How can Trust-Based Public Management Influence Sustainable Destination Development? : A case study of Vadstena, Sweden

Abstract: Tourism is a fragmented industry with multiple stakeholders and often occurs in an area with unique characteristics. Therefore, in order to ensure that management and development strategies are suitable and sustainable for the area and its stakeholders, collaboration and involvement have been identified as essential aspects. In order to increase and maintain collaboration and involvement, it is vital first to understand the stakeholders’ situation. Then it is important to understand challenges and opportunities for developing collaboration and involvement so that coherent strategies can be implemented amongst the stakeholders and lead to increased effort towards sustainability. This study used written and semi-structured interviews to examine the tourism business situation in Vadstena, Sweden. The principles and philosophy of Trust-Based Public Management were used to provide an overview of the collected dataset and link it to the amount of trust currently present within the tourism businesses in Vadstena. The result showed that not all of the participating tourism businesses are collaborating with each other or the municipality, which is the primary developer and manager of Vadstena. The result of this study showed that not all tourism businesses collaborate nor trust Vadstena municipality. Therefore, the study concluded that there is a need to involve tourism businesses more in the development and management strategies. The study also concluded that there is a need to implement common goals, especially for sustainable development in Vadstena, Sweden.