The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
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doi:10.5477/cis/reis.171.85
The Structure of Governance of Tourist
Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from
a Network Science Perspective
Estructura de la gobernanza en la actividad turística de Colombia.
Evaluación desde una perspectiva de ciencia de redes
Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban
Key words Abstract
Network Science In this study, the structural characteristics of the governance of tourist
• Structure activity in Colombia are evaluated. Network science is applied to assess
• Governance the structure and role of each actor/organization involved in governance.
• Sustainability In addition, a fuzzy cluster algorithm is used to evaluate the general level
• Tourism of participation in governance of the organizations that constitute the
sectors involved in tourism activity. The results show that the general
level of interaction is low and that two clearly differentiated communities
coexist. There is high heterogeneity in the participation of organizations.
Based on these findings we propose actions to improve and optimize
the structure of governance of tourism activity in Colombia.
Palabras clave Resumen
Ciencia de redes En este trabajo se evalúan las características estructurales de la
• Estructura gobernanza en la actividad turística de Colombia. Se aplica la ciencia de
• Gobernanza redes para valorar la estructura y el rol de cada actor/organización en la
• Sostenibilidad gobernanza. Adicionalmente, se emplea un algoritmo de agrupamiento
• Turismo difuso para evaluar el nivel general de participación en la gobernanza
de las organizaciones que forman la actividad turística. Los resultados
muestran que el nivel general de interacción es bajo y que coexisten
dos comunidades claramente diferenciadas. Hay alta heterogeneidad en
la participación de las organizaciones. Los hallazgos permiten proponer
acciones de mejora que optimicen la estructura de la gobernanza de la
actividad turística en Colombia.
Citation
Pinochet Sánchez, Giselle; Mariño Jiménez, Juan Pablo and León Santiesteban, Martín (2020).
“The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Sci-
ence Perspective”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 171: 85-106. (http://dx.doi.
org/10.5477/cis/reis.171.85)
Giselle Pinochet Sánchez: Universidad Antonio Nariño (Colombia) | Gpinochet@uan.edu.co
Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez: Universidad Antonio Nariño (Colombia) | jupamarino@uan.edu.co
Martín León Santiesteban: Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (México) | leonsantiesteban@gmail.com
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-106
86 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
Introduction from the economic sectors of transpor-
tation, accommodation, food and drink
Any current reflections on tourism services and travel agencies (World Tour-
must consider the concept of sustainabil- ism Organization, 2019). On this bases,
ity (World Tourism Organization, 2019). In this study understands governance of
general terms, sustainability refers to the tourist activities as a network that re-
articulation of three aims: environmen- quires coordination among different
tal preservation, economic viability and stakeholders to the benefit of all interests
social equity. In terms of tourist activity, involved and offering a positive experi-
sustainability refers to the achievement of ence for the tourist (Oliveira Inácio et al.,
social and economic development while 2012).
guaranteeing the preservation of natural Network science is then useful for
resources (Mariño et al., 2018). The chal- measuring and evaluating the structural
lenge of achieving sustainability in tour- properties that emerge from the net-
ism requires a strategy based on coop- work of relationships involved in gov-
eration and shared responsibility among ernance among the organisations that
the different stakeholders in the public shape tourist activity (Baggio, 2017;
and private sectors and in civil society, to Del Chiappa and Baggio, 2015; Bag-
achieve effective decision-making (Durán, gio et al., 2010; Rodger et al., 2009). A
2013). network is defined as a complex sys-
Consequently, governance is consid- tem formed by a group of interdepend-
ered a means for successfully achiev- ent actors referred to as nodes, related
ing sustainable tourist activity (Jamaliah through links (Barabási, 2016; Bocalleti
and Powell, 2018; Organización Mundial et al., 2006). Network science is the an-
del Turismo, 2018; Barbini et al., 2017). alytical study of networks; their analysis
In general terms, we understand govern- is mainly based on indicators referred to
ance to refer to the exercise of negotia- as network measurements that quantify
tion and agreement to take joint deci- the structural properties of the network
sions for mutual benefit (Cepiku et al., (Newman, 2003).
