Tourism Planning & Development: A Regional Analysis

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Strategic Planning for Tourism and Leisure
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1................................................................................................................................................4
Part 1 (A and B)...............................................................................................................................8
Part 2..............................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
Reference list.................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
Tourism is identified as the business activity of organisations catering to the needs and
requirements of people who travel to different locations for leisure or business purpose
(Sharpley, 2018). The individual need to travel from one place to another is based on the
attraction of various destinations and businesses operating in these regions are required to
operate in the destination economy effectively. Tourism enhances a region’s economic
development and socio-cultural aspect. The impact of tourism can be evaluated through the
improvement in political ties as well. The art of developing a region with the intention of
attracting domestic and foreign tourists can be identified as the major role of tourism
organisations and local authorities in tourism planning for a region. Effective tourism planning
provides the tourists and the local residents with beneficial results from the development of
destinations. The efficacy of an appropriate tourism planning of a destination is possible through
the improvement in the local economy and socio-cultural activities.
This report aims to provide an extensive understanding of the need for tourism planning and the
benefits of an effective tourism plan. The report will also examine the benefits of effective
tourism planning in Barcelona; Spain has been implemented on a regional scale.
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Part 1
A. Examine the benefits of producing tourism strategic plans and give an example of a
destination that has benefited from it.
The need for tourism planning in a developing tourist destination can be identified through the
effective economic development that is evident through appropriate tourism development
strategies. Tourism is beneficial for the local, regional and national economy of a destination as
it provides the local community with an opportunity to generate employment for the local
residents and improve business for the local small scale industries. The improvement in the local
economy through effective tourism planning allows the development of local property value as
well as the socio-cultural diversity of the region. Appropriate tourism planning would also
improve the infrastructure of the destination with growth in various education, health and
hospitality institutions (Palomeque et al., 2016).
With the development in infrastructure, the regional authorities would be able to gain higher
taxes from the tourists that would be used for improving transport, electric and basic necessities
of the local communities. The need for tourism planning would be for the improvement of local
and structural infrastructure that will provide the destination with a sustainable and holistic
approach to tourism development. Improvement in infrastructure would enhance the relationship
between the host and guest communities. This provides an effective understanding of the need of
planning in tourism for a region.
The benefits of a tourism plan can be identified through the effects it provides in the
development of local, regional and national economy. Tourism plans can be implemented on a
local, regional or national scale. It provides improvement plans for the infrastructure that
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provides basic amenities to the people of local communities as well as develops the region as an
attractive tourist destination. The availability of most basic amenities at close proximity along
with the diverse cultural heritage of a region attracts tourists to the region. Effective tourism
plans provide the locality with a sustainable approach in developing the locality and the national
policies that will encourage the tourism industry of the area to develop efficiently. An effective
tourism plan will provide an appropriate developmental framework for the locality and create
business opportunities for the small scale industries of the region. This will increase employment
opportunities and the profitability of the regional authorities.
Tourism plans can be implemented on a local, regional and national level using several strategies
and policies that increase the operational activities of the destination’s tourism industry (Dredge
and Jamal, 2015). Effective tourism plans improve the economic condition of the destination.
The successful implementation of strategies within the economy of a region provides the local,
national and regional community with an enhanced scope of developing their infrastructure that
will allow the local community members to utilise their available resources in a sustainable
manner.
Considering the city of Barcelona as an example of strategic tourism planning on a regional level
it can be stated that the city has increased the potential for tourism in the region through effective
advertising of its national heritage, architecture and cultural diversity. At a regional scale, the
city’s tourism development authorities have implemented enhancement of the transport system
and improved the local business prospect. The city of Barcelona, with its restricted natural
resources, perform effective sustainable tourism development in order to successfully manage
the inflow of tourists as well as immigrants from neighbouring states in order to enhance their
economy (Moretti, 2016).
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The Tourism industry of Spain is primarily based on the rich cultural heritage of the country
along with the architectural marvels the country possesses. Barcelona has been a major tourist
destination since the past few years with the developmental form the authority has implemented
within the functional operations of the tourism industry of Spain. The local traders and
communities are given an opportunity to enhance their business activities and interaction with
the global tourist community. Tourism provides the regional traders and businesses with a global
platform to showcase their arts and craft. Effective tourism planning for the city has provided the
residents of the city with an improved socio-economic stance.
Figure 1: Graph showing the increasing number of tourists in Barcelona
(Source: Goodwin, 2016)
The authority’s decision to implement a sustainable tourism plan for 2020 had already been in
effect in the strategic planning for the city of Barcelona. The strategic plan for Barcelona
primarily focussed on five sections of improving tourism in the city- governance and
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management, jobs, promotion, marketing, and territorial strategy. The strategic plan’s objective
was to enhance the region’s sustainability without negatively affecting the local resident’s daily
life. In order to eliminate the issue of a language barrier between the host and guest communities,
authorities enhanced the provision of bilingual tour guides and making English a major official
language.
The responsibility of the authorities, regional community towards the guests allowed the increase
of business transaction between regional businesses and the tourists. A sustainable tourism plan
provided the region with increased urban balance, increased tourist accommodation with the help
of foreign investment in tourism development strategies for Barcelona. Appropriate tourism
strategy increased the number of tourists in the city thus increasing the country’s economy as
well (Marine-Roig and Clavé, 2015). With the effective tourism plan in place, Spain will be able
to enhance their tourist destination of Barcelona as a sustainable tourist destination by 2020.
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B. Evaluate at least one planning approach for tourism development and illustrate your
evaluation with an example of where this planning approach has been implemented.
