UNIT 15 TOURISM PLANNING                                                                        Tourism Impacts – Economic
            Structure
            15.0     Objectives
            15.1     Introduction
            15.2     Planning
                     15.2.1  Tourism Planning
                     15.2.2  Process of Tourism Planning
            15.3     Assessment of Tourism Demand and Supply
                     15.3.1  Objective Study
            15.4     Objectives of Tourism Development
            15.5     Level and Types of Tourism Planning
            15.6     Public and Private Sectors in Tourism Planning
            15.7     Status of Tourism Planning in India
            15.8     Lets Sum Up
            15.9     Key Words
            15.10 Answers to Check Your Progress
            15.11 Terminal Questions
            15.0 OBJECTIVES
            After studying this unit, you should be able to:
                   know the Concept of Planning;
                   understand the assessment of Tourism Demand and Supply;
                   know the various objectives of Tourism Development;
                   comprehend the various Levels and Types of Tourism Planning; and
                   understand various approaches to Tourism Planning and Evolution of
                   Tourism Planning in India.
            15.1 INTRODUCTION
            Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring,
            the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the
            business of operating tours. It also refers to as the travel for recreational, leisure,
            family or business purposes, usually for a limited duration. Tourism as an industry
            is competitive and dynamic that is constantly molding and adapting itself to
            meet the needs of the customers as the customers’ needs and desires change. As
            an industry tourism is rather complicated and overlaps with various different
            sectors. Planning is necessary so that many negative impacts could be controlled,
            as many undesired and unexpected impacts could arise without proper planning.
            For this reason, tourism is being developed and managed in a proper and
            sustainable way following sound planning. Also, it is necessary that industry
            integrate wide planning process for promotion of goals for economic,
            environmental and social enhancement that could be accomplished through
            appropriate tourism development.
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         Concept and Impacts of          15.2 PLANNING
         Tourism
                                         Planning refers to thinking beforehand. Planning is a dynamic process of
                                         determining goals, systematically selecting alternative courses of actions to
                                         achieve those goals, implementing the chosen alternatives, and evaluating the
                                         choice to determine if it is successful. Planning is the first and foremost process
                                         of management. It involves thinking of a plan, in order to achieve a particular set
                                         of goal.
                                         15.2.1  Tourism Planning
                                         Tourism planning is the process of considering the needs of people planning a
                                         trip and using those factors to determine the best resources, programs and activities
                                         for their trip. Tourism planning is intended for local residents and businesses of
                                         the location, as well as tourists who travel there. It is a process of setting objectives,
                                         identifying a course of action, analysing and implementation of a plan that will
                                         favour tourism and its policies. It embraces different dimensions like social,
                                         economic and environmental. It is the first and foremost step of any destination
                                         to be an attraction for the tourists.
                                         In general, if we talk about Planning, it could be defined as a process of thinking
                                         about certain activities and ideas to reach and achieve a desired goal. Tourism
                                         Planning follows the same basic process, concept and approaches as normal
                                         general planning. The difference is that it is just adapted to the characteristics
                                         and specific of the tourism system.
                                         So, tourism planning can be referred to as a step-by-step process in which tourism
                                         goals are tried to be achieved by chalking out comprehensive, sustainable,
                                         continuous, and integrated and environment friendly ideas, activities and plans.
                                         According to Gunn “tourism planning should be directed towards mainly four
                                         basic goals which are: sustainable use of resources, integration of local community
                                         and area, enhanced visitor satisfaction and improved economy and business
                                         success.”
                                         Tourism as an activity in an area must be considered as a part of physical, social,
                                         environmental and economic planning. Although in different countries or places
                                         the degree may be different but we can find tourism addressed if not fully but
                                         partially at regional land use, transportation, recreation, economic development
                                         or comprehensive plan. The degree varies on the relative dependence and
                                         importance of tourism in that area or region.
                                         While there may be some legal rules for tourism planning in some places, but
                                         ultimately the main aim of planning everywhere is to balance, protect and guide
                                         the development of a tourism destination or scenic site in long term and for
                                         achieving healthy development and reducing the negative impacts.