2014; Alcántara, 2012; Rhodes, 2007). Although some studies have looked at
In this sense, governance is configured tourism from a network perspective (Bag-
as a property that emerges from inter- gio, 2017), a literature review shows that
actions among actors and not as an in- its use is still in its early stages. However,
dividual property of those actors (Dal based on an analysis of the state of the
Molin and Masella, 2016; Rodrigo and art on the matter, it is possible to con-
Arenas, 2014; Carimán, 2013; Huse, clude that the characteristics of govern-
2003). ance networks in tourism depend on the
Tourist activity also requires the inte- legal, environmental, political, economic
gration of diverse stakeholders and other and social reality of each region.
actors in satisfying the needs of tourists The motive for our research is to eval-
and generating the goods they consume uate the relational characteristics of tour-
(Gabbio, 2017). In Colombia, these stake- ist governance in Colombia, which im-
holders are all of those organisations that pacts on decision-making in relation to
the General Tourism Law defines as pro- issues of great interest, such as climate
viders of tourist services (Congreso de la change, protection of the environment
República, 2012) and that primarily come and social and economic development
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106
Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 87
(Durán, 2013). Figures from the Colom- that said organisations establish. This
bian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tour- phase was carried out during a period
ism reveal the importance of tourism to between July 2017 and September 2018,
the country: in the last nine years there and then further updated in the period
has been an increase in international visi- between December 2018 and February
tors of 69%, a 19% increase in new jobs 2019. The second phase is an analysis
in firms linked to tourism and a 74% in- of relational information through special-
crease in the entry of new businesses ised software for the analysis of networks
into this sphere. Ministry data also shows and its subsequent interpretation. Specif-
that tourism accounted for 3.7% of Co- ically, we used six indicators that provide
lombia’s GDP in 2017 (MinCIT, 2019). us with the structure of the network eval-
But we also find evidence of the need uated and referred to as network meas-
to improve dialogue among state actors, urements. Along with this, we employed
business associations and principal busi- a fuzzy cluster analysis to classify the ac-
nesses to serve the range of interests in- tors into levels of participation in the gov-
volved. Persistent shortcomings in insti- ernance of the network.
tutional coordination and in the private This article is structured in the fol-
sector are evident (MinCIT, 2019). The lowing way: the conceptual framework
Ministry identifies strengthening institu- presents a review of the literature on gov-
tions and better articulation as two of the ernance networks and specifically the
main challenges faced to foster greater evaluation of governance through net-
tourist activity in Colombia. However, es- work science. After, the methodological
tablishing the characteristics of the re- section describes the two governance
lationships among the actors involved is networks constructed to evaluate tour-
the first step in strengthening said articu- ist activity, and following that, we show
lation. For this reason, this study has the the results obtained for both types of net-
aim of evaluating the structure of govern- works. Lastly, the discussion and conclu-
ance in the inter-organisational tourism
sions examine the challenges implied in
network in Colombia. Along with this, we
terms of governance and that need to be
seek to answer three research questions:
addressed in the sector.
P1: What are the main structural char-
acteristics of the governance network of
tourist activity? Literature review
P 2 : What is the general level of par-
ticipation of the organizations involved in The concept of governance refers to
tourism activity in the governance of that a style of governing that involves actors
activity? with diverse interests (Dal Molin and Ma-
sella, 2016). From a relational perspec-
P3: What is the role of each of the sec-
tive, governance is a property of the re-
tors that make up tourism activity in the
governance of that activity? lationship among actors, not something
which emerges from each actor individu-
The methodology used in this study ally (Rhodes, 2007).
features two phases. The first is the col- A governance relationship is defined
lection of information on the organisa- as an interdependent relationship and an
tions that are involved in tourist activ- exchange of resources with the funda-
ity, and the relationships of governance mental aim of satisfying common inter-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-10688 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
ests (Baggio, 2017; Rhodes, 1997). Gov- network science permits the modelling
ernance relationships imply the existence and quantitative evaluation of the com-
of a group of actors that participate in plexity of the interactions among groups
a permanent manner in negotiation and of actors (Barabási, 2012; Bocalleti et al.,
joint decision-making, transcending the 2006; Wassermand and Faust, 1994).
traditional role of uni-directional govern- The measurements have two main ap-
ing (Parent et al., 2017; Rhodes, 2007).
plications: evaluation of the general prop-
Governance relationships can be clas- erties of the system and evaluation of
sified into two types: collaborative and the individual properities of each actor.
active (Vera, 2016). Collaborative govern- The first type of measures are referred
ance refers to cooperative relationships of to as network measurements (Barabási,
mutual benefit and joint regulation among 2012), while the second type are re-
the actors (Martínez et al., 2018). In con- ferred to as measurements of central-
trast, active governance refers to the ex- ity (Borgatti, 2005). Centralization makes
ercise of governance of one actor over
it possible to evaluate how heterogene-
another and has three forms, which have
ous the centrality of the actors in a net-
been associated with the three branches
work is (Galaso et al., 2017; Mardones,
of public power (Gereffi, 2015). The form
2017; Maya-Jariego and Holgado; 2017).
associated with legislative power estab-
Greater network centralisation indicates
lishes the rules that govern the activities
the existence of actors with high cen-
of the actors, the form associated with ju-
trality and others with low centrality. Ta-
dicial power is responsible for the com-
ble 1 presents the definition of some of
pletion of norms, and the form associated
with executive power provides support the network measurements or structural
and monitors actors (Kaplinsky, 2004). traits most frequently employed in evalu-
ating inter-organisational governance.
