Chapter 1 Tourism Plan and Strategy (Tourism Planning and Development)

1. Tourism Plans and Strategy

2. Md. Shaifullar Rabbi
BBA & MBA, Major inTourism & Hospitality Management
University of Dhaka
Coordinator & Lecturer
Dept. of Tourism & Hospitality Management
Daffodil Institute of IT
-NU
Presented By

3. Tourism planning
Tourism planning relates to the same basic concepts and approaches
as general planning; however, it is adapted to the specific
characteristics of the tourism system. A plan can be defined as a set of
various decisions for action in the future (Hall, 2000). Several authors
agree that the most significant feature of any type of planning,
including tourism planning, is its orientation towards the future (Hall,
2000; Gunn, 2002). According to Ins keep (1991), planning for tourism
is a step-by-step process which should be continuous, comprehensive,
integrated, and environmental, focusing on achieving sustainable
development and community involvement. Gunn (2002) similarly
suggests that tourism planning should be directed towards four main
goals: sustainable use of resources, enhanced visitor
satisfaction, integration of local community and area and improved
economy and business success.

5. Tourism policy
Tourism policy can be defined as; 'A set of rules,
regulations, guidelines, directives, and
development/promotion objectives and strategies
that provide framework within which the collective,
as well as individual decisions directly affecting
long-term tourism development and the daily
activities within a destination.

7. Components of Tourism
Tourism policy and planning typically involves a number of
components, namely:
 Tourism attractions and activities
 Accommodation
 Other tourist facilities and services
 Transportation facilities and services
 Other infrastructure
 Institutional elements

9. What are the Roles and Responsibilities
of Tourism Planning?
Typical responsibilities of the job include:
 Supervising staff.
 Preparing tourist or visitor information.
 Producing promotional material and displays.
 Managing budgets.
 Writing reports, business plans and press releases.
 Making presentations.
 Maintaining statistical and financial records.

10. Key players of Tourism Planning
It is possible to suggest that the key players in
tourism planning and management are as
follows:
 The tourists themselves;
 The host population;
 The tourism industry;
 Government agencies (at local, regional,
national and international level).

11. The Tourists
Tourists are obviously of key importance in the management of tourism.
Unfortunately, tourists are often viewed as the major cause of the problems of
tourism. If they are perceived as a homogenous group, then tourists are a
relatively easy target for the so-called evils of tourism.
 Basic responsibilities
 The responsibility for obeying local laws and regulations.
 The responsibility for not taking part in activities which while not illegal, or
where the laws are not enforced by the local authorities, are nevertheless,
widely condemned by society, such as sex with children
 The responsibility for not deliberately offending local religious beliefs or
cultural norms of behavior
 The responsibility for not deliberately harming the local physical environment
 The responsibility to minimize the use of scarce local resources

12. Extra Responsibilities of Tourists in
Relation to Sustainable Tourism
 The responsibility not to visit destinations which have a poor record on human rights
 The responsibility to find out about the destination before the holiday and try to learn a
few words of the local language,at least
 The responsibility to try to meet local people, learn about their lifestyles, and establish
friendships
 The responsibility to protect the natural wildlife by not buying souvenirs made from
living creatures, for example
 The responsibility to abide by all local religious beliefs and cultural values, even those
with which the tourist personally disagrees
 The responsibility to boycott local businesses which pay their staff poor wages, or
provide bad working conditions for their employees
 The responsibility to behave sensibly, so as not to spread infections such as HIV and
hepatitis B
 The responsibility to contribute as much as possible to the local economy

13. The Host Community
Such terminology as the host community may be somewhat misleading as it implies
that there are guests to complement the supposed hosts. However, as tourists are
not always welcome, a more appropriate term could be local community, resident
community or destination community. Nevertheless, the term host community is
now commonly used in tourism literature and so it is employed here.
 Elites and the rest of the population
 Indigenous residents and immigrants
 Those involved in tourism and those not involved
 Property owners and property renters
 Younger people and older people;Tourism Impacts, Planning and Management
 Employers, employees, self-employed
 Those with private cars, those relying on public transport
 Affluent and less well-off residents
 Majority communities/minority communities

14. Government Agencies
Government agencies are frequently referred to as the
public sector of tourism. They are not commercial
organizations intent on making a profit, but are meant to
represent the views of tax payers and electors.
Governments agencies are funded from taxes and in
most Developed countries are run by democratically
elected representatives supported by paid civil
servants. In some parts of the world, particularly some
Developing countries, governments are headed by un-
elected dictators or military rulers and in such cases
the rationale suggested for the involvement of the
public sector in tourism is not necessarily that provided
below.