                                         The planning includes participation and coordination of government agencies,
                                         private sectors, hotel and restaurants, travel transport and even popular outlets
                                         for carrying out tourism related activities. The planning includes every factor
                                         ranging from providing a variety of hotel to a tourist for a comfortable stay to
                                         thinking about various ways in which sustainable development could be done in
                                         this sector.
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              15.2.2  Process of Tourism Planning                                                                                          Tourism Planning
              Tourism Planning Process involves the following steps:
              i)      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.
              ii)     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.
              iii)    Survey of existing data: The survey of existing data or secondary research
                      can be done through analysing 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 behaviours,
                      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.
              iv)     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. When conducting the survey, it is very important to select
                      respondents i.e. sample group members from amongst target customers
                      for tourism destinations.
              v)      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 by sample
                      group members and critically analysing these patterns. In data analysis it
                      is important for secondary and primary data to be analysed in an integrated
                      manner.
              vi)     Initial policy and plan formulation: As the next stage in planning process,
                      analysis of the entire primary and secondary information enables decision
                      makers to develop initial policies and formulate initial plans.
              vii)    Recommendations: A set of recommendations can be developed as a result
                      of initial policy and initial plan formulation.
              viii)   Implementation: Recommendations that are found as sensible and feasible
                      by strategic level executives can be implemented into the practice.
              ix)     Monitoring and plan reformulation: The last stage of the planning process
                      involves monitoring the nature of implementation of plans and engaging
                      in strategy re-formulation if changes in internal and especially external
                      environment require doing so.
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         Concept and Impacts of          15.3 ASSESSMENT OF TOURISM DEMAND AND
         Tourism
                                                  SUPPLY
                                         In the early steps of planning information is collected on the current and potential
                                         availability of desirable growth. Here the main problem in analysis is the lack of
                                         information. Hence recording down the information and developmental statistics
                                         is the most important part here. Then the next step is to determine the present
                                         status and how it relates with the tourism potential.
                                         It is highly essential that before forming any potential tourism plans, the
                                         information about the country’s or the areas attractions are studied well. A
                                         thorough knowledge of the attractions will help in determining the type of plan
                                         the country need for development. So a careful study must be done on the physical,
                                         historical and cultural attractions that a country possesses.
                                         Some of the principles on which assessment must be based are:
                                         All the attractions should be developed progressively all over the country in a
                                         way that the tourism could be spread as widely as possible. By following this
                                         method, the benefits which would be gained through the industry will be spread
                                         widely and most parts of the country will benefit from it.
                                         Special areas and attractions which have been selected for special development
                                         should be marketed among the wildest possible section of the tourist for the
                                         longest season possible. In this way the problem of overdependence upon a
                                         particular season of year could be avoided.
                                         The attractions and areas that could be most easily and successfully developed
                                         should be given the topmost priority. Those which are already in a good
                                         infrastructural state would already require less investment.
                                         It should be kept in mind that those attractions which are similar or competing
                                         should not be developed at the same time and also the volume of visitors should
                                         be noted before developing so that the investment could be justified as it is
                                         impossible to develop all the potential attractions at the same time.
                                         All those countries or places which have a unique destination or out of the ordinary
                                         features should attempt to invest in them as tourists are always finding for new
                                         and unique experiences, thrills and experiences. These could act as great drawing
                                         power.
                                         After this demand is estimated for both national and international tourists both
                                         internal and external data on tourism activities should be assembled.
                                         15.3.1  Objective Study
                                         In order to decide whether development should be preceded in a region the initial
                                         data or the information gathered must give a picture what tourism can do for a
                                         particular area. For this there must be a basis for comparison. The objective of
                                         tourism development in general must deal with growth of the country which
                                         would lead further to better standard of living among the citizens, generating
                                         employment, greater opportunities for intellectual growth, and increment of the
                                         potential in an area or country. While making these decisions, some set of
                                         conditions should also be described under which the decisions could be made.
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