Collaborative tourism planning and subjective well-being in a small island destination

•Well-being concerns motivated residents to collaboratively plan for tourism.•Island residents are challenged by large-scale cruise tourism impacts.•Residency tenure, livelihood, and community role influenced subjective well-being.•Plan rejected by local government despite following collaborative planning theory.

This paper employed a case study method to examine how a tourism planning process was utilized to discuss resident and community subjective well-being. Sitka, Alaska, a small island community, embarked on a collaborative tourism planning effort as an activity to guide and manage tourism development, particularly development from nonlocal interests that was perceived by some as threatening well-being and quality of life. A general interview guide approach was used and 27 interviews with key informants conducted. The plan document was also consulted as a source of additional insight into the processes, the structure, and their interaction. The research focused on how subjective well-being was defined; how length of residency, livelihood, and role in the community influenced well-being; and how tourism development and concerns over well-being fueled tourism planning.