Destination stakeholders - Exploring identity and salience

This paper applies a stakeholder theory analysis to the empirical study of chief executive officers of tourism destination management organizations. A map reveals a great diversity of varyingly important stakeholders. They are specifically analyzed within a typology according to their potential to threaten and cooperate with the organizations, then prescribing a,management strategy specific to each. These strategies are compared to the actual approaches the respondent chief executive officers reported using. The paper concludes with an agenda for future empirical research with specific emphases on the relationship between destination management organizations and their stakeholders.