Governance of recreation and tourism partnerships in parks and protected areas

Abstract

This paper uses 10 criteria for governance to evaluate the eight management models that most commonly underpin recreation and tourism partnerships in parks and protected areas. The varying financial status, political propensities and history in different countries have led to the development of different approaches to partnership management. When governance criteria were applied to the management models, those with high involvement by nonprofit organizations ranked higher in terms of the ideals of good governance. The highest ranked model was the public, nonprofit combination model. Conversely, those models with high degrees of for-profit operations ranked lower. The lowest ranked model was the aboriginal and government model. The analysis suggests that the 10 criteria for governance are not treated equally in practice; financial efficiency may be a pivotal criterion given more importance.