TOURISM PLANNING

(updated March 2015) Sourced from the Lesson Plan for Principles of Tourism II

OBJECTIVES Explain the major steps involved in the tourism

planning and development process

Discuss the importance of integrated tourism planning and development and development planning layers

Identify characteristics of the tourism product that have implications for tourism planning and development

UNIT TOPICS Integrated Planning and Development

Tourism and Development

Development Planning Layers

The Tourism Development Planning Process

The Development Plan Team

Tourism Development Planning: When It Goes Wrong

Integrated Planning and Development

• The proactive approach requires deep and through understanding of not only the local economy and its structure, limitations and strengths, but also the probable effects of external factors, how they may impinge on he local development process and what form these external effects are likely to take

• The reactive approach is based upon the premise that here are too man variables, internally and externally, to be able to plan

Tourism and Development • Tourism product characteristics

• Tourism as means of wealth redistribution

• Tourism as a labor-intensive industry

• Tourism and on-the-job training

• The structure of tourism

• Protectionism

• Multitude of industry

• Price flexibility

• Price competitive

• Seasonality

• High operating leverage/fixed costs

Development Planning Layers

• International tourism planning

• National tourism planning

• Regional/local tourism planning

The Tourism Development Planning Process

•Study recognition and preparation •Setting of objectives or goal for the strategy •Survey of existing date •Implementation of new surveys •Analyses •Policy and plan formulation •Recommendations •Implementation of the plan •Monitoring and reformulation

THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN TEAM

The development plan team will consist of four groups of specialists, falling into the broad categories of

technical services, marketing specialists, planners and economists.

THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN HAS FIVE DISTINCT PHASES:

• Identification and inventory of the existing situation

• Forecasts for the future

• Plan formulation

• Specific project development

• Implementation

TOURISM DEVELOPMENTAL PLANNING: WHEN IT GOES WRONG

• Design stage plan failure

• Implementation stage plan failure

• The successful development of tourism requires the construction of a development plan or strategy that is flexible and thorough

• Flexibility is required in order to adjust and reformulate in response to internal and external changes

Thoroughness is required because of the complexity of the tourism industry and the economic, environmental and social consequences of its development.

Although the process of tourism development planning will be specific from destination there are processes that need to be followed at national and sub-national levels and these processes provide the framework for tourism development planning.

Tourism development plan failure is likely to be attributable to failures at either the design stage (inadequate planning structure) or the implement stage.

It is important that authorities have contingency plans in place to deal to deal with unexpected events that may knock the tourism strategy off course.

CARRYING CAPACITY

“the maximum number of people who can use a site without an unacceptable alteration in the

physical environment and without an unacceptable decline in the quality of

experience gained by visitors”

(Mathieson and Wall,1982)

When attempting to identify the levels of carrying capacity, to weigh the absolute numbers of tourist arrivals to take account of a number of factors as follows:

• The average length of stay;

• The characteristics of tourist and hosts;

• The geographical concentration of tourist;

• The degree of seasonality;

• The type of tourism activity;

• The accessibility of specific sites;

• The level of infrastructure use and its spare capacity;

• The extent of spare capacity among the various productive sectors of the economy.

The determinants and influences of carrying capacity

Local Factors Alien Factos

Planning prcoess

Management of development

Technology

IMPACTS ON

Society Culture Environment Economy

Parameters Standards

Current carrying Capacity

Tourists

T he present level of carrying capacity soon becomes accepted and this level of acceptance influences the local and alien factors at the top of the process

and modifies tolerance levels throughout in this way carrying

capacities can be extended overtime

These affect local and alien factor

The interaction between local and alien factors, directed and governed by the planning process, will determine the

impacts

THE PROCESS OF DETERMINING CARRYING CAPACITY

LOCAL FACTORS Social structure Cultural heritage Environment Economic structure Political structure Resources

ALIEN FACTORS • Tourist characteristics • Types of tourist activity • Planning, management ad technology

IMPACTS • Parameters •Standards •Carrying capacity determination

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PRODUCTS

• Eco-tourism is unequivocally linked to natural tourism attractions rather than their man-made counterparts and environmental sustainability is often to be a core component of such a product’s definition. • Eco-tourism demands a high level of interpretation whereas the mass tourism product does not. • Both eco-tourism and alternative imply small-scale, indigenous low-key activities. •Eco-tourism suggest that it has in place constraints that will prevent or inhibit uncontrolled development. • Both forms of tourism activity ca provide a temporary runway for the take-off of the destination as it moves towards mass tourism.

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PRODUCTS

The 10 Rs

The Three Rs

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Recognize, Refuse, Replace, Reduce, reuse, Recycle, Re-engineer, Retrain, Reward, Re-educate

SUSTAINABILITY AS A STRATEGY

• Sustainability more than anything else involves a process of recognition and responsibility. • A sustainable strategy must engage all of the stakeholders in the planning of tourism • Economic sustainability for tourism requires holistic planning across all industrial sectors •The quality of the tourism product demands staff training that is universally acceptable and the economic environment must make environmentally and socio-culturally sound behavior the best economic choice.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A STRATEGY

•Environmental sustainability in tourism requires greater awareness and knowledge about the impacts and ways of translating those impacts into the economic marketplace. •The indirect and induce environmental consequences of activities must be included in the calculation of their market prices but it must also be recognized that environmental and social system change over time as a natural consequence of development and such changes need to be accommodated