| Summary: | In destination development and planning literature much emphasis has been placed upon structural and geographical interpretations of how destinations can be viewed. There is a lack of attention to agency and stakeholder perspectives in destination development and planning. This research has sought to address this gap by focusing upon stakeholder power and engagement with tourism policy development in an English seaside context. Not only is the English seaside context important conceptually, practical connotations are also evident, particularly following the disbanding of the Regional Development Agencies in the summer of 2010 and the impact this has had on tourism organisation in Britain. The research objectives of this study focus upon compiling a conceptual framework which draws upon how power can be used in an enabling and not constraining fashion as an empowerment of people, by focusing on key concepts in stakeholder theory literature. The aim is to provide an alternative to a purely structural and geographical interpretation of the organisation of tourism policy, by focusing on agency and structure, as well as utilising the theory of planned behaviour in determining stakeholder engagement with tourism policy development. This research contributes to the stakeholder theory literature, particularly in defining the power of a stakeholder and how this can help address stakeholder engagement in tourism policy development. In addition contributions are made to the literature on English seaside tourism in utilising insights from the literature on power, structure and agency and stakeholder theory. From a methodological perspective a mixed method research approach has been adopted to add to the emerging qualitative research in the tourism literature in gaining rich contextual insights to the research problem.
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