Regarding tourist activity, the concept
of governance refers to the creation of Network science has been used be-
cooperative relationships and coordina- fore to evaluate tourist activity (Bag-
tion among a diverse range of actors all gio, 2017), although a review of the lit-
with some relationship within the tour- erature shows that its application is not
ism value chain (Paddison and Walmsley, widespread. Previous studies have con-
2018; Mariño et al., 2018; Durán, 2013). sidered aspects such as level of con-
The exercise of governance covers all nectivity, the potential of the system for
the decision-making processes which in- self-organisation, the formation of self-
volve actors in the public sector, firms, managed communities, and the ease of
business associations and civil society communication among actors (Partelow
groups with some interest in tourist activ- and Nelson, 2018; Mejía-Alzate, 2018;
ity (Yeh, 2018). Luthe and Wyss, 2016; Kelman et al.,
Network science has been exten- 2016; Borg et al., 2015; Matta, 2012;
sively used to measure inter-organiza- Fontoura Costa and Baggio, 2009). In
tional governance (Pinochet and Mariño, addition, through measures of central-
2019; Song et al., 2018; Jamaludin and ity researchers have sought to evaluate
Hashim, 2017; Galaso et al., 2017; Mar- the importance and capacity of coordina-
dones, 2017; Fliervoet et al., 2016; Po- tion (Song et al., 2018; Luthe and Wyss,
lanco López de Mesa, 2011, among oth- 2016; Del Chiappa and Baggio, 2015;
ers). The main reason for this is that Polanco López de Mesa, 2011).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 89
Table 1. Definition of the main measures employed in measuring inter-organisational governance networks
Measure/
Type of Applications in the Some associated
Strurctural Definition of the measure
application literature studies
characteristic
Degree An actor’s quantity of connections. Identification of Manolache et al.,
centrality actor(s) that have 2018; Ceddia
mastery of govern et al., 2017; Hauck
Degree of The fraction of distances of the net
Evaluation ance connections and et al., 2016; Luthe,
intermediation work that pass through a node. The
of the actions, privileged lo and Wyss, 2016;
distance is the lowest number of
individual cations, contacts with Sankar et al.,
links necessary to unite two actors.
properties relevant actors, lead 2015; Stein et al.,
of the Centrality of Average of the shortest paths that ership and influence 2011.
nodes proximity unite an actor with all the others. on the one hand, as
well as peripheral and
Centrality of Relative importance of an actor little influence on the
own vector based on the connections of the ac other.
tors with whom he/she is linked.
Density Proportion of the number of exist Ease in the estab Song et al., 2018;
ing links over the maximum number lishment of relation Galaso et al.,
of possible links (if each actor was ships, the capacity 2017; Mardones,
linked with all the others). for coordination and 2017; Fliervoet et
the solidity of con al., 2016; Polanco
Diameter Maximum distance among all the
nections. López de Mesa,
pairs of actors in a network
2011.
Average Average number of links necessary
distance to connect the actors in a network.
Clustering The local clustering coefficient Tendency toward Song et al., 2018;
coefficient measures the density among an ac the formation of Smythe, 2017;
tors neighbours, for each actor. The groups and commu Ceddia et al.,
clustering coefficient is the average nities. 2017; Galaso
of the local clustering coefficient for et al., 2017; Mar
Evaluation all the network actors. dones, 2017; Pa
of the ttillo et al., 2013;
Number of Quantity of isolated components in
general Mahdi et al.,
components the network; a component can be
properties 2012.
an actor or a group of actors.
of the
system Cliques Group of network nodes completely
connected among themselves.
Size of the Number of actors in the network Number and diver Jamaludin and
network sity of actors. Hashim, 2017;
Galaso et al.,
Number of Number of network relationships.
