Title: Challenges for sustainable tourism governance in The Netherlands

Authors: Valentina Dinica

Addresses: Centre for Clean Technology and Environmental Policy, School of Governance and Management, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: The paper contributes to the academic discussion on the uptake of international policy recommendations concerning sustainable tourism. This is done by analysing the attempts to innovate the governance of the Dutch domestic tourism sector in order to accommodate sustainable development principles. After arguing that the incorporation of such principles has been limited and inadequate, the study investigates the main reasons for this. Three categories of factors emerge as decisive in the poor governance innovation results observed: lack of awareness of tourism|s negative impacts; interpretations of neo-liberal political ideologies; and inflexibility in policymaking style by political and administrative actors.

Keywords: sustainable tourism; tourism development; governance innovation; tourism governance; tourism policy; The Netherlands; sustainable development; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2008.019275

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.335 - 352

Published online: 06 Jul 2008 *

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