15.  The main reasons for the involvement of the public sector in tourism are as follows-
 The public sector is mandated to represent the whole population and not just one set of stakeholders or
interest group.
 The public sector is intended to be impartial, with no particular vested or commercial interests.
 The public sector can take a longer-term view of tourism development than, for example, the private
sector.
 Actions identified for travel and tourism companies, with the main aim of establishing systems and
procedures which incorporate sustainable development at the core of the decision-making process for
business operations. (Applies also to public sector business operations.)
 Waste minimization, re-use, and recycling.
 Energy efficiency, conservation, and management.
 Management of fresh water resources.
 Waste water management.
 Management of hazardous substances.
 Use of more environmentally friendly transport.
 Land-use planning and management.
 Involving staff, customers, and local communities in environmental issues.
 Design for sustainability.
 Developing partnerships for sustainable development.

16. The Tourism Industry
The tourism industry is not easy to define. It is complex and
has many dimensions. In the generating zone are travel
agents, tour operators and marketing agencies. The travel
media also operates from here. The transition zone contains
the carriers such as airlines and rail companies. The
destination zone contains the greatest variety of tourism
industry organizations as there are various types of
accommodation including hotels, and there are restaurants
and other food providers. The destination zone also has the
forms of hospitality and entertainment providers as well as
visitor attractions, transport providers tourist information
offices and other infrastructure organizations that support
tourism. It should be noted that some of the so-called
industries within tourism, such as Tourist Information
Centers are in fact public sector organizations.

17.  However, the complexity of the tourism industry makes it difficult to
point the finger of blame directly at the cause of problems.
Nevertheless, the tourism industry has been accused of (Swarbrooke,
1999, pp. 104–5):
 Being mainly concerned with short-term profit, rather than long-term
sustainability.
 Exploiting the environment and local populations rather than
conserving them.
 Being relatively fickle and showing little commitment to particular
destinations.
 Not doing enough to raise tourist’s awareness of issues such as
sustainability.
 Only getting on the sustainability wagon when it is likely to achieve
good publicity.
 Being increasingly owned and controlled by large trans-national
corporations,who have little regard for individual destinations.

18. Other players
Two other sets of actors are important in terms of tourism planning and
management. These are voluntary sector organizations and the media. The
voluntary sector is made up of a number of different groups. These include
pressure groups, voluntary trusts, some of which have charitable status, and
industry associations. Pressure groups can be further subdivided into those,
whose membership is primarily public and those, whose members come
largely from within the tourism industry. A major pressure group in the United
Kingdom is Tourism Concern. The original members of Tourism Concern were
individuals who were concerned mainly about the social impacts of tourism,
particularly in Developing countries. Tourism Concern has mounted and run
campaigns targeted at, for example, child prostitution and the enforced
displacement of local people as a result of tourism development. Tourism
Concern has widened its focus to encompass economic and environmental
issues and now has many members who are academics and students, but it has
few members from the tourism industry. It has, however, frequently found itself
in conflict with the industry. Given this lack of involvement of industry, its
effectiveness has been limited, although it has almost certainly raised levels of
awareness.

19. Rational for Tourism Planning:
Approach to Tourism Planning
 LEVELS AND TYPES OF TOURISM PLANNING
 Ideally, tourism should be planned as one element in a
comprehensive manner. More commonly,
 However, tourism planning is done independently without
recognizing it as an integrated sector.
 Tourism plans are, thus, prepared at various levels. Each of these
levels focuses on a different degree of specificity. Although, not
always possible to achieve, planning should be done in a
sequence from general to specific. This is because general levels
provide the framework and guidance for preparing specific
plans. In the following Sub-sections we discuss the various levels
of tourism planning.

