Abstract
Stakeholder consultations serve as powerful legitimising devices upon the balance of participants, the quality of the process and its effective results. We propose a deliberative digital stakeholder consultation methodology based on an appreciative inquiry approach to materiality assessment. We illustrate its application in a four-month consultation for the European Commission (2020 European Tourism Convention, towards a European Agenda for Tourism 2050). An interactive, online consultation (due to COVID-19) enabled dynamism and co-creation. Appreciative enquiry introduced the human elements of ownership and legitimacy towards policy. The choice of topics, language and attitudes reframed problems into opportunities with shared responsibilities. Technology allowed to explore new forms of open, democratic and inclusive engagement, and materiality provided structure and transparency that legitimised the process.
•A digital consultation articulates a European tourism COVID-19 recovery agenda.•Online stakeholder consultation is fast, free, effective, efficient and democratic.•Deliberative stakeholder consultation grows input, throughput and output legitimacy.•Appreciative inquiry facilitates dialogic, transparent materiality assessment.•Dialogic materiality assessment is effective in agenda-setting for public policy.