The efficacy of the governance processes by which tourism policies and plans are made is vital to tourism development. Tourism governance has, for some time now, been conceptualised as a participatory process that should involve a meaningful dialogue amongst a diverse group of stakeholders. However, empirical research that investigates the institutional contexts within which community participation and empowerment practices play out in tourism development is limited. This thesis set out to examine the process of tourism governance, and consequently local community participation and empowerment, in tourism planning. It examines how stakeholders in the tourism governance process communicate and interact. The research adopts a mixed methods approach. It first established a general picture of the current situation in tourism policy and planning through an extensive Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). After that, interviews were conducted to explore stakeholders’ perceptions of the extent to which tourism governance processes allow local community participation and empowerment. From this, key constraints were identified.
The results from the IPA revealed that the problem in tourism policy and planning in Nigeria is pervasive and relates to governance in general rather than to specific features or policies only. It was found that the decision-making is driven mainly by the federal and state governments. The communication and interaction among stakeholders at all levels was limited. The local level institutions are not empowered to function as participating partners in any meaningful sense. As a result, limited empowerment (political, economic, psychological and social) was experienced by community members. This thesis reveals that certain principles of governance – trust, awareness, transparency and accountability - related to political culture, are critical to the question at hand. Based on these findings, the research made some broad and provisional strategic recommendations related to: creating awareness amongst the local community of the industry and its possibilities; and empowering the Local Government Tourism institutions to play a proactive, and substantial role in tourism governance. The thesis, therefore, seeks to contribute towards the discussion on tourism governance, community participation and empowerment. It makes conceptual, methodological and policy related contributions
