From governance to meta-governance in tourism? Re-incorporating politics, interests and values in the analysis of tourism governance

ABSTRACT

Despite its theorization in the political and policy sciences in the early 1990s, the concept of metagovernance has gained relatively little recognition in tourism studies. Nevertheless, its significance in the political sciences and policy literature, especially as a result of the perceived failure of governance systems following the recent global financial crisis, has only served to reinforce its relevance. Metagovernance addresses some of the perceived failures of traditional governance approaches and associated interventions, and has enabled the understanding of central-state led regimes of shadowed hierarchical authorities and local-level micro-practices of social innovation and self-government. In contrast, tourism studies have tended to restrict study of the political dimension of tourism governance and the role of the state under the traditional parallelism between government and governance. Examination of how governance is itself governed enables a better understanding of the practices of planning and policy making affecting tourism and destinations. In particular, the applications of concepts of governance are inextricably linked to a given set of value assumptions which predetermine the range of its application. A short example of the application of the metagovernance paradigm is provided from the New Zealand context. It is concluded that governance mechanisms are not value-neutral and instead serve to highlight the allocation of power in a destination and the dominance of particular values and interests.

KEYWORDS:

• Metagovernance
• destination governance
• crisis
• the state
• neoliberalism
• post-disaster governance

Note on contributors

Alberto Amore is in the Department of Management, Marketing & Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, New Zealand and Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy. He has recently completed his graduate research on tourism governance in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand. In addition to his interests in tourism planning and geography, he is conducting research on post-disaster regeneration, heritage conservation, tourism governance, and tourism and resilience.

C. Michael Hall is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Docent, Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Finland; a Visiting Professor, Linnaeus University School of Business and Economics, Kalmar, Sweden; and a Senior Research Fellow, School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published widely on tourism, regional development and environmental change.

ORCID details

Alberto Amore http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8456-8669

C. Michael Hall http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7734-4587