three destinations: The Hague in the Netherlands, San Sebastian in Spain and Ioannina in Greece. Initially, explorative interviews took place on each destination in order to provide an understanding and background on the tourism decision-making at a local level. The legal processes and formal set ups for tourism planning were found to be similar on each destination including various levels of stakeholders in discussions around tourism planning. The main body for decision-making is the local municipality and the city council, but for strategic planning and marketing a local (publicly funded) office that is focused on leisure and tourism activities. From the private stakeholders, legal entities and/or organizations who represent hotels and other businesses connected to tourism are also considered and are being heard in the form of participation in consultation sessions or in boards that provide consultation to the local city council. At the second phase of the project residents were interviewed on each destination and focus groups with residents were held in order to investigate their perception of access and participation in tourism decision-making processes. The results indicated that the majority of residents struggled with gaining the access they expected and felt in many cases excluded and marginalized. The final stage used the previous results in combination with the extant literature to create and pilot an intervention. For this, Ioannina was chosen since findings showcased a strong lack of trust and collaboration between residents and local government. The intervention consisted of mediated collaborative sessions with residents and municipality in order to enhance their understanding of each others aspects and agree on common visions of tourism development in the city. The result showed many of the participants changed attitudes and demonstrated a collaborative spirit while making commitment to continue with more sessions. (maximum 300 words).
The impacts of tourism on destinations and the perceptions of local communities have been a major concern both for the industry and research in the past decades. However, tourism planning has been mainly focused on traditions that promote the increase of tourism without taking under consideration the wellbeing of both residents and visitors. To develop a more sustainable tourism model, the inclusion of local residents in tourism decision-making is vital. However, this is not always possible due to structural, economic and socio-cultural restrictions that residents face resulting to their disempowerment. This study aims to explore and interpret the formal processes around tourism decision-making and community empowerment in urban settings. The research proposes a comparative study of three urban destinations in Europe (The Hague in the Netherlands, San Sebastian in Spain and, Ioannina in Greece) that experience similar degree of tourism growth. The proposed study will use a design-based approach in order to understand tourism decision-making and what empowers or disempowers community participation within the destinations. Based on the findings of primary and secondary data, a community empowerment model will be applied in one the destinations as a pilot for resident engagement in tourism planning. The evaluation of the pilot will allow for an optimized model to be created with implications for tourism planning at a local level that can contribute to sustainable destinations that safeguard the interests of local residents and tourists.