The study of governance is important. Governance is essentially
about power that governs the interplay of individuals, organizations, and agencies influencing, or trying to influence, the direction of
policy (Hall & Jenkins, 1995; Reed, 1997). The power relations affect
tourism decision-making in many aspects including “the nature of
government involvement in tourism, the structure of agencies
responsible for tourism development, management, marketing and
promotion, the nature of tourism in tourism development, and the
identification and representation of tourism resources and attractions”
(Hall, 2005, p. 100). Understanding governance sheds light on
howpower is distributed and, in this case, howtourism decisions are
made. It provides information to governments on how well their
governance systems are able to respond to the changing social,
economic and political circumstances of a society