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DOI: 10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P210‐6257‐2013‐73 
STAKEHOLDER MAPPING IN SELECTED CZECH
REGIONS
MAPOVÁNÍ STAKEHOLDERS VE VYBRANÝCH REGIONECH
ČESKÉ REPUBLIKY
ING. MARTIN LUŠTICKÝ 1
BC. PAVLA ZAUNMÜLLEROVÁ 1
ING. LUCIE VÁCHOVÁ 1
PHDR. JAROSLAVA KADEŘÁBKOVÁ, CSC. 2
1
Katedra managementu
Fakulta managementu
Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze
1
Department of Management
Faculty of Management
University of Economics Prague
 Jarošovská 1117, 37701 Jindřichův Hradec, Czech Republic
E-mail: Lusticky@fm.vse.cz, xzaup00@fm.vse.cz, Vachova@fm.vse.cz
2
Katedra regionálních studií
Národohospodářská fakulta
Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze
2
Department of Regional Studies
Faculty of Economics
University of Economics Prague
Nám. W. Churchilla 4, 13067 Praha, Czech Republic
E-mail: kaderj@vse.cz
Annotation
Tourism has a significant potential to have a beneficial effect on all three pillars of regional
development – economic, social and environmental. From this point of view the managing of tourism
development can be considered as a tool of the regional policy which can be suitable for an efficient
reducing of regional disparities. This paper is focused on collaboration tourism planning within the
framework of sustainable competitive advantage which can be reached by an engagement of regional
stakeholders in the planning process – primarily into the phase of strategy implementation and
control. The aim of this paper is to realize the first phase of Stakeholder Audit which includes
mapping of regional stakeholders. The paper utilizes information from regional governments’
representatives and it maps regional stakeholders in travel & tourism sector on a basis of the main
principle of the Stakeholder Circle method. It analyses the stakeholders with the help of three widely
used attributes which are modified with respect to specific condition of tourism sector. By the means
of those attributes it determines the Stakeholder Index and identifies the most important generic
stakeholders groups which should be engaged in the process of tourism development planning.
Key words
tourism, stakeholder, mapping, Stakeholder Circle
Anotace
Cestovní ruch má významný potenciál působit na všechny tři pilíře regionálního rozvoje –
ekonomický, sociální a ekologický pilíř. Z tohoto úhlu pohledu může být řízení jeho rozvoje vnímáno
jako nástroj regionální politiky, díky kterému lze účinně působit na snižování regionálních disparit.
Příspěvek se zaměřuje na kooperativní plánování rozvoje cestovního ruchu v kontextu dlouhodobě
udržitelné konkurenční výhody, které je možné dosáhnout zapojením regionálních aktérů
(stakeholders) do plánovacího procesu, především do fáze implementace a kontroly strategie. Cílem
příspěvku je realizovat úvodní fázi tzv. Stakeholder Audit, spočívající ve zmapování regionálních
Sborník příspěvků XVI. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách Valtice 19.–21. 6. 2013
580
aktérů. Příspěvek využívá informací od zástupců regionální veřejné správy a na základě principu
metody Stakeholder Circle mapuje regionální stakeholders v cestovním ruchu. Provádí jejich analýzu
s pomocí tří nejčastěji užívaných charakteristik, které jsou modifikovány s ohledem na specifika
cestovního ruchu. S využitím těchto charakteristik stanovuje tzv. Stakeholder Index a identifikuje
nejdůležitější generické skupiny stakeholders, které by měly být do procesu plánování rozvoje
cestovního ruchu zapojeny.
Klíčová slova
cestovní ruch, stakeholder, mapování, Stakeholder Circle
JEL classification: R58
Introduction
One of the areas the recent regional policy is focused on is supporting of tourism development that can
be considered a specific tool of regional development (Tittelbachová, 2006). Tourism contributes to
both regional and local economy stability, especially because of its positive multiplier effect. Nejdl
(2011) characterizes the benefits of tourism as positive outcomes of processes in territory that have
influence on development of new possibilities for local inhabitants, increase utilities of local economy
and decline select negative phenomena. At the same time he points out that usually these benefits are
difficult to be expressed numerically and in most cases there exist only qualified estimates instead.
Tourism has multidimensional character and so it intervenes in many economic branches but it has
effect even in both social and ecological spheres (Hall, 2008; Cooper et al., 2008).
Tourism as well as other economic branches faces competitive pressures which grow significantly in
recent global society (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003). This is why all the European Union, national and
regional governments try to find ways aimed at increase in competitiveness in tourism. One of the
widely recognized factors of competitiveness is the strategic planning and subsequent implementation
and monitoring of the strategies (Enright, Newton, 2005; Dwyer, Kim, 2003; Ritchie, Crouch, 2003).
