Managing diverse stakeholders in the context of destination marketing

Purpose - This paper aims to address the issue of balance of power among stakeholders in the context of destination marketing and to offer direction for managing its diverse set of stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative approach is used to provide a clearer insight into the phenomenon of stakeholder management in the context of destination marketing. This research uses a combination of three sources of evidence - interviews, documents and physical artefacts (in the sense of the actual web site) - and is based on the in-depth study of the case of the development of the official web site of Tourism New Zealand (www.purenz.com). Findings - This study shows that a wide variety of organizations and even the entire population of the country who are affected by destination marketing decisions should be recognized as destination stakeholders. Tourism New Zealand's leaders' understanding of cooperation and its value emerged as a major factor having an effect on the cooperation in the purenz development. The different objectives and perspectives of key stakeholders come through clearly in the case study which suggests that different approaches for managing the diverse stakeholders in the context of destination marketing are required. Practical implications - A key finding that cooperation is not uniform has several implications for national tourism organizations (NTOs) around the globe. Study shows that the expectations of a cooperative process in destination marketing differ from group to group. This provides a useful guidance for Indian NTOs and NTOs in other countries who are responsible for tourism-related policies in their country. The study makes the clear suggestion to Indian and global tourism practitioners and policy makers that management of various stakeholders in the context of destination marketing is not a given but a strategic choice which is affected by the existing network structure and climate. Originality/value - This research is based on the data from one of the world's popular tourism destinations - New Zealand - and therefore, provides very valuable and practical guidance for national tourism organizations around the globe. Besides being of immense value to global as well as Indian practitioners, this study opens an avenue for students and academics to determine if there are differences in the understanding and expectations of cooperation among stakeholders of other tourism networks and to investigate the implications of different expectations of cooperation on the balance of power issues in inter-organizational cooperation.