Tourism policy and governance: Quo vadis?

Decisions related to goal-determination and the selection of methods to achieve the goal are referred to as policies. Although the term generally refers to a decision or action, it actually can also be a negative decision or even a non-action/non-decision. Policies are established in any kind of organization, but when we refer to “tourism policy”, we usually mean some form of “public policy” which relates specifically to government decisions at any level from local to international. Governance, on the other hand, is how organizations deal with reaching these decisions. So, while governance is a fairly straightforward concept, albeit with many challenges, tourism policy is not, largely because the term “policy” is very fuzzy and tourism is a social construct that refers to a specific behavior: that of traveling to and staying in places outside one's usual environment. This behavior is controlled by policies, legislation and regulations written for many other purposes, such as controlling or facilitating the flow of capital and investments, the transportation of passengers and goods, worker rights, safety and security, or environmental protection. And that's where the trouble starts, because really, the appropriate development of tourism is highly dependent on decision-makers who have little regard for or knowledge of, tourism.