Abstract
Within the last decade, many developing countries have recognised and started adopting tourism as an important local economic development option especially in areas devoid of mineral resources but rich in cultural and natural biodiversity (Shackley, 2006; Sharpley & Telfer, 2002). Cameroon has been no exception. However, the relationships between the various stakeholders involved in the industry’s development and management has been fraught with challenges and contradictions. This paper examines how sustainable tourism whose main goal is to provide high-quality visitor experiences that can maximize the benefits to the destination stakeholders without compromising the destination’s environmental, social, and cultural integrity is framed and implemented in Cameroon. Achieving this goal obviously depends on the extent to which tourism destinations manage to integrate these major perspectives and diverse stakeholders in the policy formulation process. The paper therefore investigates the extent to which destination stakeholders initiate or influence sustainable tourism policy making in Cameroon. Firstly, stakeholder theory (Freeman et al., 2010, Mitchell et al., 1997; Freeman, 1984) is used to identify key destination stakeholders in sustainable tourism development and how their interests can be managed in formulating sustainable tourism policy. Secondly, (social) network theory is used to examine patterns of relationships among destination stakeholders (Scott et al., 2008; Carlsson 2000; Granovetter, 1985) and analyse the roles that tourism networks could play in enhancing the development of a sustainable tourism policy in Cameroon.