Lack of Stakeholder Partnerships in Destination Management: Lessons Learned from Labuan Bajo, Eastern Indonesia

Tourism development always involves many actors with different sectoral interests, and thus requires strong management. Efficient partnerships among the stakeholders are the prerequisites for this. This paper gives a case study of Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia that demonstrates its lack of strong stakeholder partnerships. The location’s problems include difficulty to access information about the destination’s development, insufficient financing cooperation, unhealthy sectoral ego and less than professional management of tourist attractions, all of which have resulted in increased conflicts of vision among the stakeholders. The findings suggest that collaborative management is necessary. This type of management works on the basis of collective work among the stakeholders to manage their various differences in the same direction, and to explore mutual and productive strengths. To materialize collective management, the stakeholders should be encouraged to get fully involved in the decision-making process regarding objectives and strategies of destination management.