TOURISM PLANNING DEFINITION
Tourism planning refers to the overall process of deploying the development goals and the implementation of a comprehensive tourism system. In some places, tourism plans contain a set of legal norms, and in others, they are frameworks that may contain legal elements such as zoning. In most cases, their purpose is to balance, guide, and protect the long-term development of a tourism destination or scenic site to ultimately achieve healthy development. Tourism planning functions as a framework, and thus must be imperative, strategic, innovative, and flexible. The overall growth of the tourism industry appears to be having increasingly negative environmental effects, so planning concepts are focusing more on environmental concerns.
According to Hall (2008) tourism planning can be described as a process of orderly thought which, by anticipating change, enables the future development of tourism to progress in a systematic way so that the benefits of tourism outweigh the costs by an acceptable margin.
LEVELS OF TOURISM PLANNING
Tourism planning can take place at different levels e.g. international level, national level, regional level etc. Planning at different levels is concerned with different objectives. For example, planning at international level is mostly concerned with international transportation services, while at national level it is concerned with tourism policy and legislation. Similarly, regional level planning is concerned with regional policy, tourist accommodation and other tourist facilities.
THE NEED FOR TOURISM PLANNING
- Establishing the overall tourism development objectives and policies – what is tourism aiming to accomplish and how these aims can be achieved.
- Developing tourism so that its natural and cultural resources are indefinitely maintained and conserved for future, as well as present, use.
- Integrating tourism into the overall development policies and patterns of the country or region, and establishing dose linkages between tourism and other economic sectors.
- Providing a rational basis for decision-making by both the public and private sectors on tourism development.
- Making possible the coordinated development of all the many elements of the tourism sector. This includes inter-relating the tourist attractions, activities, facilities and services and the various and increasingly fragmented tourist markets.
- Optimizing and balancing the economic, environmental and social benefits of tourism, with equitable distribution of these benefits to the society, while minimizing possible problems of tourism.
- Providing a physical structure which guides the location, types and extent of tourism development of attractions, facilities, services and infrastructure.
- Establishing the guidelines and standards for preparing detailed plans of specific tourism development areas that are consistent with, and reinforce, one another, and for the appropriate design of tourist facilities.
- Laying the foundation for effective implementation of the tourism development policy and plan and continuous management of the tourism sector, by providing the necessary organizational and other institutional framework.
- Providing the framework for effective coordination of the public and private sector efforts and investment in developing tourism.
- Offering a baseline for the continuous monitoring of the progress of tourism development and keeping it on track.