Tourism Planning Environments (MKT01760) Assessment 2 Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of tourism planning environments, focusing on the critique and comparison of two discussion papers: the UNWTO Tourism for Development discussion paper and the Baltic Cultural Tourism Policy Paper. The report begins with an introduction to tourism planning and the importance of policy formation. It then critiques the structure of the policy planning cycle within the context of the two selected papers, evaluating their alignment with key aspects of sustainable tourism and heritage tourism. The content of the papers is examined, considering relevant stakeholders and the roles of government, tourists, and businesses. A comparison of the two policy papers highlights their strengths and weaknesses, particularly in relation to scope, target audience, and cultural dimensions. The report concludes with a reflection on the importance of these policies for tourism development, emphasizing the significance of sustainable practices, cultural cooperation, and effective communication. The report references various sources to support its arguments and analysis.

Running head: TOURISM PLANNING
TOURISM PLANNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Identification and introduction
Tourism planning environment is an important area in tourism growth and development.
It requires policy formation and effective implementation. One tourism discussion paper that can
be identified for the study is the UNWTO Tourism for development discussion paper. The
second paper that is selected for the study is the Baltic Cultural Tourism Policy Paper which was
introduced by UNESCO (Mariani et al. 2014). The policy was introduced in the year 2001. This
policy aimed at enhanced the cooperation among cultural policy makers, local authorities, and
tourism people and heritage circles. This policy covers the countries of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania. The UNWTO Tourism for development discussion paper evaluates the international
year for sustainable development, 2017. The study is concerning the development and expansion
of sustainable tourism across the world. The key elements that the paper identifies are
sustainable growth of economy, inclusiveness, employment and reduction of poverty, efficiency
of the resources, cultural values and development of mutual understanding. The paper analyzes
the ways in which tourism can contribute towards the three dimensions of sustainable
development. These areas are economic, social and environmental. Another tourism paper that
can be considered in relation to policy is the national heritage tourism summit discussion paper.
The paper mainly evaluates the prospects of rising heritage tourism across the world. The focus
is mainly on the heritage tourism sector of Australia. The study is in relation to effective
promotion and harnessing the potential of Heritage tourism in Australia. The further
development of heritage tourism in Australia is an important factor that has been considered for
the study. The issues that have been considered for both the tourism discussion papers are
important in the present world situations.

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Critique of structure of the Policy Planning Cycle
The two policies taken here are UNWTO Tourism for development discussion paper and
Baltic Cultural Tourism Policy Paper. These two paper will be critiqued and analyzed in this
paper. UNWTO Tourism for development discussion paper follows quite a smooth and clear
structure. The policy cycle consists of the selection of alternative, implementation, policy
solution evaluation, issue identification, issue analysis, policy solutions and instrument and
consultation. The structure of the study addresses the various key aspects that are identified in
the study. Hence, the sustainable growth of the economy, inclusiveness of society, efficiency of
resources, values, mutual understanding and governance and policy. The cycle of policy
implementation have been essentially considered to understand the significant implications that
are connected with the development of sustainable tourism. The national heritage tourism
summit paper is also aligned essentially with the framework for the cycle of policy. It is
important to consider that as the policy in this case was the policy towards developing the
heritage tourism sector of Australia. The structures of the policy papers in relation to the
development of tourism policies are in line with the developmental relationships that are
important in being created (Dümcke and Gnedovsky 2013). The policy cycle is given much
importance in both the discussion papers. In one of the papers, tourism is related to sustainable
development. In the other paper the policy cycle is considered in relation to understanding the
prospects of heritage tourism. The structures are well formed and help in effective evaluation of
the subject matter. The countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have gained their
independence in the year 1991 (Van der Zee and Vanneste 2015). The tourism industry since
then has gone through a lot of changes. To ensure the cultural development of the countries the

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policies and resources needs to be more focused and that is why this policy was Baltic policy
was developed (Tafel-Viia et al. 2015).
Critique on content of the Two Papers with Regards to the Relevant Stakeholder
The relevant stakeholders in case of the sustainable development paper and the Baltic
paper are the tourists, the government of these countries and the businessmen who work in the
tourism industry. The role of tourism in inclusiveness development was effectively evaluated
through the study. The various aspects that are related to sustainable development of tourism
have been evaluated essentially through the paper. Both the policies deal with the development
of the tourist destination; they clearly provide guidelines that in detail talk about the ways in
which the sustainable tourism can be promoted. The other paper talk about the cultural
development in the countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The relationship of tourism
activities with nature have been analyzed efficiently. In case of the paper on Australian heritage
tourism, the policy formation aspects have been very critically discussed and documented. Both
the works are important in the context of the effective evaluation of the tourism oriented policies.
Comparison of the two policy papers
The aspect of tourism has occupied a central field in the globalized world of the twenty
first century. With the ease in migration policies, people now have the advantage of moving from
one place to another without much obstruction. This has given rise to the idea of tourism. The
field of tourism has emerged to be one of the most economically beneficial sector for the nation
states of the world since it implies the in-flow of foreign funds in to the country (Holden 2016).
As a consequence of such social and economic implications of the aspect of tourism, certain
policies have been formulated in order to ensure that the countries of the world are able to
regulate this field in an efficient manner.

