Analysis of the interaction and collaboration of the actors of a tourist destination from a network perspective

Abstract

Considering the tourism activity as a system that still includes subsystems or multilayers, this article seeks to analyse the level of interaction and collaboration of tourism stakeholders in four cities of Ecuador with different stages of tourism development. The analysis is carried out from a multilevel perspective, based on the application of density and centrality indicators of the Social Network Analysis (SNA) and statistical analysis to know the strengths of their associations. The results show that the interaction and collaboration of the stakeholders impact the tourism dynamics of the cities. These cities are more or less dynamic due to those interactions, which may influence the level of tourism development, thus agreeing with the existing literature regarding factors and conditions, their structure, their productive links, and their impact on the tourism activity. It shows an implication in the analysis of the interaction and collaboration within the productive process of an emerging tourist destination, as well as the networks of actors that become a fundamental element in the planning and management of the aforementioned destinations.