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Insofar as numerous ecotourism destinations host indigenous communities, these sites add emphasis to sustainable tourism's cultural dimension alongside its environmental one. Especially noteworthy is the interplay between formal and informal institutions for decision-making regarding ecotourist infrastructure. Contemporary literature advocating participation seldom concerns the often-substantial role played by informal institutions, preferring to focus on formal institutions. As a result, even well-meaning formal institutions meant to encourage participation can be undermined by disregarding established informal institutions that retain contemporary relevance in governance-related matters. In this article, we redress this imbalance by analyzing six distinct projects undertaken in the Philippine mountain retreat of Sagada between 1994 and 2013, focusing on formal/informal institutional interplay in decision-making. That formal institutions do not always dominate informal ones has wider implications for initiatives designed to encourage community participation. To this end, we develop a typological theory which identifies factors affecting informal institutions' adaptations to formal ones:goodnessoffit,retrofitting,decouplingandbricolage. These adaptations have policymaking implications for helping to promote indigenous people's rights to self-determination in sustainable contexts. Sagada's backdrop also provides a useful vantage point in discerning how international rights conventions filter down to local-level implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Promoting tourism and improving roads are generic objectives for developing countries. Despite their relationship—tourists often reach destinations via roads—both are seldom considered together while evaluating options in improving the accessibility of tourist destinations. Since government agencies for tourism and infrastructure are usually separate, coordination difficulties arise. This article analyzes how the Philippines is attempting to surmount obstacles to beneficial collaboration linking tourism with road infrastructure by addressing rent-seeking, bureaucratic turf, and incentives to better align the activities of government agencies with tourism-led development. It enhances the literature by focusing on these governance challenges impeding the joint consideration of transport and tourism in developing countries. Additionally, it highlights the catalytic role played by a civil society organization. After providing a case to illustrate this collaboration in practice, the authors consider how the framework developed may be extended by the Philippine tourism ministry in working with other agencies overseeing complementary objectives to ensure seamless intermodal transport in this archipelagic nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]