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One of the policies that was formulated was that of the UNWTO Tourism. The year of
2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.
Sustainable development emerged to be one of the developmental goals of the millennium
(Iniesta-Bonillo, Sánchez-Fernández and Jiménez-Castillo 2016). In this context, it was observed
that tourism can play an important part in contributing to all the three sectors of economy,
environmental and social. The UNTWO Tourism policy paper was formulated by the United
Nations General Assembly.
The strength of this paper is that it looks at how tourism can contribute to the aspect of
sustainable development. In this context, it has invited the different organizations of the world,
including the governmental institutions and the civil bodies to give certain reports on how
tourism can improve the world.
However, a weakness of this report is that it has too wide a scope. The policy paper aims
to reform the entire sector on tourism as observed in the international sphere. Thus, with such a
wide scope, there is a likelihood that this paper would not be able to bring about any real and
effective change in the world. Its target audience is too large and hence, would be unable to
communicate with them in an effective manner.
Another policy paper that was formulated for reforming the sector of tourism is that of
Baltic cultural tourism policy paper. This policy paper was formulated in the year of 2006
specifically for the Baltic countries of the world (Smith 2015). The policy paper aimed to reform
ensure that tourism would make significant sustainable contributions to the fields of economy,
social and environment. However, in this process, the countries of the Baltic region would also
focus on the cultural dimension by providing cultural resources to the tourists for increasing the
cultural tourism services (Kim and Bramwell 2019).

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The strength of this paper is that it has taken the dimension of culture in to consideration.
Tourism has mainly emerged as a result of the interest of the people to get to know the culture
and traditions of the different countries of the world. The Baltic cultural tourism policy paper
lays emphasis on the issue of such cultural development. However, a main weakness of this
policy paper is that is focuses only on the Baltic countries of the world. Thus, it is limited in
scope.
Reflection
The two policy papers are both aim towards the successful development of the tourism of
the nations. The UNWTO Tourism for development discussion deals with the sustainable
development of the tourism. As is known, the importance of sustainable development is plenty,
not only does the people get enjoy the beauty of the place but that beauty remains in there for the
longest time because of the sustainable development. The people not only get to have a safe and
sound environment today but they get to have a safe environment for the longest time in the
future and using the resources of the nature in a sustainable manner ensures that the future
generations also be able to enjoy a good future. The second policy paper deals with the cultural
cooperation among the countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, these countries gained
independence a lot late than compared to any other countries; hence it is important to make sure
that their cultural remains in a sustainable manner. The cultural developments of these countries
not only have to be protected but they also need more co-operations between the countries. These
countries need to have a pact that will make sure that their cultural development is not halted and
they continue to grow the way they have to. These communications between the local authorities
and the tourists are very essential. This communication will ensure that the people will have a

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proper tourist experience and they will get to enjoy the beauty of these countries. The cultural
co-operation among these nations not only helps the nations but also the tourist with their travels.
This paper concludes that these policies are developed for the benefit of the countries and
the reason behind their implementation is the development of proper tourism across the globe
and these policies make sure that the people have a good tourism experience.

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References
Dümcke, C. and Gnedovsky, M., 2013. The social and economic value of cultural heritage:
literature review. EENC paper, pp.1-114.
Holden, A., 2016. Environment and tourism. Routledge.
Iniesta-Bonillo, M.A., Sánchez-Fernández, R. and Jiménez-Castillo, D., 2016. Sustainability,
value, and satisfaction: Model testing and cross-validation in tourist destinations. Journal of
Business Research, 69(11), pp.5002-5007.
Kim, S. and Bramwell, B., 2019. Boundaries and boundary crossing in tourism: A study of
policy work for tourism and urban regeneration. Tourism Management, 75, pp.78-89.
Mariani, M.M., Buhalis, D., Longhi, C. and Vitouladiti, O., 2014. Managing change in tourism
destinations: Key issues and current trends. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management,
2(4), pp.269-272.
Nationaltrust.org.au. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/National-Heritage-Tourism-
Discussion-Paper-for-Summit-3.pdf [Accessed 12 Aug. 2019].
Smith, M.K., 2015. Issues in cultural tourism studies. Routledge.
Tafel-Viia, K., Terk, E., Lassur, S. and Viia, A., 2015. Creative industries in the capital cities of
the Baltic States: Are there innovations in urban policy?. Moravian Geographical Reports, 23(4),
pp.47-58.

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Tourism4development2017.org. (2019). [online] Available at:
http://www.tourism4development2017.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/070417_iy2017-
discussion-paper.pdf [Accessed 12 Aug. 2019].
van der Zee, E. and Vanneste, D., 2015. Tourism networks unravelled; a review of the literature
on networks in tourism management studies. Tourism Management Perspectives, 15, pp.46-56.