Stakeholder Collaboration as a Key Element of Sustainable Tourism Competitiveness: The Case of Auckland City
Abstract: In the challenging global tourism market, achieving, enhancing and sustaining competitiveness is crucial in order to gain a share of the visitor market. While a range of destination attributes contribute to sustainable tourism competitiveness, collaboration amongst stakeholders is argued by many as central to destination success and an important element of sustainable tourism development.
Limited research exists that focuses on the links between stakeholder collaboration and sustainable tourism competitiveness. This study concentrates on stakeholder collaboration as a contributing factor to sustainable tourism competitiveness in an attempt to contribute to and extend existing research in this area. Using the case study of Auckland City, this proposed PhD research will study how stakeholder collaboration in tourism development can contribute to sustainable tourism competitiveness at an urban scale. It will identify the factors that may facilitate or hinder stakeholder collaboration and how these factors may assist in achieving and enhancing competitiveness. Data will be gathered via in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 35 key tourism stakeholders from Auckland City. Participants will be selected from both public and private sector organisations ranging from policy makers to service providers to understand their opinions and current practices in collaboration within the industry.
The proposed research will contribute to existing models and frameworks of tourism competitiveness. In particular it will enrich and extend the sustainable competitiveness framework by Heath (2003). The findings will be useful for tourism stakeholders in Auckland City because it will highlight collaborative issues that need to be factored into the strategic planning.
Biography: Amira holds a Bachelor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in Hospitality Management from the University College of Birmingham, UK. She also worked as the manager of “Twin Peaks Italian Restaurant” in the Maldives which catered to tourists and the local elite. Amira moved to New Zealand in 2007 to pursue further education, and in 2009 achieved a Master of Philosophy in Tourism Management from AUT. Immediately after graduation, she enrolled for her PhD. For the last two years Amira has taught the National Diploma in Tourism Management at the Royal Business College, Auckland, until she resigned in February 2012 to devote more time to her PhD studies.
