Tourism Policy in the Making: An Australian Network Study

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Abstract

This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the policy network approach to describe, analyze, and explain the dynamics of the tourism policy domain with its vast variety of actors and complex web of interactions. This is achieved by focusing on stakeholders in the policymaking process, their relationships, and the structural context in which these take place. In the network study presented here the focus is on issue-specific influence reputation, cooperation, and communication, which underlie the formulation process of a particular tourism masterplan. These parameters are used to map the intensity and density of relational constellations and to assess if and how stakeholders take each other into account in their actions.

Résumé

Politique du tourisme en voie de création: une étude de réseau australienne. Cet article démontre l’utilité de l’approche de réseau de politique pour décrire, analyser et expliquer la dynamique du domaine de la politique de tourisme, avec son énorme variété d’acteurs et son complexe réseau d’interactions. On y parvient en se concentrant sur les parties prenantes du processus de décision, leurs relations et le contexte structurel décisionnaire. L’étude de réseau présentée ici est axée sur l’influence, la réputation, la coopération et la communication spécifiques au problème et à la base du processus de formulation d’un schéma directeur particulier dans le tourisme. On utilise ces paramètres pour schématiser l’intensité et la densité des constellations relationnelles et évaluer si et comment les parties prenantes se tiennent mutuellement en compte dans leurs actions.

Introduction

The paper presents a network analysis based on empirical research that documents how public, private, and nonprofit actors shape policymaking processes and policy outputs in the specific geographical and social formation of the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. The focus is sectoral in that it concentrates on the tourism public domain, paying particular attention to a specific policy issue, the Northern Territory Tourism Development Masterplan: A Commitment to Growth (TDMP). This strategic document was released in 1994 outlining directions for tourism development formally until 1999 and provided guidelines for government and the industry (NTTC 1994).

Taking a process perspective, this task is achieved by describing, analyzing, and explaining the dynamics of the policy process in the case study. In particular, this paper explores in more detail the structural and relational constellation of the actors shaping NT tourism policymaking. In what follows, the complex nature of the interaction of these actors in the TDMP formulation is analyzed systematically from a more quantitative perspective. Given the focus on the policy process, only issue-specific network structures are explored. Even though the findings cannot automatically be generalized, a distinct pattern is still discernible. Since the policy network model represents a relatively novel analytical perspective (Börzel, 1998a, Börzel, 1997, Héritier, 1993, König, 1998, Pappi, 1993), a more detailed discussion of the concept, including its history and different approaches, provides the context.

Section snippets

Policy networks in Northern Australia

In recent years, policy networks have contributed to the study of the policy process as an important conceptual innovation. Pappi (1993), for instance, characterizes this development since the early 90s, noting that “policy network analysis has become a dominant paradigm for the study of public policy” (König 1998:387). Reasons for this growing interest can be found in structural changes in the sociopolitical system over the past 20 years (Mayntz 1993). Main characteristics of the current

Conclusion

The TDMP process was derived from a complex web of actors and their interactions, as discussed in this issue-specific network analysis. The aim of employing such an approach was to identify the key policy actors and the establishment of their influence reputation and their decisionmaking relevance as well as the mapping out of the intensity and density of their relational constellations. On the basis of three different network analyses (namely influence reputation, cooperation activity, and

Christof Pforr is Lecturer in tourism at the School of Management, Curtin Business School, Curtin University of Technology (Perth 6845 WA, Australia. Email <[email protected]>). His main tourism research interests relate to policy and planning, sustainability and ecotourism, as well as policy analysis with a focus on processes and network structures; he has published in these and other related areas.

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    Christof Pforr is Lecturer in tourism at the School of Management, Curtin Business School, Curtin University of Technology (Perth 6845 WA, Australia. Email <[email protected]>). His main tourism research interests relate to policy and planning, sustainability and ecotourism, as well as policy analysis with a focus on processes and network structures; he has published in these and other related areas.

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