Abstract
The tourism industry has long been concerned with gaining political influence to ensure supportive policies and governance. Tourism advocates are leaders who seek political influence by creating a unified industry voice and setting a prioritized legislative agenda. This requires tourism advocates to have strong relationships with members of the tourism industry. We use a political advocacy framework to explore how tourism advocates develop as leaders and the behaviors they utilize to build relationships within the tourism industry in the context of a state tourism advocacy association in the United States. The findings suggest that there are many paths to becoming a tourism advocate, but all require supportive organizational resources, industry knowledge, and social capital as these attributes are vital in efforts to build the relationships with tourism industry members.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 235-250 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Journal of Travel Research |
Volume | 60 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2021 |
Keywords
- advocacy
- leadership
- political influence
- tourism and politics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Transportation
- Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management