Chapter 15: Tourism Policy: Structure, Content, and Process
Question 4. How would you identify and choose the stakeholders who should be involved in the formulation of a tourism policy for a region? Is there anyone whom you feel should be excluded from the process? Stakeholders should be identified and chosen based on a broad range of economic and social benefits such as employment and income. Employment and income are important because they allow stakeholders to reside in and to enjoy the quality of the region. Stakeholders include:
Residents of the host destination
Local/municipal/regional/provincial/national governments
Local/regional/national environmental groups
Local visitors/excursionists
Remote visitors/tourists
Tourism industry sectors such as accommodation, attractions, adventure and outdoor recreation, entertainment, events, food services, tourism visitor services, transportation, and travel trade
Destination management organization (DMO)
Culture/heritage groups
Social/health/education groups
I cannot think of anyone specific who should be excluded in the formation of tourism policy because it seeks to ensure that visitors are hosted in a way that maximizes the benefits to stakeholders while minimizing the negative effects, costs, and impacts associated with ensuring the success of a destination.
Question 8. What are the most important interfaces of tourism policy; that is, which other sectors of the economy and society need to be aware of tourism policy or might have a significant impact on the success of tourism policy? Other sectors of the economy and society that need to be aware of tourism policy or might have a significant impact on the success of tourism policy include:
The environmental movement
The health services sector
Resource extraction industries
The technology sector
The entertainment industry
The financial sector
The education sector
Legal/political players
Transportation industries and infrastructure
The manufacturing industries
International relations
The agriculture sector
Each of these can pose a threat or an opportunity for tourism. The tourism sector must be as capable, as well trained, and as well prepared as the professionals in the any of these other sectors to be able to present its case effectively. If the tourism industry does not do this, it risks being undermined and weakened, may miss a critical market opportunity, and/or may fail to create a new, innovative alliance with another sector. “all too often, tourism’s lack of sophistication and preparedness has resulted in government decisions and policies that significantly weaken its ability to compete, or to do so more profitably.”
Question 12. Why is a vision especially important for policy formulation? How long into the future should a vision attempt to define an ideal future? The destination vision provides a more functional and more inspirational portrait of the ideal future that the destination hopes to bring about in some defined future. Destination visions can define the ideal future as 5, 10, 20, and even 50 years.
Question 13. Implementation of policy recommendations is often a problem. What do you see as the major barriers to the implementation of policy? Why do they exist? How might these barriers be overcome? A major barrier to the implementation of policy is economic priority over social and environmental concerns. Political governance’s short term focus is often on job creation and the development for growth that yields immediate results. However, tourism policy should be focused on long-term benefits to the stakeholders while minimizing the negative effects, costs, and impacts associated with ensuring the success of the destination. By focusing on economic priority, environmental and social concerns are often neglected. Also, political governance’s short term focus is only for about five years while implementing policy to create a sustainable and competitive strategy often requires considerations for 10 years or longer.
Question 16. How do government policies on passports and visas impact tourism? Passports and visas were initially developed as a means by which countries could better control the entry and exit of foreign nationals from their soil. However, in the United States alone, the lengthy visa process and often-confusing and claustrophobic entry process has made international visitors feel unwelcome in the U.S. Due to this, overseas travel to the U.S. fell 9 percent between 2000 and 2009 even though the weak dollar made it a travel bargain. The decline in overseas visitors cost the U.S. economy 68.3 million lost visitors, $509 billion in lost spending, and 441,000 in lost jobs. Also, countries that require visas and passports have become dependent on the income they provide. These countries tend to view visas as a means to raise foreign funds. However, many countries have stopped requiring them because most of them wish to facilitate international travel.
Chapter 16: Tourism Planning, Development, and Social Consideration
Question 1. A real estate developer, aware of a growing demand for a lakeshore resort condominium, planned for 126 apartments plus a 56-slip marina. After he submitted his plan, the township planning board informed him that only one apartment and one boat slip would be allowed for each hundred feet of lakeshore. Because he did not own that much lakeshore, plans were redrawn to construct the planned development back from the lakeshore. Access to the lake would be provided via a canal, using one of the lakeshore lots – a “keyhole” plan. This proposal was also rejected. The developer then sued the township board to force approval. What should the court or judge decide? The judge should decide in the township planning board’s favor. They would have completed the planning process which involves:
Defining the system,
Gathering data,
Analyzing and interpreting the data,
Creating the preliminary plan,
Approving the preliminary plan,
Creating the final plan, and
Implementing the final plan
Through proper planning, the planning board would be able to plan the physical, legal, promotional, financial, economic, market, management, social, and environmental aspects that will help deliver the benefits of tourism development. Also, they would have taken into consideration the definition of land use; plans for infrastructure facilities such as roads, airports, bike paths, horse trails, pedestrian walkways, sewage, water, and utilities; architectural standards; landscape plans; zoning and other land-use regulations; and economic and market analysis along with financial programming. The real estate developer’s plans clash with what the township’s planning board has figured out will be best for the area, so he should not be given approval because the planning board’s good planning should eliminate problems and provide user satisfaction. Also, the final user, not the real estate developer, is the judge in determining how successful the planning process has been.
Question 2. You have accepted a United Nations Development Program assignment in tourism in a small Central American country. Your first task is to make financial calculations concerning the economic feasibility for a resort development. What factors do you consider when beginning this process? Assuming your findings result in a favorable conclusion, what would your next step be? The first factors to consider when making financial calculations concerning the economic feasibility for a resort development are its scale, size, market, character, and purpose. After that, objectives should be formulated because the development concept will have no direction without them. These objectives must be comprehensive and specific and should include a timetable for completion. After this first step has been completed, the rest of the planning process – gathering data, analyzing and interpreting the data, creating a preliminary plan, approving the preliminary plan, creating the final plan, and implementing the plan – will be need to be completed. Within the planning process, financial plans will be drafted from the market information, site surveys, and the layout plan to show the investment needed in each phase of the project along with the expected cash flow. By completing the planning process, financial calculations concerning the economic feasibility of the resort will be tested and either found acceptable or unacceptable. If the findings result in a favorable conclusion, the project will go through and be completed.
Chapter 17: Tourism and the Environment
Question 3. Nathan M. is the local managing director of a tour company specializing in ecotourism. His company operates big-game and bird photo safaris in Tanzania. He has decided that his firm would be more socially responsible if his tours (by minibus) would obtain practically all needs from local sources. Give some examples of how he might do this and described the benefits that would accrue locally. (When discussing this, include both economic and social benefits.) Question 4. Upon graduation, you have secured a job as tourism specialist with te World Wildlife Fund. Your first assignment is to be a team member charged with helping to formulate plans for some kind of wildlife protection area in Zambia. This country is located in south-central Africa. Its government is considering a new national park and has requested expert assistance from the fund. The president of the fund has made it very clear to the team that such plans must also aim to improve living standards for the local population. These standards, at present, are grievously low. Most local people are subsistence farmers. They occasionally shoot big-game animals that damage their crops, and also for meat. After extensive field study, a particularly attractive areas has been found in which the scenery is spectacular, the climate very pleasant, the natural history resources outstanding, and the local people friendly and hospitable. Thus, the proposed park seems to have an excellent potential for attracting substantial numbers of ecotourists. Propose some conceptual ideas as to how this challenge can be met successfully.