2017.
links
Structural Phenomenon that evaluates the ex Identification of key Leick and Gretz
hole istence of actors necessary to con actors for their ca inger, 2018; Ced
nect communities or parts of the pacity to coordinate dia et al., 2017;
network that otherwise would have communities; exist Toikka, 2009.
no relations between them. ence of groups de
pendent on the lead
ership of an actor or
a reduced number
of actors.
Source: By authors based on Barabási (2012), Rubinos and Sporns (2010) and authors mentioned in the table.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-10690 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
Our review of the literature on inter- ships among then was systematised in a
organisational governance networks, in- relationship matrix that records, for each
cluding those related to tourist activity, actor, the economic sector, type of ac-
permits us to conclude that evaluations tor (public, business association, busi-
have tended to use measurement models ness, support), name of the actor, other
of low complexity. The frequent use in re- actors which whom they relate and the
search of more than one network meas- type of governance relationship estab-
urement means that governance cannot lished between them. These relationships
be described through a single character- are established based on the four types
istic (Pinochet and Mariño, 2019). In addi- described in the section on the review of
tion, the repetition of measures in differ- the literature.
ent studies suggests a certain agreement, After, the list of actors we constructed
although not necessarily explicit, regard- and their relationships were evaluated
ing the most useful measures for studying through semi-structured interviews with
inter-organisational governance networks. 13 different organisations. Figure 1 shows
We also find similar agreement regarding the list of organisations interviewed, as
the system features and individual fea- well as the format employed to guide the
tures identified and used in research. interview. These organisations were cho-
sen taking into account the presence of
at least one organisation of each type
Methodology (business, business association, public
sector and support), and their represent-
Information gathering and ativeness of tourist activity in the country.
systematisation The availability of these organisations to
participate in the study was also a crite-
This research uses the following con- rion for their inclusion. A list of actors and
ceptual criterion: that the organizational the relationships among them was con-
network of governance of tourism activity solidated through the interviews, which
in Colombia is made up of the most rep- led to a definitive list of 331 nodes: 82
resentative economic sectors involved in from the public sector, 48 business as-
this activity: lodging, food and beverage sociations, 196 business firms and 5 in
services, transport (air, land and water- suport of tourist activity; the sample can
ways), and travel agencies (World Tour- be seen in Appendix 1.
ism Organization, 2019). Based on this
Both phases of information gathering
criterion, we constructed an initial land-
– documental and through interviews –
scape of relevant actors and the govern-
were carried out in the period from July
ance relationships among them. To do
2017 to September 2018; a further pe-
this we looked at public registries where
riod of revision of the data gathered took
we find clusters of tourism and at busi-
place between December 2018 and Feb-
ness associations, as well as basic infor-
ruary 2019. The information regarding the
mation from each of the actors, such as
relationships between sectors and actors
their mission, objectives and functions.
was analysed using the Gephi software,
The first phase generated an initial list which provides both the network meas-
of 327 actors. Information on the relation- urements and graphical representations.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 91
Figure 1. Organisations participating in tourist activity interviewed and interview guidea
Entities interviewed Format interview guide
Support
Public Business actors in Date
Organisation Businesses
sector associations tourist Name of entity
activity interviewed
Ministry
of Transport x
Aspects interview guide
Vice-ministry
of Tourism x 1. Do you think that the list of actors
attached adequately represents tourist
Acodres x
activity in Colombia? Do you think that
Anato x there are others that should be included,
Asobares x or any that should be excluded?
Atac x
2. What is the role of the leader in
Confeguías x
governance of this activity?
Cotelco x
Aviatur x
3. Are organisations that lead governance
Hoteles Decameron x
RIWRXULVWDFWLYLW\LGHQWLÀDEOH"
Hoteles Estelar x
Wok x
Fontur x
Source: By authors.
Model evaluating network governance with directed links, where the origin and
destination are relevant variables (Bocca-
As previously discussed, this study leti et al., 2006). Cooperative governance
seeks to answer three questions regarding is represented with undirected links, in
the structure of governance of tourist ac- which the direction of the link does not af-
tivities in Colombia. With this aim, we con- fect the relationship.
sider it necessary to evaluate in a differ-
The literature review led us to choose
entiated manner the relationships that are
six measures considered the most appro-
established between actors individually,
priate for evaluating the general behaviour
and the relationships that are established of governance among organisations (with
between the sectors. specifically network measurements) and
the role of each organisation in this sys-
Evaluation of governance among tem (with measures of centrality). Table 2
organisations shows the measures employed.
