Theoretical Foundations of Stakeholder Collaboration in Tourism Destination Management: an Integrated Resource–Stakeholder Perspective

Tourism destinations are complex systems in which natural, cultural-historical, human, financial and infrastructural resources are owned, controlled and used by many interdependent actors. Because no single organisation commands all the resources required to produce the destination experience, the effectiveness of destination management depends on the quality of collaboration among stakeholders. This article aims to develop a theoretical foundation for improving collaboration mechanisms between resources and stakeholders in tourism destination management. Using an integrative conceptual review of seminal and recent literature indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, the study compares nine theoretical perspectives — stakeholder theory, collaboration theory, collaborative governance, the resource-based view, resource dependence theory, transaction cost economics, social exchange theory, network theory and common-pool resource theory — and identifies their complementary contributions. The results show that existing approaches tend to treat either stakeholders or resources in isolation. Building on the synthesis, the article proposes an author's definition of the collaboration mechanism in destination management, a four-type classification of such mechanisms (institutional, economic, informational-digital and relational), and an integrated resource–stakeholder collaboration framework in which the destination management organisation acts as a coordinating hub and a feedback loop ensures the reproduction of destination resources. The framework provides a methodological basis for diagnosing collaboration gaps and designing management instruments in emerging destinations, including those of Uzbekistan.