Tourism Policy, Planning & Management Guidelines

Formulating a tourism policy is essential to guide all tourism development, operations and
management so as to meet the Governments immediate and long-term objectives for tourism.
The policy should be based on the principles of sustainability and is in line with international
practices to ensure the competitiveness of the national tourism industry within a regional and
global scenario.
The tourism policy features a consultative approach involving all stakeholders and encompasses
a detailed review and assessment of the current tourism scenario in the country, identifies policy
constraints and challenges, and, identifies opportunities and benchmarks for the future growth of
the industry.
The issues to be addressed include:

Policy and strategy;

institutional strengthening;
legislation and regulation;
product development and diversification;
marketing and promotion;
economic impact of tourism and tourism investment;
tourism infrastructure and superstructure;
human resource development
socio-cultural and environmental impacts of tourism.

Why Plan?
It is therefore imperative that we understand what is planning. Planning is the process of setting
goals and developing strategies to achieve them. Planning is a multidimensional activity and
seeks to be integrative. It embraces social, economic and technological change and is concerned
with the past, present and future.
The planning process regards the environment which includes political, physical, social and
economic elements as interrelated and interdependent components which should be taken into
account in considering the future of a destination.
if developed beyond the capacity of the environment, the resource base and the local population
to sustain it, not only does it ceas to be a renewable industry, but the quality and authenticity of
the visitor experience declines Plog 1974

WHY IS TOURISM PLANNING NECESSARY?

To determine the optimum level of tourism that can result in the achievement of
environmental conservation objectives.

To ensure that the natural and cultural resources are indefinitely maintained in the
process of development.
There must be careful matching of tourist markets and products through the planning
process without compromising socio-cultural and environmental objectives.
Tourism can generate various socio-cultural benefits as well as problems.
Tourism is a multi-sectoral, complicated and fragmented activity such that planning
and project development coordination are necessary.
Planning provides the rational basis for development staging and project
programming.
To upgrade and revitalize existing outmoded or badly developed tourism areas and
plan for new tourism areas in the future; and
To satisfy the manpower skills and capability requirements of tourism development.

Lack of Planning, a consequence

Tourism, like other industries, leads to social and environmental consequences; Many nations
regarded tourism as a major economic quick fix; results in:

overpopulated destination
overburdened facilities
overbuilding of hotels
polluted beaches
cultural conflict
dissatisfied tourists

Tourism Planning Process includes:

Formulate the goals and objectives of the tourism development plan

Determine the current situation of attaining primary and secondary data; develop a
tourism inventory which could be attractions, accommodations etc.
Analyze the existing situation and determine what needs to be done to meet set goals and
objectives
Formulate recommendations for each goal and objective
Develop action plans for each goal and objective
Implement the plan and assign responsibilities to individuals and organizations to ensure
successful and timely completion
Monitor results and make adjustments as necessary

According to Edward Inskeep (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.

Gunn and Turgut hypothesized Goals for tourism planning which include :

Enhanced visitor satisfaction

Developing infrastructures and providing recreation facilities for visitors and residents
Improved economy and business success
Sustainable resource use
Community and area integration

Edward Inskeep recommends national level of tourism planning focus on:

Tourism policy
Physical structure plan
Major infrastructure considerations
Tourism organizational structures, legislation, and investment policies
Overall tourism marketing strategies and promotion programs
Education and training programs
Facility development and design standards
Sociocultural, environmental, and economic considerations and impact analyses
National-level implementation techniques
Land use planning

Tourism Development Planning: When it goes WRONG?

Failure of plans in tourism industry, like any other industry is not a rare occasion. Plans may go
wrong as a result of the impact of external environment, as well as, mistakes and shortcomings
taken place in planning process.

Disaster Management

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2007) has defined policy as A definite course or method of
action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine
present and future decisions. Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006 defined tourism policy by stating,
Tourism policy can be defined as a set of regulations, rules, guidelines, directives, and
development/promotion objectives and strategies that provide a framework within which the
collective and individual decisions directly affecting long-term tourism development and the
daily activities within a destination are taken.
Biederman (2007) adds importantly to the definition of tourism policy the following thoughts, A
tourism policy defines the direction or course of action that a particular country, region, locality
or an individual destination plans to take when developing or promoting tourism. The key
principle for any tourism policy is that it should ensure that the nation (region or locality) would
benefit to the maximum extent possible from the economic and social contributions of tourism.

The ultimate objective of a tourism policy is to improve the progress of the nation (region or
locality) and the lives of its citizens.
Since the tourism industry is difficult to clearly define because of the involvement of so many
different economic sectors, it tends to foster many major policy development challenges.
Fundamentally, tourism policy should present a set of guidelines, which, when combined with
planning goals, charts a course of action for sound decision-making.
Only reliable and comprehensive research on tourisms impacts will lead to good decisionmaking and policy development. Local, state/provincial, regional and national tourism planners
are recognizing the importance of a sound plan, coupled with visionary policies, as we prepare
for the future development of tourism.
Tourism policy should be future-oriented, balanced and comprehensive since it incorporates the
interests of the tourism stakeholders. Policy issues need extension beyond those traditionally
thought of as tourism, to be inclusive of such related public programs as transportation and water
usage. Policymakers should familiarize themselves with all products, not just with those
perceived as tourism products. For instance, water management issues are usually a concern of
local governments and residents, yet water parks, large golf resorts, aquariums and other tourism
infrastructure can consume vast quantities of water. Large free-form swimming pools in resort
destinations are examples of potential drains on a communitys water supply if not properly
planned and managed.
tourism policy evaluation stages
To understand key tourism policy issues in the largest possible context, it is especially important
to identify in what stage of tourism policy development a particular project or case resides.

Stage 1. Formative phase tourism policy evaluation- The formative phase in tourism
policy development means exactly this that tourism-related issues have arisen requiring
new tourism policy formulation.
Stage 2. Development phase tourism policy evaluation- Similarly, development phase
tourism policy analysis is extremely important in many instances as it enables evaluation
of policy implementation midstream.
Stage 3. Summative phase tourism policy evaluation- Many examples exist of summative
phase tourism policy analysis which evaluates long-standing policy issues and accepted
norms and doctrines for continued validity.

Why are ongoing evaluations of tourism policy issues in all contexts important?
It is because of tourisms integrative role in triggering growth for better or worse in some
cases across multiple sectors of local, regional, national and international commerce and
services industries worldwide. Tourisms performance acts as an optimal growth multiplier in
economic development for a large majority of modern economies

Short Answer Questions

1. The tourism industry is an industry that requires meticulous planning; explain why
effective planning is important for the industry.
2. Give one consequence of planning effectively for tourism development
3. List four stakeholders who have to be represented when planning for tourism
development.
4. Choose two stakeholders mentioned in question 3 above and explain would be their
vested interest in tourism development
Disaster Management

Tourism in destinations around the world frequently face challenges related to political, social,
and environmental crises, and these factors that destination managers and tourism planners dont
have control over often play a critical part in influencing consumer choice. Air travel after 9-11,
the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, and political instability and security concerns in many parts
of the world have all given tourism businesses added headaches to deal with. Despite this, few
destinations have properly developed disaster management plans in place to help them cope with
such eventualities.

Disasters present challenges to the tourism industry not only because of their negative
impact on visitor numbers, but also due to travelers potential positive or negative impact
on recovering destinations.
Volunteer Travel Insights 2009 notes that many travelers started to think about
volunteering after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Similarly, the 2010 earthquake in
Haiti sparked interest in voluntourism. The presence of untrained volunteers, however,
can hinder relief operations and voluntourism tours making a profit from these disasters
can be considered unethical.