Tourism and third sector organisations: synergies for responsible tourism development?

The main aim of this paper is the analysis of the third sector arts, culture and local development organisations (TSO) participation in the context of tourism planning and development and to understand the characteristics of its connections to the tourism sector in the region of the Algarve. The methodological strategy is anchored in a mix-methods approach applying qualitative techniques such as semi structured interviews (n=40), document analysis, non-participant observation, and adopting a triangulation approach. There have been few empirical studies that analyse this theme, thus, identifying the forms of participation that the third sector can adopt and their characteristics constitutes one of the main contributions of this research towards reinforcing the conceptual framework in the context of responsible tourism development. The results revealed that third sector organisations display a set of characteristics that position them as active agents in the tourist planning and development processes by operating on areas such as the promotion of cultural expression, research and inventory of cultural and natural resources, raising awareness of those resources and also by actively participating in supply structuring of tourist services.