Systematic review of public-private partnership studies in tourism

The phenomenon of public-private participation is a debatable issue in different industries due to the inability of the public sector to meet public needs and its limited access to various resources. But in some industries, including tourism, this issue has a much more special place. Since the prerequisite for the success of the tourism industry - with its fragmented nature and the multiplicity of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors - is the formation of such partnerships. Hence, several studies have been conducted in the field of public-private partnerships. Nevertheless, there is still a research gap that systematically reviews previous studies and enumerates the various dimensions of these studies, especially in terms of factors affecting public-private participation. Therefore, the present study pursued this important point. This study is important in several ways, including determining the current study in the field, identifying the factors affecting public-private participation in tourism in a big image, and founding the groundwork for further studies in this regard.

The present study is a descriptive-fundamental study that has used a systematic review to review previous studies. To pursue this important, five key steps were considered; Determining the search strategy, determining the criteria for selecting articles, reviewing the search output, extracting the data, and evaluating the quality. In the search strategy determination step, the searched keywords searched databases, and search time was explained. In the search criteria, the authors set the boundary for articles entrance to the systematic review process. In the search output step, the screening method and selection of articles from the 233 found sources were determined. In the data extraction step, 40 selected articles were analyzed based on the indicators of the research situation, the scope of participation, type of research based on purpose, data collection method, collection tools, time, the research community, and sampling method. Besides, the factors affecting public-private participation in tourism were also examined from the perspective of these studies. Quality Assessment, as the final step, shows how resources are assessed based on the Critical Assessment Skills Tool (CASP).

Most studies in terms of research location are related to Italy (13%). The field related to the restoration, protection, and exploitation of heritage and historical monuments (30%) has a special place concerning the field of public-private partnerships in tourism and has been the focus of many studies in this field. Descriptive research (92.5%), with the method of collecting qualitative data (60%), using secondary data/documents (50%), and case studies (80%), have received more attention. Stakeholders (37.5%) constitute the dominant statistical population of these researches; This seems to be reasonable, given that research often examines experiences of public-private partnerships on a case-by-case basis. Hence, researchers have sought to survey people involved - especially public and private parties - who have been involved in some way in these experiences. Targeted / available sampling (75%) has a special place. Regarding the factors affecting participation, most of the frequency is related to the aim of the participation factor (82.5%).

In addition to the structural aspects that were considered in the review of selected articles, the identification of factors affecting public-private partnerships in tourism was another aspect that researchers have addressed. In this regard, several factors such as the content of the partnership, stakeholders, objectives of the partnership, duties of the parties, interests of the parties, technological-information factors, socio-cultural factors, legal factors, financial-economic factors, geographical-environmental factors, and political – Governmental factors, were identified as factors affecting public-private participation in tourism. Partnership content refers to the factors that must be considered during the public-private partnership process. Stakeholders factor refers to natural and legal persons who are somehow involved in the process of public-private participation in tourism or are affected by this phenomenon. Goals are considered as the motivation for the formation of partnerships between the public-private sector. Information-technological factors emphasize technological advances and the awareness of such partnerships. Socio-cultural factors focus on the acceptance of public-private partnerships in tourism by the host community. Legal factors highlight the effective legal frameworks in this area. Financial-economic factors consider the economic situation of countries as an effective factor in public-private participation in tourism. Environmental-geographical factors are important from the perspective of the seasonality of the tourism industry, and political-governmental factors consider the aspect of government support for public-private partnerships in the tourism industry. Among them, the purpose of participation- As a motivation for the formation of the partnership between the public-private sector in tourism- has the most repetition in selected studies. Stakeholders were identified as the second most effective and repetitive factor in multiple sources.