摘要：Successful tourism developments are born from careful planning,and involving the government,industry,and community stakeholders.However,actual stakeholder engagement processes are complex and problematic.While considerable research has been conducted in developed tourist markets,this study aims to determine stakeholder engagement in tourism planning in a developing country:the Penang Island in Malaysia.Semi-structured interviews with governmental agencies,industry associations,and community stakeholders were conducted to look at their views on the engagement process with the local authority (LA) and the current barriers to success.The findings revealed that the existing engagement process with the LA is insufficient and ineffective,and the key barrier to improvement is the unclear roles and responsibilities of the multitude of federal,state and local government entities that are involved in tourism planning and development,and also lack of clear tourism strategy at the state and local levels.Hence,there is a clear need to delineate the responsibilities of the parties involved,improve coordination,strengthen collaboration with the stakeholders through improved and effective communication channels,and apply a participatory approach of early and on-going engagement in tourism planning and development.
关键词：Successful tourism developments are born from careful planning,and involving the government,industry,and community stakeholders.However,actual stakeholder engagement processes are complex and problematic.While considerable research has been conducted in developed tourist markets,this study aims to determine stakeholder engagement in tourism planning in a developing country:the Penang Island in Malaysia.Semi-structured interviews with governmental agencies,industry associations,and community stakeholders were conducted to look at their views on the engagement process with the local authority (LA) and the current barriers to success.The findings revealed that the existing engagement process with the LA is insufficient and ineffective,and the key barrier to improvement is the unclear roles and responsibilities of the multitude of federal,state and local government entities that are involved in tourism planning and development,and also lack of clear tourism strategy at the state and local levels.Hence,there is a clear need to delineate the responsibilities of the parties involved,improve coordination,strengthen collaboration with the stakeholders through improved and effective communication channels,and apply a participatory approach of early and on-going engagement in tourism planning and development.