20. 1 International Level
 This level of planning is concerned mostly with:
 International transportation services
 The flow and tour programming of tourists among different countries,
 Development of major attraction features and facilities in nearby countries,and
 Multi country marketing strategies and promotion program.
Some limited tourism planning, marketing and co-operative activities generally take place
at the international level through organizations such as the WTO (World Tourism
Organization) and it’s regional commissions, the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), some other United Nations agencies and their regional commissions,
the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Pacific Asia Travel
Association (PATA), the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the Tourism Council of
the South Pacific (TCSP), the Sub-Committee on Tourism (SCDT) of the Association of
South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Tourism Coordination Unit (TCU) of the South
African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) and the tourism committee of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

21. 2 National Levels
 The national level of tourism planning is what takes place within a country at the behest of it’s Government. However, an ideal situation in
this would be to involve the private sector, public sector and also public opinion. The national level of tourism planning is focused on
several elements like:
 Defining tourism objectives
 Tourism policy
 A physical structure plan including identification of major tourist attractions, designation of tourism development regions, international
access points and the internal transportation network of facilities and services
 Establishing service standards for various components of tourism industry
 The general amount, types and quality level of accommodation and other tourist facilities and services required
 Establishing tourism information systems
 The major tour routes in the country and their regional connections
 Tourism organizational structures, taxation, legislation and investment policies
 Tourism marketing: research, strategies and promotion program
 Human resource development, education and training program
 Facility development and design standards
 Socio-cultural, environmental and economic considerations and impact analysis
 National level implementation techniques, including long term and short term development Strategies and project programming
 Research to understand tourism impacts.

22. 3 Regional Levels
 The regional level of tourism planning is for one region of a country. This can be a state, a
province or a tourist circuit (like a group of islands, special areas like the Buddhist circuit, etc).
However, regional plans are formulated within the broader framework of the national tourism
policy and plan, provided it exists in a country. At the same time absence of a national level plan
should not come in the way of regional planning. Regional planning focuses on the elements of:
 Regional policy
 Regional access and the internal transportation network of facilities and services
 Type and location of tourist attractions
 Location of tourism development areas including resort areas
 Amount, type and location of tourist accommodation and other tourist facilities and services
 Regional level environmental, socio-cultural and economic considerations and impact analyses
 Regional level education and training program
 Marketing strategies and promotion program
 Organizational structures, legislations, taxations, regulations and investment policies
 Implementation techniques including project programming and regional regulations.

23. 4 Destination Level
 In some countries or regions, there is need for sub-regional or local level
planning. This is more Specific than the regional level planning. This level of
planning is also called destination/zonal Planning. For planning purposes-
 A destination zone is defined as a geographic area containing critical mass of
development that satisfies traveler objectives.
 A critical mass of tourism development implies a large and diverse enough
amount of attractions and services to meet the needs and desires of several travel
market segments. For example, a destination that contains attractions for both
business and leisure markets would be most successful.
 The components of a destination plan will depend on the situation of the
destination. However, it would include tourist attraction features, general location
and services, access to the destination, its internal transportation network, other
infrastructure considerations and relevant institutional factors.
 The role of local bodies is becoming increasingly important for this level of
planning.

24. 5 Site Level
 The most popular planning today is at the site level, i.e., individual property
development. All three sectors businesses, non-profit organizations and
government agencies have increasingly employed professionals to plan and
design their properties.
 Gradually, professional forms of architecture, engineering and planning have
found opportunities in the tourism field.
 Owners of lands have increasingly engaged the services of professionals to
plan a wide range of facilities, services and attractions.
 Perhaps the most popular approach is by the larger firms bringing together
several specialists depending upon the need of the project. For example, some
projects require design and planning teams that include historians, golf course
specialists and exhibit experts, as well as the traditional design specialists.
 The demand for resorts and other specific attractions has generated the need
for new forms of cooperation and guidelines between the decision makers and
the designers/planners at the site level for tourism development.

25. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR
P. Pearce (The Social Psychology of Tourism Behavior,
1982, Oxford) observed that the: “Provision of
services and facilities characteristically involves a
wide range of agents of development. Some of these
will be involved indirectly and primarily with
meeting the needs of tourists, a role that has fallen
predominantly to the private sector in most
countries.... other agents will facilitate, contest or
limit development. Through the provision of basic
infrastructure, planning or regulation. Such activities
have commonly been the responsibility of the public
sector with the government at various levels being
charged with looking after the public’s interest and
providing goods and services whose cost cannot be
attributed directly to groups or individuals”.

26. Governments are interested in:
 Reducing the dependency of public enterprises on public budgets
 Reducing public debt by selling state assets
 Raising technical efficiencies by commercialization.
 This has meant that there has been a much greater blurring in the roles of the public and private
Sectors.
 Let us see what exactly the role of both these sectors is in tourism planning.
 Certainly, understanding the many policies and practices of governmental agencies is essential to all
forms of tourism planning and development. One can identify various reasons (form economic to
political) for government’s involvement in tourism:
1) Economic Reasons:
 To improve the balance of payments in a country
 To attract foreign exchange
 To aid regional or local economic development
 To diversify the economy
 To increase income levels
 To increase state revenue from taxes
 To generate new employment opportunities, etc.

27. 2) Social and Cultural Reasons:
 To achieve social objectives related to ‘social tourism’ to ensure
the well being and health of families and individuals
 To protect cultural mores, traditions, resources and heritage
 To promote a greater cultural awareness of an area and it’s
people
 To promote international understanding.
3) Environmental Reasons:
 To undertake the stewardship of the environment and tourism
resources to ensure that the agents of development do not
destroy the future basis for sustainable tourism development
 To create a natural resource which will serve to attract tourists

28.  4) Political Reasons:
 To further political objectives by promoting the development of
tourism in order to broaden the political acceptance of a
government among visitors
 To control the development process associated with tourism
 To protect the public interest and the interests of minorities
 To further political ideology.
The International Union of Tourist Organizations, the
forerunner to the WTO, while discussing the role of state in
tourism (1974) identified five areas of public sector involvement
in tourism:
Coordination, planning, legislation, regulation and
entrepreneur stimulation.

29. WTO GUIDELINES
The World Tourism Organization emphasis on having a sustainable
development approach for Tourism planning at all levels. The WTO
publication on National and Regional Tourism Planning states: "The
sustainable development approach to planning tourism is acutely
important because most tourism development depends on
attractions and activities related to the natural environment, historic
heritage and cultural pattern of areas. If these resources are
degraded or destroyed, then the tourism areas cannot attract tourists
and tourism will not be successful. More generally, most tourists
seek destinations that have a high level of environmental quality –
they like to visit places that are attractive, clean and neither polluted
nor congested. It is also essential that residents of the tourism area
should not have to suffer from a deteriorated environment and social
problems."

30. WTO lays stress on three aspects
To achieve sustainable development (implying conservation of tourism
resources for continuous use in future while bringing benefits to the present
society) the WTO lays stress on three aspects:
1) Environment planning approach must be adopted as a basic technique. This
means environmental surveys, analysis and considerations in deciding the most
appropriate forms of Tourism and the location of development.
2) Community based tourism approach should be set forth "as a policy
approach at national and regional levels" and applied at the local levels. The more
the involvement of local communities in tourism plans, the more would be the
acceptability of tourism in the area. One would also receive more co-operations
from locals in conserving the tourism resources of the area.
3) Quality tourism approach offers "good value for money" in relation to offering
tourist Attractions, facilities and services. It is arrived at attracting such tourists
who respect the local Environment, culture and resources. Both, long term as well
as strategic planning approaches should be adopted for tourism planning. These
approaches should further take into consideration a combination of the top
down as well as the bottom up approaches as per the requirements.