This evaluation permits us to answer In this study we consider three forms
research questions P1 y P2. To this end, of governance. First, there is governance
we modelled a network formed of nodes exercised over an organisation by other
that represent organisations and by links organisations (GE). This is associated with
that represent governance relations. Ac- the degree of entry, which is measured
tive governance relations are represented based on the directed links that reach
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-10692 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
Table 2. Network measurements for evaluating governance among organisations
Interpretation of the measurement in the
Measurement application Measurement
evaluation of governance
Cliques To evaluate the existence of communities of or
ganisations where each one of them has a gover
nance relationship with the others.
Isolated components To evaluate the existence of isolated actors or
Evaluation of governance communities with no governance relation with
among organisations other actors.
Density To evaluate the proportion of governance relation
ships that exist in a network, over the maximum
possible number of relationships that would exist
if all the actors had relationships with each other.
Centrality of degree of entry To evaluate the number of governance relation
ships exercised over an organisation.
Centrality of degree of exit To evaluate the number of governance relation
Evaluation of governance ships that an organisation exercises over other or
between sectors ganisations.
Degree centrality To evaluate the total number of governance rela
tionships, directed and undirected in which an or
ganisation participates.
Source: By authors.
the organisation/node. Secondly, there is quantity of clusters, which in this study
governance that an organisation exercises represent levels of participation in govern-
over other organisations (GEA), which is ance. To do this, a standard value is cal-
associated with the degree of exit, and culated known as the centroid and it is
is measured based on the directed links located at the point where the sum of dis-
that emerge from the organisation/node. tances of all the elements from the clus-
Lastly, there is total governance (GT), ter to the centroid is at a minimum (Sosa-
which is associated with degree and is García et al., 2012). The centroid is used
measured based on the quantity of gov- as the reference value for each level of the
ernance relations in which each organisa- GE, GEA and GT.
tion is involved. The membership of each organisation to
Based on the values of GE, GEA and one level of governance or another is meas-
GT, the organisations are classified ac- ured through a coefficient that ranges be-
cording to their level of participation. A tween 0 and 1, where 0 indicates a com-
fuzzy cluster algorithm was used, which plete lack of membership and 1 indicates
permits us to create clusters when no pa- complete membership. A threshold of 0.7
rameters have been defined that clearly for membership is set, which makes it
differentiate them (González and Barato, possible to ensure that an element is ad-
2003; Duarte, 2000). The algorithm used is equately represented by a given cluster.
fuzzy c-means, which evaluates the mem- Tests were carried out with three, four and
bership of an element in a determined five clusters with the aim of finding the low-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 93
est number of clusters necessary so that tion between two organisations from differ-
each element reaches the threshhold for ent sectors. This can take the value of 1 if
membership in a cluster. a relationship exists, or 0 if no relationship
between the organisations exists.
Evaluating governance between sectors Evaluating governance between sectors
This evaluation permits us to answer re- is based on evaluating the role of each sec-
search question P3. To do this, we mod- tor in the overall governance of tourist activ-
elled a network in which the nodes repre- ity. To do this, GE, GEA and GT were eval-
sent the sectors. In this case, the links are uated through the respective measures of
established based on the relationships de- centrality for each sector.
fined between the individual organisations.
For this purpose the quantity of links that
connect one sector with another are estab- Analysis of results
lished, and this value is considered to be
the weight of the connection between two The general structure of the governance
sectors, as presented in equation (1): of tourist activity
wt = !
n n Figure 2 shows the the resulting net-
i=1
! j=1Iij (1)
work. A coding of four colours is used to
differentiate the organisations by the sector
where wt is the importance of the gover- to which they belong. A size scale is also
nance relation between two sectors i and j, used to differentiate the organisations with
and lij represents the value of the connec- the greatest number of connections.
Figure 2. Governance network among actors in tourist activity in Colombia
Public sector
Associations
Businesses
Support actors
Source: By authors.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-10694 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
The network is formed by five compo- the Port and Transport Authority [Superin-
nents. One of them includes the totality of tendencia de Puertos y Transporte – SPT]).
governance relations and the other four are Lastly, this community does not include
completely isolated. These other four com- support actors in tourist activity. In con-
ponents are the following business asso- trast, the community on the left is much
ciations: Consejo profesional de Guías de more dense and has active and coopera-
Turismo, Asotrans (Asociación Nacional tive governance relationships. This com-
de Transportadores), Addit (Asociación munity is made up of organisations from
para el Desarrollo Integral del Transporte all sectors.
