AbstractThis paper has a double challenge: (a) focusing on distrustful situations in interfirm collaboration; (b) clarifying the concept and role of destination governance, with specific attention to the situations of distrust or difficult processes of trust building between potential or actual partners. These objectives are verified in an empirical setting.It has been conducted a statistical survey on tourism firms operating in Italy, and through a dependent analysis, we have verified a very low real approach towards the idea of a governing pivotal actor in these well developed tourist areas. The current study has verified whether and to what extent distrust persists and if the diffusion of trust depends on the presence of leading actors also comparing the 2 areas.