Stakeholder collaboration and sustainable ecotourism development nexus in developing countries: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia

Stakeholder collaboration and sustainable ecotourism development nexus in developing countries: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia

Ecotourism has been widely promoted by academics and practitioners alike as a tool to achieve the dual aims of conservation and development. However，several scholars questioned whether sustainability goals can be successfully achieved through ecotourism. Of the various limiting factors of ejfective ecotourism development discussed in the literature, a lack of ejfective stakeholder collaboration is pervasive. This study investigates the contributions of stakeholder collaboration towards sustainable ecotourism development in a developing country setting by employing stakeholder and collaboration theories and triple-bottom-line principles. Through adopting a qualitative research approach with an exploratory design, the current study unfolds the existence of poor interactions and collaboration among ecotourism stakeholders, which in turn, affects the sustainable development of ecotourism. Findings challenge that in poorly resourced remote destinations, failure to meaningfully empower and participate communities does not only undermine the successful development of ecotourism but also it jeopardizes the long-term survival of the ecosystem and communities themselves.