Understanding Tourism Policy-Making in Urban Areas, with Particular Reference to Small Firms

Much of the literature on tourism planning makes assumptions about the nature of power relations that generate policy, though this is usually implicit rather than stated explicitly. Following a critical review of the literature, this paper argues that existing understanding of tourism policy formulation at a local level is deficient. Drawing on developments in urban political theory it suggests a framework for understanding how tourism policy is generated, sustained and challenged in urban contexts by examining how small firms might engage with such policy processes. Small firms are selected for particular attention because of their incidence and their proximity to the tourist experience.

Keywords:

• Tourism policy
• urban politics
• coalition
• small firms
• policy discourse