Collaborative Tourism Planning as Adaptive Experiments in Emergent Tourism Settings

AbstractIn this paper, the concept of adaptive management is modified from its contemporary usage in environmental management to collaborative planning in emergent tourism settings. This application is possible because both emergent tourism settings and environmental planning situations are considered turbulent, characterised by change, uncertainty, complexity and conflict. Adaptive management attempts to embrace these conditions by establishing focused interventions from which unexpected outcomes provide opportunities for learning. While adaptive management shares some features of collaboration, its focus on learning is considered more appropriate for confronting and addressing local power relations within emergent tourism settings. Yet similar problems are encountered in applying the concept. These opportunities and limitations are considered in light of a case study in Squamish, Canada.