How Pechlaner a Saurwein (2002) mention the considerable attention is paid to strategic planning, but
the process of implementation is not examined in such a detailed way. Nevertheless both realization
and subsequent monitoring are crucial for success of a strategy as a whole; without them the entire
process loses its purpose (Poister, Streib, 1999). Unfortunately in the Czech practice it often happens
that despite the existence of strategy its practical realization fails. Vacík (2006) remarks that a weak
point of recent public service management is a shift to the implementation phase.
The same situation can also be seen in the sphere of implementation and monitoring of the tourism
development strategies in cooperation with the regional stakeholders. In development strategies, only
insufficient space is devoted to the phase of implementation, and conditions for its realization are
often prepared inadequately. It is reflected in practice – the cooperation between public administration
and the regional stakeholders often fails or it exists only on a formal basis. Nevertheless the
importance of involvement of the regional stakeholders in the strategy implementation process is
emphasized by a number of authors (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003; Hall, 2008). Some of them consider it as a
basic assumption for achievement of a sustainable competitive advantage (Byrd, Cárdenas,
Greenwood, 2008).
Buhalis (2000) points out that managing of tourism with an involvement of the regional stakeholders
is extremely difficult for a destination management. Quite a number of stakeholders groups with
various interests, complex mutual relations and different willingness to cooperate within realization of
the strategy occur in a given destination. Nevertheless the destination management should not resign
to its coordination and realization role. This is the only way how the destination management can
effectively influence the sustainable development of tourism (Buhalis, 2000; Ritchie, Crouch, 2003;
Nejdl, 2011). The necessary first step rests in an identification of the key regional stakeholders to
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which an attention of the destination management must be paid (Medeiros de Araujo, Bramwell,
1999).
For this purpose quite a number of methods for mapping and evaluation of the stakeholders can be
found, as summarized for instance by Medeiros de Araujo and Bramwell (1999) or by Částek (2010).
Most of the methods use graphical representation in the form of maps of the regional stakeholders
according to their attributes. In this paper the Stakeholder Circle is used as a specific method for
mapping and analysing the stakeholders. This method has relatively well-developed methodology of
its implementation that can be modified even for conditions of the strategic analysis in tourism. Its
output is not only the graphical representation of the regional stakeholders according to three key
attributes, but also their arrangement according to their importance to tourism government based on
calculation of the Stakeholder Index. It enables to describe the stakeholders in greater detail and
answer the key questions introduced by Mitchell et al. (1997): “Who is the regional stakeholder?“ and
“Whom the destination management should pay attention to?“.
1. Research Objective and Methodology
The main target of this research is an implementation of a comprehensive stakeholder audit in selected
Czech regions. The audit will be focused on cooperation between public administration and the
regional stakeholders in the process of implementation of the tourism development strategies. The
secondary object of this research is a transfer of good practices from selected region of Great Britain.
These practices will react to the results of the audit, enable an improvement of cooperation and thus
may contribute to increasing competitiveness of the Czech regions. The following figure briefly
describes the research methodology.
Fig. 1: Scheme of the Research Methodology
Source: own elaboration
This paper must be understood as a general introduction to the research mentioned above. It is focused
on the first phase of the research – the mapping of regional stakeholders. However the quintessence of
this phase is mainly a description, it represents an inevitable phase for consecutive research. Its main
purpose is to test the drafted methodical procedure and show the way for the next research phases.
Characterizing of the regional stakeholders and their differentiation according to their importance can
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be established as a primary target of this phase. In such a way the appropriate partners for the field
survey will be identified. This survey will be focused on an assignment of the real state of cooperation
in the field of implementation of the tourism development strategy. The secondary target is a
description of the main lines of cooperation which will be subjects of more detail investigation in the
next phase of the research.
In the first step it is necessary to identify the basic generic groups of destination’s stakeholders. For
this reason, the broad definition of the stakeholders is used. It considers the stakeholders as those
"who can affect the achievement of the organization's objectives or who are affected by the
achievement of the organization's objectives" (Částek, 2010, s. 25). The stakeholders are similarly
defined by Byrd, Cardenas and Greenwood (2008) who specify the definition to the conditions of
tourism. Thus we consider the stakeholders to be such organizations which operate in region
influencing by the strategy, and which participated in strategy elaboration, or which are affected by
this strategy. Using Byrd, Cardenas and Greenwood (2008) approach together with other sources
(Buhalis (2000); Yoon (2002), Crouch (2010)) the following groups of stakeholders are compiled:
 Public Administration: the regional authorities, the micro-regions, the municipalities
 Private Sector: the destination organizations, the regional tourism organizations, the regional
development agencies
Those broad-based groups of stakeholders are not suitable for the practical implementation of the
research. Therefore, it is necessary to narrow them by using the appropriately selected attributes. For
this aim it is possible to use the mapping techniques which usually describe two or three attributes.
