Organizational Networking in an Emerging Ecotourism Destination

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study of planned ecotourism destination development in an economically marginal rural area on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The initiative, which was funded primarily from European Union sources, was administered by a network consisting of representatives of local authorities, national tourism bodies, regional and rural development groups, and ecotourism providers. The paper focuses on the organizational network and its networking in promoting ecotourism. At the end of the pilot project the network ceased to function actively, reflecting the short-term nature of some funding-led organizational forms. However, a range of benefits arose in terms of increased awareness of ecotourism and the potential of the selected area for this form of tourism, incorporation of ecotourism into policy documents and the emergence of a provider-led ecotourism promotional group. The experience suggests that even short-term networking can have more positive outcomes than is sometimes recognized.

Acknowledgements

The paper is based on Thérèse Conway's PhD research which is funded through the Irish Higher Education Authority Programme of Research for Third Level Institutions IV, as part of the Irish Social Sciences Platform and Institute for Business, Social Sciences and Public Policy (IBSSPP) at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. The authors thank Siubhán Comer, Geography, NUI Galway, for preparing Map 1 and the Ordnance Survey of Ireland for permission to use it, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of the paper.