Discuss the pros and cons of this approach
Community Based Tourism Approach in Anstead
The tourism planning is one of the advents that is utilised by many leading destinations around
the world and consists of substantial approaches. The implementation of community based
approach is understood to be one of the highly beneficial methods to develop a tourism
destination as it impart sustainable tourism in the best of manners by making the contribution of
the local community as one of the acknowledgeable contribution (Flax.nzdl.org, 2018). This in
turn would conglomerate the efforts of the local population as well as increase the tourist
experience to indulge in the engaging facets of local customs. The features of aligning and
incorporating the concept of the local people have been observant to the ideologies of the
conservation of the tourism resources that is available to the particular destination. The
community based approach has been discussed as one of the techniques that are described on the
lines of generating economic and conservation benefits with the assertive collaborations of the
tourist-host interaction. There have been an increased number of developments which revolves
around the community based planning process that has contributed to the growth of many rural
areas as one of the leading tourist attractions.
The approaches have been exemplified by the Rural Participatory Approach and Community
Design team. The Rural Participatory Approach has been exercised by the World Bank in
asserting the local contribution to the tourism sectors of the developing countries. The use of
such approaches has been beneficial in incorporating the knowledge and perspectives of the
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voluntary participations in constructing and planning the tourism development and destination
management plans (Murphy, 2013). This in turn has observed in the implementing learning
processes within the community and has resulted in the development of the community with the
transcending information about modernisation (Idziak et al., 2013) The approach on the
communal lines to develop tourism has been readily implemented and is one of the measures that
actualises the sustainability of the traditional lifestyles in this ever increasing risks of cultural
homogenization. The concept of community based approach has been described and is be
understood to be one of the progressive curves for the providing and empowering the local
community with diverse economic contributions and ventures as well as in the subjects of
decision-making (Iorio and Corsale, 2014).
The implementation of Appreciative Participatory Planning has been analysed in order to
understand the approach of community based tourism planning and the manner in which the
tourism prospects of the rural town of Anstead gained popularity. The rural communities of
Anstead have been resourced with one of the natural wonders and the prowess of different
cultural landscapes. The natural attractions include the Gauley River National Recreational, New
River George National River, and Bluestone National Scenic River. The town was observed to
struggle in developing the effective to means to alleviate the image of Anstead, as a tourist
destination. Hence the local institutions such as West Virginia University, Travel and Green
Appalachia, West Virginia State University and USDI National Park SERVICES has
collaborated their efforts to develop a community based tourism plan through the means of
Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action (APPA). This model has been understood to be
composed of framework and constitution of Appreciative Inquiry (Tribe, 2013). This is more
focussed on the analytical purposes that describe the problem solving aspects to alleviate a
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solution that increases the scope for the contribution of the local population rather than the
ineffective means of communal contribution.
Appreciative Participatory Planning
The destination of the Anstead has been observed to partake to the activities of Appreciative
Participatory Planning and Action through the measures of educating the native population
through the provisions of the business courses. This has helped the population to develop
business that caters to the incoming tourists and increase the viability of Anstead as tourist
destination. This approach also reflected on the advents of instructing and increasing awareness
among the local people about the ill effects of extensive logging on the sustainability of the
natural flora and fauna. This in turn has alleviated the role of the local population of conserving
the flora fauna and natural parks and has prevented many foreign attempts to partake the logging
activities. The natural parks around Bluestone National Scenic River have been conserved with
these successful ventures. This has contributed to the growth of Anstead as one of the leading
tourist destination in the category of rural destination. The tourism bodies in the Anstead have
observed that the culture heritage of the Anstead could be used as an asset to incorporate as a
feature of Community based tourism development.
The cultural vibrancy could be correlated and provide the visitors with unique tourist experience
by allowing the residents to stay in the homes of local residences to impart on the cultural
privileges and feel very close to the ethnic prowess of the local residents. This in turn helps in
the development of the sustainable tourism and alleviates the business of tourism sector of the
rural population. The advantages of the community based tourism as this provides an advent of
increasing the aspects of employment which would act as a platform to increase the economical
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well being of the society and address a falling economy. The approach is also associated with the
development of roads and telecommunications which could facilitate the growth of the town for
other business purposes. The negative advents that is associated with these approach includes the
aspects of cultural minimisation as the local authorities fails to address the issues of the
underlying developments to fringy and seasonal employment and unrealistic outlooks of the
revenue contribution.
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Part 2
A. Assess hot the reuse of historic buildings contributes to strategic tourism development.
Give one example of a historic building in London that is used for tourism, leisure and
events functions and how it benefits it local area socially and economically
Reuse of historic buildings contributes to strategic tourism development
Tibbbys triangle
The British architectures have been one of the advents that have been succulent to the tourist
tastes and aspirations. The technical and the cultural heritage that is demonstrated by the British
Landscape reflect on the healthy contributions that are made to the tourism sector in UK. The
tourism planning has been used extensively to work on the features of maintaining and restoring
the structural heritage of the finest artwork and also includes the concept of alleviating the
promotional campaigns of the historic buildings. The buildings at the Tibbbys triangle in
Southhold has been observed to transcend on the features of high quality contemporary of
architectural design as the sustainable tourism looks forward to be influencing in the references
of the tourism strategic planning by making the local authorities to restore the building in
accordance to maintain the cultural heritage of the community through the instantiation of the
ethnic prowess. This form of constructive conservation contributes to the implement sustainable
philosophy that would encourage the local people to participate in the events of decision making
regarding the plans and ideas of tourism as the local population will realise that their cultural
identity is being valued (Smith, 2013).
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