Surfing tourism and local stakeholder collaboration

Sustainable destination development is significantly facilitated by the involvement of all relevant stakeholder groups including the local community. Stakeholder collaboration is crucial for effective tourism development because it has the potential to achieve common goals among all stakeholders involved, but it presents multifaceted challenges for destination management. This paper examines the current stakeholder collaboration in the Mentawai Islands surfing tourism industry by exploring multiple stakeholder perspectives. Field research was conducted in the period between July and September of 2010, through in-depth interviews with local stakeholder representatives. The research indicates that despite an apparent enthusiasm to participate and collaborate in tourism planning, collaboration between stakeholder groups was in fact limited or largely avoided. Corruption, traditional mistrust of government and lack of an organised collaboration initiative are seen as the major barriers to effective collaboration in the Mentawai Islands surfing tourism industry.