Parks and protected areas normally offer a suite of tourism services to the visitors. A decision must be made on which management option is preferable for each service. There are two major categories of options; insourcing and outsourcing. Within insourcing, there are two models: 1) Fully public model, and 2) Public utility, parastatal model. Within outsourcing there are five different options: 1) Using for-profit, private companies; 2) Using non-profit organizations; 3) Using local community organizations; 4) Using another government department; and, 5) Using a joint-venture company (i.e. public-private, private-community, public-community or public-private-community). The initial decision often sets a precedent that lasts for decades. The majority of the literature dealing with commercialization of tourist services in parks and protected areas favours the outsourcing of these services. The advantages of insourcing with a parastatal form of governance have been underestimated and poorly documented. This book chapter attempts to balance this discussion.
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