31. ELEMENTS OF A TOURISM PLAN
Tourism planning at the destination level is a step-by-step process of
resource and market analysis, action and review. Elements of a tourism
plan together with the tourism planning process will now be evaluated
and implications for the destination suggested.
 Tourism policy and committee structure: At the first stage a tourism
policy should be set as a framework through which tourism issues are/will
be analyzed and decisions taken.
 Tourism resource audit: A destination's tourism resource base is the core
of that location's tourism appeal. One main function of the tourism
resource audit is to identify the area's key assets and to examine
destination's strengths and weaknesses from a supply point of view
(Godfrey and Clarke, 2000; Inskeep, 1991).
 Tourist attractions and activities: we should carry out tourism resource
audit, including survey and inventory of existing and potential attractions
such as natural, cultural, event and activity resources.Seasonality should
also be considered.

32.  Infrastructure analysis: Survey of existing and already planned accommodation by number, type and
quality level should be carried out as well as survey of other tourist facilities. Any specific infrastructure
constraints, such as poor quality of hotels due to the old buildings, should be identified and improvements
recommended;
 Tourism market analysis: This stage consists of evaluation of demand for tourism, which is a key component
of tourism planning, helping to scale any development and the infrastructure required (Lavery, 2002).The
effects of existing and potential competing tourist destinations should be analysed.
 Country's policies and priorities and relationship with other plans: Planning of tourism at the destination
level should be integrated into other related policies and plans that may exist, such as national and regional
plans, park, recreation, and conservation plans, transportation and any other relevant infrastructure plans, and
agricultural program. This integration will help to assure that relevant aspects of the tourism plan will be
implemented by the concerned sector in an integrated manner (Inskeep, 1991).
 Economic, environmental and socio-cultural considerations: Economic, social and environmental impacts
are inevitable element of tourism development. Tourism planning should find a balance between the costs
and benefits of these impacts in the best interest of tourism and the local community.
 Economic analysis and recommendations: Present and projected tourist expenditures should be defined;
Calculation of the present and projected tourism economic impact should be carried out (contribution to GNP
or GDP, foreign exchange earnings, generated income and employment, the multiplier effect etc.);
Recommendations on how to enhance the economic benefits of tourism should be provided.
 Environmental considerations and recommendations: Any present environmental problems generated by
tourism should be identified; Recommendations on measures to prevent future negative environmental
impacts as well as reinforcing positive ones should be provided;
 Socio-cultural considerations and recommendations: Existing and potential positive and negative socio-
cultural impacts of tourism in should be evaluated; Recommendations on how to achieve community
involvement in all aspects of tourism should be provided together with public awareness program on tourism.
Tourist information brochures should also be available to visitors informing them about cultural traditions.

33.  Identifying opportunities and constraints: At this stage, opportunities and constraints
should be analyzed to provide direction and a focus for future development. This should
give some indication to the area of where development efforts will likely be awarded and
where potential problems might emerge (Godfrey and Clarke, 2000).
 Setting development goals and objectives: Tourism plan should be prepared in such a
manner that it is realistic to implement. Setting goals and objectives within appropriate
time frame creates a bridge between development policy and the action steps designed
to pursue that policy. Without a clearly defined set of goals and objectives, a destination
will have nothing to guide its activities, measure whether it has been successful, or be
able to show the progress already made (Godfrey and Clarke,2000).
 Development of action steps: Tourism action steps are developed to provide the means
and methods of reaching a particular tourism objective. The action steps are very
specific, describing exactly what needs to be done and in what order of activity (Godfrey
and Clarke, 2000).
 Tourism marketing plan: If the actions are intended to attract more tourists, encourage
them to stay longer and to come back, as well as create more of an economic benefit,
then a tourism marketing plan is essential. Specific promotion program should be
recommended with cost estimates and possible sources of funding; roles of the public
and private sector in promotion should be established and overseas promotion
considered.

