Stakeholders’ involvement in tourism transport planning and development – Roles, needs, and participation

The international quest for sustainable tourism has stimulated both scientific research in many fields (e.g. economics, sociology, and environmental sciences) and administrative actions, at all territorial scales, over the last decades. The wide array of future scenarios of tourism development in the coming decades suggests the rise of far-reaching shifts in  tourism policies, strategies and activities. Various obstacles may emerge, caused by the rapid growth of the industry, the institutionalisation of tourism interests, and flawed tourism policies. A study by Jones (2023) highlights that many tourism companies are trying to address the transition towards sustainable tourism transport, although with varying levels of commitment among firms and subsectors of tourism. Considering that, after the Covid-19 period, an adjusted structural growth trend is forecasted, there is a rising interest in the relevance of cooperation and cross-agency collaboration among all stakeholders in order to design and deploy consistent initiatives towards a systemic change that would allow more sustainable tourism transport activities (Higham et al., 2022). According to Gössling et al. (2023), it is necessary to consider four dimensions (scales, scopes, stakeholders and strategies) in order to deploy mitigation strategies for environmental decay caused by tourism. The scale refers to all relevant levels (global, national, destination, business) at which such strategies can be implemented. Scope identifies the externalities to be considered and those to be excluded, stakeholders refer to the accountability of all those agents that may be in charge of reducing environmental externalities, while strategies account for the mechanisms to reduce environmental decay.

An interesting stream of research has addressed the design and deployment of innovations and the evaluation of transport and mobility in tourist destinations, which are characterized by specific place-based difficulties, challenges and opportunities (McCabe et al., 2012; Currie and Falconer, 2014). This attention is justified because the tourism experience is the result of the consumption of several goods and services that are complementary and that conjointly determine the degree of satisfaction of tourists (Gopalan and Narayan, 2010). This situation is usually characterized by a limited number of stakeholders, with a great diversity in roles, responsibilities, place attachment and degree of willingness to participate in research and planning (Renfors, 2021; Silva et al., 2024). According to a seminal study by McKercher (1999), the relationships among stakeholders are constantly evolving. This evolving forcefield also adds new complexities, but may also open unforeseen options for creative solutions, both in urban and rural contexts. The effective management of tourism destinations is, therefore, a key factor for competitiveness and sustainability (Bramwell and Lane, 2000; Kent et al., 2012; Jianvittayakit et al., 2019). The achievement of these goals requires a long-term perspective and integrated actions that consider all relevant objectives of the various stakeholders (Manyara and Ndivo, 2015). In this context, new forms of public-private partnerships oriented at mediating between private interests and public development goals (including the joint use of public space by both residents and visitors) should be put in place. Such comprehensive strategies should also overcome territorial tourism borders, so as to deploy shared activities through a coordinated effort. Some authors have underlined the need to involve the largest possible number of stakeholders in order to determine a more decentralized and inclusive form of tourism management. In this context, a review by Kyriliuk et al. (2021) has listed the main topics that deserve attention, in particular, the role of social participation (or citizen engagement) in stimulating tourism development (Canavan, 2017; Kiss et al., 2018), the identification of the attitudes of key stakeholders towards tourism development (Poudel et al., 2016; Sharma et al., 2018), the factors determining their level of involvement (Gani et al., 2020) and the conditions needed to support effective partnerships (Wray, 2011). On the other hand, collaborative actions may be hampered by a non-cooperative or competitive local business environment, conflicting stakeholders’ interests, a multitude of heterogeneous local authorities, and complicated administrative and planning procedures (Zamparini, 2021). More thorough research is needed in order to analyze how changes in consumers’ behavior and/or in entrepreneurial activities and innovations may prompt effective actions to devise more sustainable solutions.

