Strategic planning within a community framework is essential for tourism to reach its potential. This book combines the four principal functions of business management and stakeholder analysis to develop a model of collaborative decision making. This model offers a template for communities to understand and make the most of their tourism resources.

Professor Peter Murphy, Foundation Professor and Head of the School of Tourism and Hospitality, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, has over 30 years experience as a tourism researcher, professor and consultant. He has served on several tourism boards including Tourism Victoria in Canada and Bendigo Tourism in Australia and has been involved in numerous strategic planning exercises and community studies. He has received the Association of American Geographers' Roy Wolfe Award for contributions to tourism research (1992) and was elected to the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (1995).

Ann Murphy, AICP, PhD Candidate, Law, University of Melbourne, has worked as a tourism planner in British Columbia and the Florida Keys. She oversaw a Keys-wide survey of residents' attitudes towards tourism and her planning contributions were recognised by a resolution of the City of Marathon Council (2000).