34. Planning Process for Tourism Industry
1. Study recognition and preparation
2. Setting of objectives or goals for the strategy
3. Survey of existing data
4. Implementation of new surveys
5. Analysis of secondary and primary data
6. Initial policy and plan formulation
7. Recommendations
8. Implementation
9. Monitoring and plan reformulation

35. Planning Process for Tourism Industry
Comprises the Following Stages-
1. Study recognition and preparation- The first stage in planning process is
associated with the recognition of the need for the strategy in order to obtain and/or
increase competitive advantage to contribute to long-term growth. Depending on
available budget and a range of other factors, studies may be planned to be conducted
on local regional or national levels.
2. Setting of objectives or goals for the strategy- Goals and objectives need to be
formulated according to SMART principle, where the acronym stands for specific,
measurable,achievable,realistic and time-bound.
3. Survey of existing data- The survey of existing data or secondary research can be
done through analyzing relevant information available on wide range of tourism
reviews websites, newspapers, magazines, books and other online and offline
published materials. The types of data that need to be collected from these sources
include, but not limited to patterns of tourist behaviors, availability and quality of
accommodation, impacts of environmental factors, social and cultural characteristics of
tourism destinations etc. Importantly, the survey of existing data should cover all three
directions: the state of issues at present, projected changes in the state of issues, and
outline of principles for monitoring for the future.

36.  4. Implementation of new surveys- New surveys are conducted in order to obtain fresh
data and/or fill the information gap in relation to the tourism industry. Surveys can be
conducted through online or offline questionnaires or interviews.
 5. Analysis of secondary and primary data- In case of questionnaires, data analysis
can be done through representing collected information in bar-charts, pie-charts etc. In
case of interviews, on the other hand, data analysis may involve finding common patterns
in responses provided sample group members and critically analyzing these patterns. In
data analysis it is important for secondary and primary data to be analyzed in an
integrated manner.
 6. Initial policy and plan formulation- As the next stage in planning process, analysis
of the entire primary and secondary information enable decision makers to develop
initial policies and formulate initial plans.
 7. Recommendations- A set of recommendations can be developed as a result of initial
policy and initial plan formulation.
 8. Implementation- Recommendations that are found as sensible and feasible by
strategic level executives can be implemented into the practice.
 9. Monitoring and plan reformulation-The last stage of the planning process involves
monitoring the levels and nature of implementation of plans and engaging in strategy re-
formulation if changes in internal and especially external environment require doing so.

37. 10 Most Important Steps Involved
In Tourism Planning
There are several processes or analysis of a plan for tourism development. It is very important that these
processes are properly adhered to. The description of these planning processes as given here can only
be briefly indicative and limited to mere suggestions of the topics or steps without entering into
detailed analysis. Any plan must take into account these processes if it is to attain objectives in a given
period of time.The main steps or phases in the planning process are as follows:
 Assessment of tourist demand and supply
 Establishing objectives
 Territorial planning
 Basic infrastructure
 Financial planning
 Human resource planning
 Administrative structure
 Marketing and promotion
 Monitoring progress
 Time factor

38. Characteristics of Strategic Planning for Tourism
 The term of tourism can be defined as “the temporary movement of people to destinations outside their
normal places of work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations,
and the facilities created to cater to their needs” (Gunn, 2002, p.9, as taken from Mathieston and Wall,
1982),and tourism has been assessed as the largest industry in the global scale.
 Tourism provides both, economic and non-economic benefits to any given country. Economic benefits of
tourism to a national economy is straightforward and it is associated with creation of new jobs, decrease
in the levels of unemployment, stimulation of production of products and services to be consumed by
tourists and others. Non-economic benefits of tourism, on the other hand, include facilitation of cultural
exchanges, contribution to the levels of knowledge, and facilitation of communication.
 Strategy can be defined as “the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an
enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying
out these goals” (Campbell et al., 2012, p.12, taken from Chandler, 1962). Accordingly, strategic planning
can be explained as “the process of developing approaches to reach a defined objective” (Axson, 2010,
p.25).
 Tourism industry has become more competitive than ever before, and therefore the importance of
strategic planning for tourism industry is greater than ever before. The primary aim of the tourism
industry relates to the achievement of adequate balance between the interests of public and private
sectors.
 Three general principles of planning for tourism can be specified as anticipation, regulation and
monitoring. Anticipation involves making projections about the future state of the tourism on the basis of
relevant secondary and primary data. Regulation, on the other hand, is closely associated with the levels
of regulation of tourist and affiliated organizations in direct and indirect manners. The importance
of monitoring relates to the collection of relevant data with the aims of analyzing the performance of the
tourism industry.

39. ThankYou All