BASIC CONCEPT IN TOURISM

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1
TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING, AND
TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
TOURISM POLICY
-is 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 are taken” (Goeldner & Ritchie 2003,p.413 in Scott, 2011)
-is one of the primary bases of tourism planning, along with
national, local development plans, land use plans, natural and cultural
assets of the place, environmental policy, cultural policy, foreign policy
and expressed national and local needs.
TOURISM PLANNING

-is the process of (1) gathering and evaluating information

to identify and prioritize current tourism development issues,
(2) imagining a desired future state of tourism in the
destination, and (3) choosing from a number of alternatives for
achieving them. This process involves (1) situational analysis,
(2) vision, goals, and objectives, and (3) strategies.
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS involves examining the environment in
which a tourism business operates to identify key factors that will
influence how the business is developed, marketed and managed over
time as part of the strategic planning process.
VISION - a desired future state of the destination
GOALS - broad-based targets for tourism
OBJECTIVES - targets that are specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic, and time bound.
STRATEGIES - the method by which objectives will be achieved
TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS
• LEVELS
A tourism plan may be carried at the international, national, regional,
provincial, municipal/city, or site level.
TIME FRAME
All plans are future-oriented and these plans may be short, medium or long
term.
• SCOPE
• SPATIAL UNITS
Tourism Development unit is the space covered in tourism planning.
SPATIAL CONCEPTS provided by Department of Tourism-Japan International
Cooperation Agency (DOT-JICA) and the UNESCO
Tourist site
Tourist Development area (TDA)
Tourism Cluster
Tourism circuits
Tourism corridor
• TOURIST SITE
A tourist site is an area that contains one or more tourist attractions.
A tourist attraction is defined by Tourism Western Australia (2006) as either
“a physical or cultural feature of a particular place that individual travelers or tourists
perceive as capable of meeting one or more of their specific leisure-related needs, or
positive or favorable attributes of an area for a given activity or set of activities as
desired by a given costumer or market, including climate, scenery, activities and
culture.
It may be any object, person, place, or concept that draws people either
geographically or through remote electronic means so that they might have an
experience. The experience can be recreational, spiritual, or otherwise. (Strange et al.
n.d.)
 Four categories of attractions
• GEOPHYSICAL-LANDSCAPE-AESTHETIC
Mountains, gorges, big rocks, rock formations, caves, rivers, water bodies, scenic
views, unusual cloud formations, unusual meteorological conditions, thermal waters,
volcanic activity and unusual celestial events.
• ECOLOGICAL-BIOLOGICAL
Organisms and ecological events or processes.
• CULTURAL-HISTORICAL
Churches, historical houses, archaeological sites, ancient monuments, amusement
parks, theme parks, open air museums, marinas, exhibition centers, craft centers, casinos,
health complexes, picnic sites and retail complexes.
• RECREATIONAL
Theme parks, botanical gardens, sports fields, motion-based attractions, zoos,
museums, theaters, shopping malls and events.
• Tourist Cluster
The central visayas tourism cluster in the NTD consist of five TDA’s
1. Northern cebu bantayan malapascua
2. Metro cebu mactan olango island
3. Southern cebu
4. Negros oriental dumaguete siquijor
5. Tagbilaran panglao island

A cluster may consist of towns located in different provinces.

• Northern leyte
Functions as the staging point because of its prpximity to the airport and more available tourist
grade accommodation.
• Southern samar island tourism cluster
Has the historically significant balangiga church, and several natural atractions
• Tourism Circuit
A tourism circuit is defined as a route involving at least three major tourist destination witch are
located in different towns, villages or cities.

Examples are:

Gastronomic

Surfing circuit

• Tourism Corridor
A tourism corridor refers to a route defined by a theme spanning several countries or even
continents. The inca corridor in south America covers chile, bolivia, peru and Ecuador. Argentina and
Colombia.
• Northern Philippines
1. batanes Cagayan coast and bayuban islands
2. laoag vigan (laoag pagudpud vigan)
• Central Philippines
1. bico
2. marinduque-Mindoro-romblon
• Southern Philippines
1. surigao-dinagat island
2. agusan river basin
 • Tourism Destination
The UNWTO (2004) defines a tourism destination as a physical space in which
a visitor spends at least one overnight.