The attribute of strength / power is the most frequently appearing stakeholder’s characteristics. It is
usually followed by the attribute of attitude, interest, proximity, or legitimacy. Mitchell, Agle and
Wood (1997) add the attribute of urgency in their three-dimensional model. The Stakeholders Circle
method employs these attributes (Walker, Shelley, Bourne, 2008): the stakeholders’ influence on the
project, involvement of the stakeholders in the project and the urgency of the stakeholders. With
regard to the specifics of tourism these characteristics were modified to this set of attributes:
 Importance (I) – the importance of the stakeholders for tourism development
 Proximity (P) – the intensity of cooperation with the stakeholders in tourism development
o Legitimacy (L) – the formality of cooperation with the stakeholders
 Urgency (U) – the need of the stakeholders involvement in the process of strategy
implementation; decomposition into two subordinate attributes
o Support (S) – share of the stakeholders in the strategy implementation process
o Willingness (W) – interest of the stakeholders in an improvement of cooperation
The attribute of urgency is calculated according to the following formula:
4 (1)
On the basis of the Stakeholder Circle methodology the qualitative scale is defined for each attribute.
This scale is expressed numerically in the range of 1-4 points. The logic of this scale is simple – an
intensity of the attribute increases with increasing number of points. The necessary information is
obtained through structured interviews with the representatives of regional governments. In the testing
phase of the research the respondents are representatives of the South Bohemia Tourism Authority.
The output is a graphical representation of local stakeholders groups in the form of circular sectors.
The Stakeholder Circle methodology was simplified in such a way that it is possible to construct the
graph manually, without the necessity of specialized software. In addition to the graphical
representation, it is possible to compute the Stakeholder Index by the following formula:
∑ , , (2)
This index allows ranking the stakeholders groups with respect to the importance based on selected
attributes. Thus it indicates those regional stakeholders the public administration should focus on
within the strategy implementation. It identifies the key groups which should be involved in tourism
development process in the region. The next phase of the research will be targeted on particular
Sborník příspěvků XVI. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách Valtice 19.–21. 6. 2013
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representatives of given key groups. Its aim will be to gather information about weaknesses and
strengths of the current cooperation process from the key stakeholders’ points of view.
2. Regional Stakeholders Mapping
With the help of the representatives of the South Bohemia Tourism Authority it was possible to verify
the validity of proposed generic groups of stakeholders. All the stakeholders groups proved to be
correctly specified. The departments of the regional authority, the municipalities and the regional
tourism organizations entirely meet our definition of the stakeholders. The regional development
agencies and the destination organizations meet the definition less intensively. Only the micro-regions
can be considered as the destination stakeholders in a limited way.
Stakeholder mapping by the means of the Stakeholder Circle methodology was made with the help of
three key attributes – importance, proximity and urgency. Those attributes were evaluated on 1 – 4
point scale which was used for each generic group of stakeholders. The important part of the
stakeholder mapping process is a computing of the attribute of urgency according to the formula nr. 1.
The evaluation’s results are described in the table nr. 1. The attribute of legitimacy is considered as an
additional statement of the attribute of proximity and it is marked by the grey hatching.
Tab. 1: Stakeholders Attributes
Generic Groups of Stakeholders
Stakeholders Attributes
Importanc
e
Proximit
y
Urgenc
y
Suppo
rt
Willingness
Departments of Regional Authority 4 4 4,0 4 4
Micro-regions 2 2 1,0 2 2
Municipalities 4 3 3,0 3 4
Destination Organizations 3 2 1,5 3 2
Tourism Organizations 3 3 3,0 3 4
Regional Development Agencies 3 2 2,3 3 3
Source: own elaboration
The values of the attributes strongly correlate with a perception of the groups as the regional
stakeholders. The organizations from the sphere of public administration, represented by the
departments of the regional authority and selected municipalities in the South Bohemia Region, are
considered to be the most important stakeholders participating in tourism development. Other
stakeholders groups influence tourism development in a less important way. The most intensive
cooperation on tourism development is running with the departments of the regional authority – the
Department of Marketing and Tourism, the Department of Culture, the Department of Regional
Development. The intensive cooperation is also running with competent departments of the municipal
offices (mainly on the level of former district towns). In both cases the cooperation is formalized
thanks to regular meetings. The South Bohemia Tourism Authority perceives the regional tourism
organizations as important stakeholders (e.g. Association of Hotels and Restaurants, ATIC,
Confederation of Commerce and Tourism). Unfortunately, the cooperation with these subjects is still
not formalized. The regional development agencies are an important partner for implementation of the
strategy but the intensity of relationships is little bit lower. The evaluation of the destination
organizations is slightly surprising. Although they are perceived as the regional stakeholders, they
concentrate its attention to the development of specific area (e.g. Český Krumlov, Lipno Lake) and
thus the cooperation on the regional level is not too intensive.