A recent review (Zamparini, 2025) has considered the role of stakeholders who seek to achieve low carbon and sustainable tourism transport systems. It has emerged that the coexistence of different stakeholders characterized by heterogeneous priorities and preferences, also fosters the adoption and use of multi-criteria decision analysis in order to provide an assessment of environmental mitigation and adaptation options. This is especially relevant in contexts where it is necessary to identify and define clear-out environmental assessment criteria. It is then important to apply to each of them an appropriate weighting factor, to fix the acceptable thresholds for environmentally-sensitive parameters, and finally to rank the possible alternatives in order to choose the one that may be most efficient to reduce the carbon footprint of an investment/activity in tourism. Multi-criteria analysis can also be adapted to specific regional or contextual situations, by taking into account all of their peculiarities in the quest of the optimal solution.

Clearly, several other techniques have been developed in recent years to investigate the complex relationships among stakeholders (Gonzalez-Urango and Garcia-Melon, 2018), such as power versus interest grids, stakeholder salience, interrelationships diagrams, policy dashboards, and actor-linkage matrices. These and other new methods, approaches, tools, and insights are needed to better understand why stakeholder involvement in tourism transport is important, who are the key actors that should participate, how they can be involved, and what impacts the nexus transport/tourism has on them. Stakeholder involvement is not only relevant for transport infrastructure projects in the tourism sector, but also for supporting the long-term transition of tourism transport towards a low-carbon and sustainable future, which is a crucial aspect for further environment-benign tourism development. In particular, the short-term mobility of tourists in destination cities may contribute to financing the development and implementation of new services and infrastructures in the tourism industry. At the same time, in rural areas, they may support the achievement of a critical level of demand, eventually enabling the emergence of innovative and more sustainable forms of mobility and visitor-oriented amenities (Poltimäe et al., 2022). In both cases however, the visitor involvement in a participatory process of planning and management is difficult due to their short temporary presence in destination places. It is thus clear that stakeholder involvement in tourist transport planning is a major research challenge.

This Special Issue on “Stakeholders’ involvement in tourism transport planning and development – Roles, needs, and participation” aims to address the above-mentioned issues related to the planning and development of sustainable tourism transport. We are looking for solid and original theoretical, conceptual and empirical research papers that explore one or more of the economic, social, cultural, political, organizational or environmental dimensions of the subject. In particular, we are interested in papers that examine the characteristics, past and present successes and challenges, as well as the future implications of taking into account the roles, needs, and participation of residents and visitors in shaping future-oriented tourism transport in an era of climate change and political pluriformity (i.e. the plurality and diversity of political visions in a specific country or at the global level).

In keeping with the aims and scope of Tourism Planning and Development, we welcome solid research contributions from several disciplinary perspectives, especially those of an interdisciplinary nature. We encourage papers on a wide range of forms of tourism, both mass and niche markets, that cover the issues related to the involvement of stakeholders in planning and developing tourism transport, mainly in destination areas. In particular, research on tourism policy, planning and development related to (but not limited to) the following topics is welcome:

• advancements in the fields of transport and communication in the context of stakeholder involvement and citizen engagement;
• stakeholder-based decision support/approaches;
• conflict management of the use of scarce public spaces by various interest groups;
• quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the impact of transport on different stakeholder groups;
• different roles and needs of residents and visitors in urban and rural tourism destinations;
• fostering collaboration between residents and visitors for the development of innovative and sustainable transport services and infrastructures;
• coordinating the role of destination management organizations (DMOs) or other institutional arrangements for the transport and mobility of tourists;
• role of public-private partnerships in tourism transport planning;
• legal and policy barriers to effective stakeholder participation;
• best practices for integrating resident and visitor needs in sustainable transport systems;
• impact of stakeholder involvement on achieving low-carbon tourism transport.