Tourism characteristic
and their planning implications
Tourism is a composite product. It is comprised of goods and services that are
provided by entities in the tourism value chain.
Thus, one of the rationales for tourism planning is to identify, organize, and
integrated entities along the tourism value chain t ensure the delivery of consistency
high quality tourist experience.
Tourist destination are intangible, which means that potential visitors cannot
try them prior to purchase of tickets, rooms, or tour package.
 Tourism is very capital intensive, particularly at the incipient stage of
development when a lot of money is required to build infrastructure, facilities and
human expertise.
Tourism’s main assets are nature and culture.
Building heights

Architectural designs

Preservations of historic towns

Density limits

Waste management

Tourism is subject to external forces that are largely uncontrollable, such as the
political situation, weather, nature calamities, currency fluctuations, and international
relations.
Tourism exerts impacts on the environment, culture and conomy of
destinations.
Tourism is a highly dynamic and competitive industry.
The Benefits of Tourism planning
Good planning offers a number of benefits not just to the destination but also to
individual planners themselves such as new learnings avoidance of past mistakes and
networking.
First as a mental exercise planning force us to focus on the task at hand and to think
critically.
Planning prevents waste of time, money, and effort.
More over planning helps avoid mistakes that can lead to irreparable damage to destinatioms.
Factors to consider for effective tourism planning
and development
• Availability and quality of tourism relevant data

• Availability of tourism planning expertise

• The type and variety of tourism resource

• The culture of the destination residents

• Geographic location and spatial distribution of the tourism development units

• Target market

• Stage in the tourism area life cycle

• Tourism development paradigm held by the influence actors in tourism development

• National tourism policy and legislation

• Perceptions and attitudes of stakeholders

• Awareness of external force impinging on tourism planning and development and

• Financial capital requirements

• Availability and quality of tourism relevant data
The availability of up to date and comprehensive tourism relevant data affects
the level of accuracy of estimating supply capacity, forecasting demand, and monitoring
outcomes.

• Caliber of planning expertise

The caliber of planning expertise determines the quality of planning outputs.
Expertise can only be built over long years of education and professional experience.

• Type and variety of tourism resources

The type and variety of tourism resources in the tourism development unit
limits options for tourism product development. Destinations can capitalize on unique
cultural or natural assets by developing tourism product around them.
• Kind of tourism resources in adjacent destinations
A destination needs to differentiate its product with real or imagined uniqueness to
complete with destinations offering similar attractions.
• Originality
• Indigenousness
• Uniqueness
• Historically
• Magnitude
• Excellence

• Culture of the destinations residents

The cultural characteristics of a distination have an impact on the kind of tourist
that are attracted to it.
TARGET MARKET

Market volume and characteristics influence the kind of

amenities and services that are offered in the destination.

A target market is the market a company wants to sell its

products and services to, and it includes a targeted set of
customers for whom it directs its marketing efforts.
STAGES IN THE TOURISM AREA LIFE CYCLE

TALC- is another important consideration in tourism planning. A

popular model for analyzing the development of tourism destination.
1. Exploration
• At this stage, the facilities that are available are not of “tourist standard” they
are used and owned by locals. Tourism is limited due to lack of acces and
facilities.

2. Involvement
• The community begins to adapt to tourism and may even begin to
advertise.

3.Development
• Additional tourism infrastructure may be present.
4. Consolidation
• Growth rate in tourist arrivals declines, although numbers are still
increasing

5. Stagnation
• The number of tourist reaches or exceeds the carrying capacity and
environmental, social, and economic problems are experienced.

6. Decline or Rejuvenation
• Decline may ensue if the tourist market continues to wane and the resort is
not able to compete with newer attractions.
Exploration and Involvement Stages Development Stage

1. Selling new products/ services to new 1. Overall cost leadership strategy-

markets. prices the product competitively and
relative to how it is perceived by
2. Building market share customers
2. Differentiation strategy- creates
extra value for which the buyer is
willing to pay premium prices
3. Focus or niche strategy- narrows
products/ service to particular
market segments
Add a Slide Title - 3

Consolidation and stagnation Stages Decline

1. Selling new products/ services to 1. Harvesting- make as much money

existing markets before withdrawing the product
2. Maintain market share 2. Ceasing operation (withdrawal)
3. Selling existing products/services to
existing markets
 Rejuvenation

1. Offer existing products/services to new markets

2. Boost sales, revenue growth, and high market share by
appropriate expenditure on advertising, distribution and
development
3. Reposition from “commodity” to a position of “status, by
product differentiation
 Tourism Development Paradigm

The development paradigm or philosophy held by the most influential

actors in tourism development defines the choices of issues, goals and
strategies of tourism development

National tourism policy and legislation set parameters to

NATIONAL what can and cannot be done.

TOURISM Republic act 9593 / Tourism Act of 2009

POLICY AND
LEGISLATION “The State declares tourism as an indispensable element of the
national economy and an industry of national interest and
importance, which must be harnessed as an engine of
socioeconomic growth and cultural affirmation to generate
invest, foreign exchange, and employment, and to continue to
mold an enhanced sense of national pride for all Filipinos.”
Key features of the policy:
1. Nationalist orientation
2. Sustainable tourism development
3. Tourism that ecologically sustainable, responsible, participative,
culturally sensitive, economically viable and etc..
4. International target markets
5. Tourism products diversification
6. Private sector participation and focus on agri-tourism

Stakeholders’ perception and attitudes- perceptions and attitudes towards tourism

Awareness of External Forces- tourism must also be conscious of external
developments that can affect the viability of planned tourism projects

Financial Capital Requirement- amount of financial capital required by a tourism project