The document summarizes a case study on collaborative governance in the mountain tourism destination of Whistler, Canada. It finds that critical factors enabling tourism stakeholders to engage in collaborative governance included starting conditions like concerns over growth limits, as well as face-to-face communication, trust-building, and developing shared understanding through organizations like the Whistler Centre for Sustainability. The study also modified existing models of collaborative governance based on findings from Whistler about triggers for collaboration and roles of non-political leaders and community events.

1. “One for all and all for one” –
Engaging Tourism Stakeholders for
Collaborative Governance
A Case Study of the Mountain Destination Whistler (Canada)
By Eva Erdmenger

2. OVERVIEW
1. How and why collaborative Governance?
2. Why Whisler?
3. Reserach Method
4. Results&Findings
5. Conclusion

3. COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE
“Collaborative governance is therefore a type of governance in which
public and private actors work collectively in distinctive ways, using
particular processes, to establish laws and rules for the provision of public
goods.” (Ansell and Gash, 2007, p.544 f.)
Aim: What are the critical factors enabling tourism stakeholders to
engage in collaborative governance of a destination.
Study objective

4. COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE
Study objective
Figure 1. Model of
Collaborative Governance
Source: Ansell and Gash, 2007.

5. WHISTLER (B.C.)
Study objective
Figure 2. Influential key
events and strategies in
Whistler’s governance
approach
Source: Gill and
Williams, 2011, p.634.

6. PAPER VS. VOICE
Content Analysis of Planning
Documents
Stakeholder Interviews
• 8 planning documents and policy papers
such as Official Community Plan and
RMOW Council Action Plan
• Code tree based on 85 code words,
organized in nine categories
• Manually coded in the software Nvivo
• New aspects have been added
• irrelevant codes have been deleted
• Interviewee 1: former Council member
• Interviewee 2: Whistler Centre for
Sustainability (WCFS)
• Interviewee 3: University professor
• Pre-structured interview guide
• Average interview time 67 minutes
• Transcribed interviews and coded in
Nvivo
Research method

7. FINDINGS
Starting conditions:
Findings
What? How?
Need of resources Growth limit, housing, competition,
climate change
Passion & Pride Mountain resort, prestige, expenses,
adoptive home, fame

8. FINDINGS
Step-by-step implementation:
Findings
What? How?
Face-to-Face Communication Learning events
Trust –Building mediators, transparency
Commitment task forces, low hierarchy
Shared Understanding WCFS, Whistler 2020
Intermediate Outcomes Monitoring, small wins

9. FINDINGS
Only in Whistler?
• Young, small and mobile community
• 2010 Olympic Games – blessing or curse?
• Election 2011
Findings
0
20
40
60
2006 2011
age[years]
Canada
British Columbia
Whistler
Figure 3. Median Age of Canada, British
Columbia and Whistler in 2006 and 2011.
Source: Government of Canada,
Statistics Canada, Census 2011.

10. FINDINGS
Lessons learnd:
• Demographical characteristics are universal
• Tourism economic drive
• Trigger and initiator
• Guideline built and established by stakeholders
• Monitoring for success
• Non-political and non-state leaders
• Community events for education and empowerment
Findings

11. FINDINGS
Findings
Figure 4. Modiefied Model
of Collaborative Governance
Source: Own draft basing on
Ansell and Gash, 2007.

12. CONCULSION
“Where conflict is high and trust is low, but power distribution is relatively equal and
stakeholders have an incentive to participate, then collaborative governance can
successfully proceed by relying on the services of an honest broker that the respective
stakeholders accept and trust.” (Ansell and Gash, 2007, p.555)
“Nothing truly great is accomplished alone. Much of Whistler's success is due to the
power of partnership and the spirit of collaboration embedded into the DNA of the
resort community.” (RMOW, 2015, n.p.)

13. REFERENCES
• ANSELL, C. and GASH, A. (2007) Collaborative Governance in Theory and Practice. Journal of Public
Administration Research and Theory, 18(4), pp. 543-571.
• GILL, A.M. and WILLIAMS, P.W. (2011) Rethinking resort growth: understanding evolving governance
strategies in Whistler, British Columbia. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(4-5), pp.629-648.
• GOVERNMENT OF CANADA (2011) Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census. Census subdivision of Whistler,
DM - British Columbia [Online] Available from: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-
recensement/2011/as-sa/fogs-spg/Facts-csd-eng.cfm?LANG=Eng&GK=CSD&GC=5931020
[05/25/2015].
• RESORT MUNICIPALITY OF WHISTLER (2015) It takes a village to raise a world-class resort. [Online] Available
from: https://www.whistler.ca/40th-anniversary/it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-world-class-resort
[09/12/2016].

14. exploresustainability.com
by Eva Erdmenger