Texel unrushed, A stakeholder-oriented research on slow tourism policy strategies as part of sustainable tourism development on the Dutch Wadden island Texel
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2025-06-23
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en
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In response to growing tourism pressures, the municipality of Texel adopted more sustainable tourism policies. One of the island’s strategic pillars aims to attract ‘conscious’ or ‘valuable’ visitors who align with and respect the island’s core values. However, translating this desired visitor profile into practice remains a significant challenge. In this context, slow tourism offers a promising framework. It encourages visitors to decelerate, engage more meaningfully with local communities, cultures, and environments, reduce their environmental footprint, and contribute to both community and personal well-being. This thesis therefore explores stakeholder-driven and place-based policy strategies to facilitate slow tourism as a form of sustainable tourism development on Texel. A qualitative methodology is employed, including an analysis of policy documents, street interviews with visitors, and a focus group involving various tourism stakeholders. The findings demonstrate that, although slow tourism is not explicitly mentioned in Texel’s current tourism policies and is not optimally practiced by visitors, the island does possesses a strong (policy) foundation for its future facilitation. Visitors and stakeholders also express a positive and receptive attitude towards slow tourism on Texel and identify opportunities, weaknesses, and areas for improvement to support its further facilitation and integration into Texel’s tourism policies and strategies.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen