Leadership and governance in air route development

Abstract

This paper examines leadership and governance among large tourism stakeholders, notably airlines, airports and state/national DMOs, in the context of air route development (ARD). An exploratory mixed method is used to identify the key leadership and governance attributes of successful ARD, and the strongest correlation among them. This study has identified a substantial difference between the key attributes perceived by small/medium enterprises (SMEs) and large tourism stakeholders. Large stakeholders identify partnership, effective communication, and information sharing as key leadership attributes, and strategic vision, leadership, and knowledge sharing as critical governance attributes. Additionally, a significant difference is observed in the correlations of attribute perception, which is dependent on the leading ARD stakeholder.