Just because it seems impossible, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try: The need for longitudinal perspectives on tourism partnerships and the SDGs

SDG 17 highlights the importance that the partnership narrative plays in the implementation of SDGs. However, given the brevity of many development projects, these partnerships are often developed and concluded rapidly, with little attention given to their longer-term implications or success. This paper argues that in order to create and develop partnerships that properly address the SDGs, it is imperative that a process perspective is developed that takes into account the range of stakeholders and interests, values, and the power relations between actors prior to and during the project together with a comprehensive understanding of the notion of success. This requires a full awareness of the project’s context and previous interventions, activities, and policies. In order to illustrate the necessity of longitudinal partnerships and perspectives, a case study, involving a community-based development project in New Delhi, India is used. The goal of the project has been to ensure that the community is actively involved in the entire process, eventually becoming owners of the interventions so that, when the project and partnership eventually ends, the community continues to benefit. Examples from the project are used to emphasize the importance of long-term planning and partnership driven by context-specificity, implementation processes and policy-awareness.