Terrestre Intermunicipal) and Utrans (Un- Based on the above, it is possible to
ión de Transportadores). consider that the transport sector has low
In Figure 2 we can also see two clearly participation in decision-making and that
differentiated communities, connected by its integration in tourist activity is weak.
only two links. The first link is established These results also seem to show that the
between the Colombian Ministry of Trade, governance of tourist activity in Colombia
Industry and Tourism by the community is sustained by lodging, food and bever-
on the left, and the Ministry of Transport age and travel sectors. It is noteworthy,
by the community on the right. The sec- however, that the network is only made
ond link is established between the Vice- up of two communities, given that tourist
ministry of Tourism by the community on activity is formed by five economic sec-
the left, and Atac (Asociación de Trans- tors. These findings suggest that on mat-
porte Aéreo en Colombia) by the com- ters of governance, four of the five sec-
munity on the right. The limited connec- tors establish common regulations and
tivity between both communities leads carry out control and monitoring together,
to the phenomenon of intermediating ac- in addition to relationships of cooperation.
tors, who, in this case are the mentioned In addition, the results show that the
organisations, necessary to connect both public sector organisations, the Industry
communities and to maintain the integrity and Commerce Authority [Superintend-
of the network (Toikka, 2009). As a con- encia de Industria y Commercio (SIC)]
sequence, the importance of these four and the SPT, and the business associa-
organisations in the governance of tour- tions, Asociación Colombiana de la Indus-
ist activity is particularly high, even when tria Gastronómica (Acodres), Asociación
they do not participate in a significant de Bares de Colombia (Asobares), Aso-
quantity of relationships. ciación Hotelera Colombiana (Asotelca),
There are important differences in the and the Asociación Hotelera y Turística de
connectivity of each community. On the Colombia (Cotelco), account for 491 re-
one hand, the community on the right has lationships within GT, which is equivalent
very low density and its governance rela- to 54% of the network relationships. The
tionships are predominantly active. This SIC accounts for 140 relationships,which
indicates that the transportation sector is represent 15%. For their part, each of
characterised by a traditional style of gov- the four business associations mentioned
erning, with centralised power and deci- concentrate approximately 8% of the rela-
sion-making. In addition, this community tionships, with specifically 73, 73, 70 and
is composed of all the transport busi- 70 relationships respectively. Lastly, the
nesses, their main business association SPTY accounts for 66 network govern-
(Atac) and the main institutions of public ance relationships, which is equivalent to
governance (the Ministry of Transport and 7% of the total.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 95
In contrast, there are organisations that tiation spaces offered good conditions for
cannot be grouped within any level in any the overall development of governance.
form of governance because they have null
participation. In the GE and GEA forms of
governance we find a significant quantity of Participation of organisations in the
organisations without participation: 107 and governance of tourist activity
255 respectively, which represent 35% and
77%. These results suggest a marked het- Table 3 shows the distribution of the
erogeneity in the participation of organisa- standard values for each one of the levels of
tions related to tourist activity. GE, GEA and GT. For example, an organi-
sation with minimum participation in GE
The results of the network measure-
(level 1) is, on average, subject to active
ments show that these organisations in-
governance from one organisation. While
volved tourist activity are connected through
903 governance relationships. Of these, an organisation with average participa-
67% - 601 – correspond to active govern- tion (level 2) is subject to, on average, ac-
ance relationships (directed links) and the tive governance from three organisations,
remaining 33% - 302 – correspond to co- and an organisation with high participation
operative governance relationships (undi- (level 3) is subject to active governance from
rected links). In addition, the results show five organisations. The results of the fuzzy
a density of 0.016 (1 being the maximum clusters shows that to reach the threshold
density possible). This reveals that tourist for belonging of 0.7, different numbers of
activity is characterised by a small quan- clusters for GE, GEA and GT are required.
tity of governance relationships and gen- GE requires a minimum of three levels, GEA
eral communication difficulty (Galaso et al., four and GT requires a minimum of five lev-
2017; Mardones, 2017; Polanco López de els so that all the organisations show a clear
Mesa, 2011). belonging to one of them.
