Collective actions for sustainable tourism innovation

This study shows how stakeholder interactions, and formal and informal rules drive sustainability innovation through collective action. We use the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to assess the capacity of tourism stakeholders to engage in sustainability innovations. Drawing on a multistage qualitative data collection process, including interviews and workshops, we comparatively analyze an existing sustainability innovation and a stakeholder-led, co-created innovation, testing ten design principles for management systems rooted in collective action and self-governance theories. We find that (i) incentives to free-ride accumulate over time, (ii) legitimacy enables institutional change in destinations, (iii) shared responsibility helps unveil interactions between stakeholders in managing tourism sustainability, and (iv) self-governing rules can help engage opposing stakeholders more democratically in sustainable destination management.