Tourism governance facilitates dialogue among interest groups, particularly in matters concerning destination planning and management, through transparency in the formulation of public policies. Its benefits are demonstrated in the form of improved autonomous political debate by civil society, contributing to emancipatory movements as opposed to just protest or defence-type ones. However, we also found that tourism governance has been used to promote urban growth or to boost the economy, with its institutional decision-making bodies even being suspended, within the framework of a neo-liberal State, when their findings clashed with hegemonic corporate interests, economic recessions or the demands of the urban growth machine.