3.2. Focus group discussion
If there is to be a move towards sustainable tourism, there needs to be an alliance between all the various stakeholders in a particular role for local coordination of efforts [32]. Therefore, stakeholder engagement and management in developing sustainable policies are critical elements within sustainable tourism [33]. In this respect, this study established a list of stakeholders, who are familiar with the Baisha environment and recreation development, using the purposive nonprobability sampling strategy [34] to participate in focus group discussions. The composition of participants is presented in Table 1, including 3 local operators, 2 from local communities, 2 from academia, 2 from marine NGOs, 2 from the authorities (the park authority and the local government), and 3 beachgoers who visited Baisha more than two times. Two rounds of discussions were held in September 2015 and each lasted about 2 h. The discussions centered on what workable actions could be used to implement the management options which were perceived important in visitors’ minds. It should be noted that reference materials regarding existing marine management strategies were prepared in the discussions. The strategies were broadly grouped into four categories: regulatory, physical, economic and educational [35]. It was intended that the materials help stimulate focused discussion and intense idea exchanges among participants.