Tourism industry responses to public-private partnership arrangements for destination management organisations in small island economies: a case study of Jersey, Channel Islands

Since the 1970s, in many developed countries, governance arrangements for tourism have been revised in response to significant challenges faced by national economies and the associated changing political contexts. Destination management organisations (DMOs) that have traditionally been part of public-sector structures have been shifted towards the realm of the private sector and are now operated in a collaborative way, with public-private partnerships (PPPs). This paper takes a governance theory approach and examines tourism industry stakeholders’ responses to a proposed public-private partnership arrangement for the local destination management organisation in Jersey, a British Isle. The period under study is 2006 to 2012, a time when public sector governance arrangements for tourism were experiencing significant change in the UK context. Stakeholders acknowledged and agreed the common benefits associated with PPPs, such as greater efficiencies and expertise, but they also identified in particular the various reasons why a standard PPP model would not be appropriate for Jersey’s DMO because of the island characteristics of the destination. These stakeholders’ responses to a new PPP model are better understood by examining the relationship between governance and the concept of ‘islandness’.