1 Incorporating sustainable development principles in the governance of Dutch domestic tourism: The relevance of boundary judgments

This research is an exploratory investigation into factors responsible for the inadequate incorporation of sustainable development principles into governance of Dutch domestic tourism. The research methodology of the study from which this paper originates consists of: literature and document analysis; 27 in-depth interviews with political (parliament members), public (ministries, provincial authorities, IPO, VNG), commercial, knowledge and NGO actors; and a survey of perceptions, governance preferences and values by means of a questionnaire returned by 44 respondents in all the above actor-categories. This paper is mainly based on that survey, but against the background of the findings of the other parts of the study. These findings were that governance innovations for sustainability have been so far limited and symbolic. There is a mismatch between the UNEP-WTO recommendations and how the Dutch tourism governance looks like. The approach to decentralization chosen in the country and the thematic rather tha