Barriers to Collaboration among Tourism Industry Stakeholders. Case study: Mashhad Metropolis

In a tourist destination there are usually various stakeholders with different goals. Achieving cooperation and integration among them is a major concern for policy makers and urban managers. In this regard, the role of tourist destination management becomes important more than ever. Therefore, cooperation between organizations can be an effective model but very little researches have been done about this topic. To fill the gap, this study tends to analyze the collaboration between tourism-related public and private institutions in the city of Mashhad. This study applies qualitative case study methodology approach. Data are collected using semi-structured interview with top 15 managers and experts in four tourism-related organizations in the city of Mashhad in 2015. The results showed that the main factors affecting the non-collaboration between related-tourism organizations in Mashhad city include: lack of a systematic approach, weak legal structure, poor planning, lack of integrated tourism management, and the weakness of the policy-making system.