Another important aspect is the exist- The results indicate that no important
ence of a clique, formed by support actors differences exist among the organisation
from the Servicio Nacional de Aprendi- in terms of the number of governance rela-
zaje (SENA), universities, the Fondo Na- tionships exercised over them (GE), and for
cional del Turismo, and the business asso- this reason a reduced number of clusters is
ciations, Acodres, Asobares, Cotelco and necessary to classify them. The differentia-
the Asociación Colombiana de Agencias tion increases when we look at the govern-
de Viaje y Turismo (Anato). All the links ance that organisations exercise over other
of the clique are undirected, which repre- organisations (GEA), and even more when
sents cooperative governance relations. the total number of relationships in which
This structural phenomenon indicates the organisations participate (GT) is consid-
existence of a community of organisa- ered. As can be seen in Table 3, in the
tions closely connected through relation- GE each one of the levels of participation
ships of cooperation. The close connection groups a significant number of organisa-
emerges to a great extent through partici- tions: 154, 42 and 28 respectively. While
pation in agreements regarding sectorial in regard to GEA and GT, the levels of par-
technical regulations [Normas Técnicas ticipation group together much lower num-
Sectoriales del turismo (NTS)], an initiative bers of organisations. These results reveal
that was led by public sector organisations a tendency toward the concentration of
but with different organisations also partic- governance relations in a limited number
ipating. We can conclude that these nego- of organisations.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-10696 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
Table 3. A
verage participation and quantity of organisations for each level of participation in active governance
and total governance
GE GEA GT
Organisations Organisations Organisations
Average Average Average
by level of by level of by level of
participation participation participation
participation participation participation
Level 1 1 154 2 69 2 258
Level 2 3 42 21 3 7 55
Level 3 5 28 47 5 12 5
Level 4 – – 125 1 29 3
Level 5 – – – – 84 6
Source: By authors.
Participation of the sectors in and public sector entities exercise govern-
governance of tourist activity ance over the business sector.
Table 4 shows the importance of the
links between pairs of sectors. The values Table 4. Importance of the links between sectors
were normalised over the total number of in tourist activity in Colombia. The values
are normalised over the total quantity of
network links and expressed in percent- network links and expressed in percent-
ages. The relationships between public sec- ages
tor/businesses and business associations/
Importance
businesses are the most important, and Relationships between
of the
concentrate among them 87.5% of the net- organisations
relationship
work relationships. The remaining 12.5%
Public sector/Public sector 3.6
are distributed in the relationships estab-
lished between the other pairings of organi- Public sector/Business associations 1.1
sations, with the exceptions of business to Public sector/Businesses 49.2
business and business to actors in the sec-
Public sector/Support actors in tour 0.45
tor that lack relationships.
ist activity
The contribution of each sector to gov-
Business associations/Business as 1.2
ernance is placed in the following order: sociations
business sector, public sector, business
associations and actors in the sector. The Business associations/Businesses 38.3
fact that the business sector is the one that Business associations/Support ac 1.1
contributes the most to governance of the tors in tourist activity
sector and participates in the most impor- Businesses/Businesses 0.0
tant relationships is expected, considering
Businesses/Support actors in tour 0.0
that this sector groups together the organi- ist activity
sations that carry out the fundamental ac-
Sector actors/Support actors in tour 0.3
tions of tourist activity. However, its role in
ist activity
governance is essentially passive, as in 565
relationships (72%) business associations Source: By authors.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 97
One noteworthy characteristic of the type of organisation that does not partici-
participation of the business sector are the pate in governance. This reveals the impor-
GEA relationships The results show that tant inequalities that exist among business
businesses have between one and five or- associations, and that their importance as a
ganisations exercising governance over sector is, to a great extent, the result of the
them, which can represent a conflict of in- role carried out by four organisations.
terests. In this sense, it is likely that an or- The results from analysing governance
ganisation/business gives greater or lesser between sectors also show that the pub-
importance to a governance relationship lic sector exercises a mainly active role in
exercised over it depending on the rele- tourist activity. But, in addition, it has a con-
vance of the organisation from which the siderable cooperative relationship with the
relationship originates. As a consequence, sector of business associations. As occurs
the GEA relationships would be in com- with the sector of business associations,
petition among themselves, and the deci- there is a limited group of public sector or-
sion regarding the relationship that prevails ganisations that concentrate the majority
could depend on diverse variables, leading of governance relations. However, none of
to there being no adequate satisfaction of these organisations are disconnected from
interests. However, it is worth questioning the rest of the network, in contrast to what
what should be the reasonable and techni- we see regarding business associations.