Selected References

• Bramwell, B. and B. Lane (2000). Tourism Collaboration and Partnerships. Politics, Practice and Sustainability, Channel View Publications, Bristol, UK.
• Canavan B. (2017). Tourism stakeholder exclusion and conflict in a small island. Leisure Studies. 36(3), 409–442.
• Currie, C. and P. Falconer (2014). Maintaining sustainable island destinations in Scotland: The role of the transport-tourism relationship. Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, 3, 162-172.
• Gani, A.A., Mahdzar, M. and I.R.A. Razak (2020). Predicting Local Community Participation in Sustainable Tourism Planning for Tourism in Protected Area. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 24(2), 1781–1789.
• Gonzalez-Urango, H. and M. Garcia-Melon (2018). Stakeholder engagement to evaluate tourist development plans with a sustainable approach. Sustainable Development, 26, 800-811.
• Gopalan, R. and B. Narayan (2010). Improving customer experience in tourism: A framework for stakeholder collaboration. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 44, 100-112.
• Gössling, S., Balas, M., Mayer, M. and Y.Y. Sun (2023), A review of tourism and climate change mitigation: The scales, scopes, stakeholders and strategies of carbon management, Tourism Management, 95, 104681.
• Higham, J., Font, X. and J. Wu (2022), Code red for sustainable tourism, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 30(1), 1-13.
• Jianvittayakit, L. and T. Choibamroong (2019). Investigation of tourism stakeholder participation in urban beach destination management in Thailand and implications for tourism business development. UTCC, International Journal of Business and Economics, 11(20), 145–166
• Jones, P. (2023), Towards Net-Zero emissions in the global tourism industry, Athens Journal of Tourism, 10(2), 125-136.
• Kent, K., Sinclair, A.J. and A. Diduck (2012). Stakeholder engagement in sustainable adventure tourism development in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, 19(1): 89–100.Kiryluk, H., Glinska, E., Ryciuk, U., Vierikko, K. and E. Rollnik-Sadowska (2021). Stakeholders’ engagement for solving mobility problems in touristic remote areas from the Baltic Sea Region. PLOS-One, 16(6), e0253166.
• Kiss, A., Merlet, I., Olah, J., Grabara, J. and J. Popp (2018). Building coalitions for a diversified and sustainable tourism: Two case studies from Hungary. Sustainability, 10:1090.
• Manyara, G. and R.M. Ndivo (2015). Stakeholders’ perspectives on the adoption of a regional framework for tourism development within the horn of Africa. Tourism Planning & Development, 13(2), 236-247.
• McCabe, S., Sharples, M. and C. Clare Foster (2012). Stakeholder engagement in the design of scenarios of technology-enhanced tourism services. Tourism Management Perspectives, 4, 36–44.
• McKercher, B. (1999). A chaos approach to tourism. Tourism Management, 20(4), 425–434.
• Poltimäe, H., Rehema, M., Raun, J. and A. Poom (2022) In search of sustainable and inclusive mobility solutions for rural areas. European Transport Research Review, 14(13), 1-17.
• Poudel, S., Nyaupane, G.P. and M. Budruk (2016). Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Sustainable Tourism Development. Journal of Travel Research, 55(4), 465–480.
• Renfors, S.-M. (2021). Stakeholders’ perceptions of sustainable tourism development in a cold-water destination: the case of the Finnish archipelago. Tourism Planning & Development, 18(5), 510-528.
• Sharma, P., Charak, N.S. and R. Kumar (2018). Sustainable tourism development and peace: a local community approach. Journal of Hospitality Application & Research, 13(1), 36–56.
• Silva, L.F., Ribeiro, J.C. and F. Carballo-Cruz (2024). Towards sustainable tourism development in a small, protected area: Mapping stakeholders’ perceptions in the Alvao Natural Park, Portugal, Tourism Planning & Development, 21(6), 712-734.
• Wray, M. (2011). Adopting and implementing a transactive approach to sustainable tourism planning: translating theory into practice. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(4–5), 605–627.
• Zamparini, L. (2021). Sustainable Transport and Tourism Destinations. Emerald Publishing, Bingley, UK.
• Zamparini, L. (2025). Tourism and travel: the challenges of net zero. In Shaw, J., Ison, S. and M. Attard, Towards Transport Net Zero, Emerald Publishing, Bingley, UK, forthcoming.