While the word "partnership" implies this, I have seen partnerships where one partner is "more equal" than the other in decision making, management, or other issues. This can easily cause friction and the partnership to break up.
Benefits to each partner should be equal.
All partnerships are based on the fact that each partner is looking to gain some BENEFITS from the partnership. They may be benefits in marketing or advertising their site or resources, benefits in keeping their operation costs down, or other related benefits. If one partner seems to benefit more than the other, but the real "costs" o the partnership are equal, some friction can develop.
Partners should have some common or shared mission or organizational purpose.
If all partners are after the same end (protecting historical sites, preserving the environment, wanting visitors to value the shared resource, promoting regional tourism, etc.), there is a greater chance of the partnership being successful.
All partnerships should have a written "Letter of Agreement" between the partners to spell out exactly the roles, duties, financial commitments, time frame commitments, management responsibilities, etc. for the partnership.
This speaks for itself. All partnership agreements should be worked out clearly and in writing.
Choose your partners carefully – You Are Known by the Company you Keep.
Will this partnership help or possibly hurt your agency or organization image. For example, if you are an environmental organization and have a partnership with an Oil Company – what will people think?
Talk to each other often.
Some types of partnerships succeed or fail because of lack of communications between the partners. Depending on the kind of partnership you have, meet often to discuss common goals, strategies, or problems.
If you have a "long term" partnership agreement (covering several years), have a yearly "updating" meeting to make any needed partnership adjustments.
The key here is that tourists, agency administrators, budgets, everything – can change over time. Have flexibility built into your partnerships to make adjustments as needed.
Have a common or shared "look".
While you want to maintain your agency or organization identity, visitors are not really interested in who all the partners are. They do not want a quilt work of exhibit design looks, publication mis-matches, or other visually confusing presentations. Agree on a common or shared look for a "seamless" presentation of a common or shared story.
Have clear deadlines or work plan timelines.
If your partnership involves developing sites, attractions, exhibits, marketing materials, or other such joint projects, make sure that all partners can keep to shared work responsibility deadlines and project time tables. For example, if you are developing outdoor exhibit panels, and your designer needs graphic material from your "partner" by a certain deadline, make sure that the partner can meet these kinds of deadlines.
Try to LIKE your partner.
If you don’t really get along with a potential partner, you will probably have problems along the way with the potential partnership. Some partnerships fail simply because the partners may have personalities that don’t work well together. Successful partnerships take work!
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