The role of stakeholders in achieving sustainable tourism : A case of naivasha region

Abstract

The support of tourism stakeholders was essential for the development, successful operation, and long-term sustainability of tourism. Tourism stakeholders contain many different types of groups depending on geographically-based in the different parts of the area. However, not all stakeholders have the same level of concern in sustainable tourism development and may be less active or not active at all. Furthermore, some stakeholders are more important than others in determining the success of activities. For this reason, this paper acknowledged the key tourism stakeholders in implementing sustainable tourism development and to provide a synthesis of the similarity and differences in the characteristics of the tourism stakeholders found in town of Naivasha. The primary data collection elaborated semi-structured, in-depth interviews undertaken with 50 respondents and data were analyzed using content analysis. The study founded two major groups of stakeholder to the implementation of the sustainable tourism development: experts and suppliers. Potential experts include tourism organizations, local councils, government departments, tourism-oriented non-governmental organizations and other quasi-government organizations. Suppliers are local community and local community organizations. The results confirmed the use of stakeholder theory as a mean to understand stakeholders’ point of view, goals and issues in the implementation of sustainable tourism development.