Case Study Mega-events as drivers of community participation in developing countries: The case of Shanghai World Expo Lucio Lamberti a, * , Giuliano Noci a,1 , Jurong Guo b , Shichang Zhu c a Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering Via Lambruschini 4d, 20156 Milan, Italy b ANTAI College of Economics and Management, Shanghai JiaoTong University, 535 FahuaZhen Rd., 200052 Shanghai, PR China c Shanghai Institute of Technology, School of Foreign Languages, 120 Cao Bao Road, 200235 Shanghai, PR China article info Article history: Received 10 May 2010 Accepted 21 December 2010 Keywords: Community participation Mega-events Developing countries China World Expo abstract Within a wide body of literature it has been argued and demonstrated that community participation in tourism development is advantageous in terms of the sustainability and effectiveness of the development policies adopted. However, over time, doubts have been raised about whether community participation should take place in developing countries. There are major concerns regarding the immaturity and the incompliance of the political and social conditions of developing countries in relation to the requirements necessary for an effective participatory planning. In this paper, we argue that mega-events, due to their wide scope and the key role that large groups of stakeholders play in their success, may represent a driver for community participation in developing countries. In order to explore our idea, we will analyse tourism development and the planning of a mega-event within the Yangtze River Delta area, driven by the orga- nisation and preparation of the Shanghai World Expo. According to our evidence, some initial elements of participative decision-making have indeed developed around the organisation of this mega-event, even though China has historically been considered refractory towards community participation. Finally, we discuss the findings in the light of existing knowledge to elicit significant questions about community participation in tourism development within developing countries and to address further research on this topic. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Within the process of tourism development, community partic- ipation has been widely recognised as a necessary, not merely important, element for the long-term success and sustainability of tourism (Brohman, 1996; Getz, 1983; Murphy, 1985; 1988; Prentice, 1993). Consequently, over time, a number of scholars have widely encouraged the diffusion of the participative approach (Blank, 1989; Reed, 1997; Simmons, 1994; Simpson, 2008; Ying & Zhou, 2007), backed by a number of applications in the West. However, literature has emphasised that the principles of cross-scrutiny, participation, networking and multi-stakeholder approach which characterise community participation are deeply grounded in the economic and political structure of the developed world; as such, its application within developing economies may be problematic (Brohman, 1996; Liu & Wall, 2006; Todaro, 1994). Several authors (e.g., Din, 1997; Mowforth & Munt, 1998; Tosun, 2000) highlight that some of the intrinsic characteristics of developing countries make it difficult for a truly participative tourism development to be implemented. One of the main reasons is the poor coordination among stakeholders that often affects developing countries (Jenkins, 1982). In recent years, literature has seen mega-events and hallmark events (Olympic games, World Expos, major sport events, etc.) as engines for tourism development in general, and collaborative tourism development in particular, within the hosting area (Lee, Lee, & Wicks, 2004; Lee, Song, & Mjelde, 2008). Reid and Arcodia (2002) argue that these events, which demand huge amounts of financial and non-financial resources and directly and indirectly involve all members of the public in their preparation and provi- sion, represent an appropriate context in which to encourage stakeholder collaboration in tourism development (see also Lawson, 1983; Lee et al., 2004). The pervasiveness of the impact caused by these events may in fact encourage all relevant stake- holders to cooperate, overcoming the benefit asymmetry that historically has hindered the diffusion of collaborative planning and community participation (Gregson & Anderson-Jaquest, 1998; Jamal & Getz, 1995; Matheson, 2006). Therefore, it is extremely * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 02 2399 4076; fax: þ39 02 2399 4083. E-mail addresses: lucio.lamberti@polimi.it (L. Lamberti), giuliano.noci@polimi.it (G. Noci), guojurong@sjtu.edu.cn (J. Guo), zhushichang1@yahoo.com (S. Zhu). 1 Tel.: þ39 02 2399 4072; fax: þ39 02 2399 4083. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman 0261-5177/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2010.12.008 Tourism Management 32 (2011) 1474e1483