The facts mentioned above are well-illustrated by the value of the urgency attribute. The key subjects
of cooperation are the departments of the regional authority which have a significant role in the
strategy implementation and which also have an interest in further development of cooperation. It is
possible to view the municipalities and the regional tourism organization in a similar way. The
regional development agencies and the destination organizations also participate in the
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implementation process of the strategy. However they declare lower willingness for cooperation and
thus the need for their involvement into the process is not so intensive. The micro-regions are the
outsiders from this point of view. Their attributes have the lowest values in all cases, so the microregions
are not significant destination stakeholders for the South Bohemia Tourism Authority.
The rank of stakeholders groups’ importance is set on the basis of the Stakeholder Index which is
calculated according to the formula nr. 2. The values of the index are described in the following table.
Tab. 2: Stakeholder Index
Generic Groups of Stakeholders
Stakeholder
Index
Rank
Departments of Regional Authority 12,00 1.
Municipalities 10,00 2.
Tourism Organizations 9,00 3.
Regional Development Agencies 7,25 4.
Destination Organizations 6,50 5.
Micro-regions 5,00 6.
Source: own elaboration
Stakeholder Index enables to rank the stakeholders groups and aggregate them with regard to their
importance. The primary role is played by the public administration, represented by the departments
of the regional authority and the municipal offices of selected cities in the South Bohemia Region.
However, the public administration alone is not able to successfully implement the strategy. It needs
to involve the representatives of private sector as well. In this case the most important partners are the
regional tourism organizations, and eventually the regional development agencies.
The described findings can be illustrated by the Stakeholder Circle which is shown on the picture nr.
1. The attribute of importance is represented by the size of the sector, attribute of proximity is
represented by the distance of the sector from the center of the circle, and the attribute of urgency is
represented by the depth (length) of the sector. The additional attribute of legitimacy is marked by the
hatching of the sector.
Pict. 1: Stakeholder Circle
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Source: own elaboration based on Walker, Shelley, Bourne (2008)
The additional information about the main links of cooperation between the South Bohemia Tourism
Authority and the regional stakeholders was gathered within the performed survey. The South
Bohemia Tourism Authority has close relationship to the other subjects from the sphere of public
administration. The cooperation can be considered very intensive, based on the strong long-term ties.
The cooperation is primarily focused on the creation of general conditions for tourism development in
the region. From the point of view of the strategic priorities achievement, the partners from the sphere
of public administration provide information about potential recipients of financial support and they
serve as the administrators of the regional grant programmes. They participate in a monitoring of
legislation and they apply a legislative marking process together with the regional authority. The
public administration also support and initiate a formation of the new tourism products to some extent
– e.g. in the form of participation in trade fairs, creation of product packages, advertising materials
and sharing of good practices.
The most important partners from the private sector are the regional tourism organizations. Those
subjects play an important role in a tourism market. The importance of their participation in tourism
development is comparable to the importance of the municipalities. Within the strategy
implementation process they provide valuable information about the development of tourism and they
take part in defining the scope of the programmes for tourism development. The regional tourism
organizations actively participate in monitoring of legislative proposals and they join the legislative
marking process together with the South Bohemia Tourism Authority. These entities also organize an
education of their members (entrepreneurs) by which they meet another strategic priority. They
participate in a formation process of the new tourism products – e.g. they cooperate in the field of
marketing and promotion, suggest new products, comment the suggestions of other stakeholders, and
they serve as guarantees of products’ quality simultaneously.
Conclusion
It is possible to claim that the drafted method of destination’s stakeholder mapping has proved its
fitness for use in practice. It was possible to characterize all the stakeholders groups, describe mutual
links between the South Bohemia Tourism Authority and those groups, and assign the rank of the
importance of the stakeholders. The aim of the introduction phase of the research was achieved. The
information will be used within the consecutive research. It will enable us to analyze the real situation
in the sphere of cooperation during the process of the tourism development strategy implementation.
The next phase of the research will be focused on more detailed survey of the scope and forms of
cooperation with three key stakeholders groups in the South Bohemia Region. Its aim will be to reveal
not only potential good practices and mutual links, but also the weaknesses in the cooperation process
from the point of view of the key stakeholders groups. The complex Stakeholder Audit will be
accomplished in this way. After finishing the testing phase the survey will be carried out in selected
Czech and British regions. The British approach to the implementation process should serve as a main
source of good practices for a quality improvement of cooperation between the regional stakeholders
in the Czech Republic.
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This paper was elaborated within the IGA 09/2013 project.