cally feasible limit of governance relation- Lastly, the results show that the sector
ships that an organization can be subject of actors of support of tourist activity have
to, to ensure that it can satisfy all of them. greater relations with business associations
It is noteworthy that the sector of busi- than with the public sector. The lack of links
ness associations has a high level of partici- with the business sector could be explained
pation in both active and cooperative gov- by the fact that companies come together
ernance. This finding permits us to state in business associations to establish such
that this sector is fulfilling its purpose of links, rather than doing so in an individual
representing the interests of its members, manner. As with the business sector, ac-
as well as providing support in decision- tors of support do not exercise active gov-
making. The participation in active gov- ernance. In short, their participation in the
ernance is explained by its participation in governance of tourist activity is limited. Al-
spaces constructing the NTS. This means though the lack of active governance is an
that business associations are partially re- expected result, the weakness of the coop-
sponsible for the content of these obliga- erative relationships established with other
tory regulations (legislative governance). In sectors is striking.
addition, some of these business associa-
tions also exercise an executive governance
role in recommending to their members that Conclusions
they follow the established norms.
In analysing the role of each business In addition to its main objective, this
association we find that of the 47 that par- study posed three research questions that
ticipate in the network, four concentrate the sought to describe the fundamental char-
majority of governance relationships. We acteristics of governance in tourism activ-
also find that 35 business associations be- ity in Colombia. Regarding question P1, we
long to the lowest level of total participation found that the level of overall connectivity is
(GT) and another four are completely dis- low, but that the large majority of organisa-
connected from the network, being the only tions have a governance relationship with at
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - September 2020, pp. 85-10698 The Structure of Governance of Tourist Activity in Colombia. Evaluation from a Network Science Perspective
least one other organisation. In addition, we sector is desirable for the fulfilment of the
identified two weakly connected communi- law and the common good (Rhodes, 1997).
ties, with different structural properties. Re- But the fact that organisations with greater
garding research question P2, we found the GE are public sector organisations and that
existence of a high level of heterogeneity organisations with greater GEA are busi-
among the organisations in regard to their nesses, implies a lack of diversity in the in-
participation in governance relations. Lastly, terests satisfied in the govenance of tourist
regarding question P 3, we described the activity, and lack of mutual control among
role of each one of the sectors, considering the different types of actors (Mardones,
their contribution and participation in gov- 2017).
ernance of tourist activity. The results suggest there are three main
In line with some of the plans the the challenges for the governance of tourist
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism activity in Colombia. First, the need to in-
indicated in the Sectorial Plan for Tour- crease the governance relations in general
ism 2018-2022, the results of this study and those based on cooperation in par-
permit us to conclude that tourist activ- ticular. This implies the creation of new
ity in Colombia is characterised by a high governance relations, preferably of coop-
concentration of control in a reduced eration, among the different sectors to gen-
group of actors and reduced number of erate more balanced participation among
governance relationships. According to all of them. However, it should be empha-
some authors, these properties are in- sised that it is not necessarily an increase
dicative of a classic style of governance, in the number of links that makes a network
which translates into a lack of satisfac- more efficient, but rather their position, that
tion of the interests of the majority of the is, what actors are specifically involved in
actors involved (Galaso et al., 2017; Mar- any new links (Pinochet, 2016). Based on
dones, 2017; Maya-Jariego and Holgado; this, it would be desirable to create relation-
2017; Grau, 2014; Polanco López de ships that integrate disconnected actors
Mesa, 2011; Natera Peral, 2005; Kaplin- and those with low levels of participation,
sky, 2004). But this study makes another as well as new links among different types
contribution in analysing this governing of actors, especially among those with null
body to identify in an objective and pre- interaction.
cise manner the sources of heterogeneity The second challenge is to reduce the
in the exercise of power. gaps in participation among organisations
Some studies converge in finding that in through a generalized increase in govern-
the exercise of governance it is common to ance relations – GT, GE and GEA. In this
find asymmetries, where the power of one way, there will be greater control of the ac-
group of actors prevails over others (Gereffi, tions of all types of actors, which would in-
2015; Romero Alvarado, 2006). Therefore, crease the level of satisfaction of the inter-
the results that indicate the concentration ests of all stakeholders and the efficiency
of active governance are to be expected. of actors’ efforts at management. The third
However, it is not possible to know what and last challenge is the integration of the
the limits of such concentration should be, two communities that are currently weakly
to know what separates a system where connected. This would allow the most iso-
power is exercised in just and necessary lated community, the transport sector, to be
measure from what might be considered a part of joint decision-making, cooperation
hegemonic system. It could be argued that and the establishment of common stand-
the high centrality of actors from the public ards for tourism activity.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 171, July - Septiember 2020, pp. 85-106Giselle Pinochet Sánchez, Juan Pablo Mariño Jiménez and Martín León Santiesteban 99
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