Developing Evaluation Criteria for Partner Selection in Tourism Supply Chain Networks

Effective partnership management is a crucial strategy for tourism firms in designing the services successfully as well as gaining the advantages dynamically. Literature suggests that the successful partnerships may be initiated at the beginning of selection process; however, there is a dearth of research on how to manage tourism partnerships effectively. This paper suggests the evaluation criteria proposed to assist tourism firms to effectively make a decision on selecting partners to start working with. In developing criteria, the authors first reviewed the available criteria in the other contexts, then conducted qualitative research using buyer and supplier firms in Thailand by in-depth interviewing with ten experts to refine and to verify these criteria proposed. After statistical verification, the results indicated that the proposed criteria consist of five main categories: performances, profiles, risk factors, product's characteristics and compatibilities. This study contributes the useful knowledge on how to select partners and manage partnerships effectively in tourism supply chain.