A dynamic perspective on destination governance success: The case of an emerging network in the Dolomites

Tourism is a fundamental lever to generate local sustainable development; however, the value created by tourism within destinations relies on resources that are shared among diverse destination stakeholders and actors. In order to achieve the goal of sustainable development, destinations need to manage these actors’ different and often divergent interests under a process of destination governance. Stakeholder theory has highlighted how the conceptualization of sustainable development depends on the point of view of the actor-at-stake, and a large part of the governance process regards negotiating and mobilizing actors towards a common and shared idea about its meaning and operationalization. Network theory has provided important insights into these processes, focusing attention on the emergence, evolution, and outcomes of relationships among destination actors. However, the ingredients of a successful destination governance process are still highly debated. We explore this issue through a case study of an emerging destination governance network in an Alpine destination. We followed the case through a longitudinal, action research approach observing how destination actors interacted and tried to build a collective understanding of the destination and what it had to become in order to be successful. The analysis of the case revealed how different levels of commitment and competence of the destination’s stakeholders resulted in different cognitive frames about the future of the destination. Dynamics of interaction led central and more powerful network actors to mobilize each other towards two alternative competing frames, without reaching a final agreement. We therefore propose commitment and competence as critical variables to be considered when starting up a destination governance network. Moreover, we complement extant destination governance literature with a dynamic perspective: framing and mobilizing are key processes of microinteraction that ultimately contribute to how such governance evolves towards successful or unsuccessful outcomes.