Strategic Tourism Development: Case Studies of Turkey and London

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STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR TOURISM AND LEISURE
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1................................................................................................................................................4
A. Examining the benefits of producing tourism strategic plans with reference to a destination
that has benefited from it.................................................................................................................4
B. Evaluating one planning approach for tourism development and illustrating the same with an
example where this planning approach has been implemented. Discussing the advantages and
disadvantages of this approach........................................................................................................8
Part 2..............................................................................................................................................12
A. Reuse of historic buildings in contribution towards strategic tourism development................12
Example of historic building used for tourism and other purposes...............................................14
Contribution in Locality economically and socially......................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
Reference.......................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
This study will focus on identifying the key challenges that tourism industries of the developing
countries are facing due to ineffective planning strategies following with the downfall in the
growth and development of the entire tourism sectors in a long run. It will further focus on
identifying and evaluating the benefits of formulating tourism strategic plans in the way of
effective growth and development of the entire tourism sector in the third world countries, where
potential of tourism industries have degraded due to ineffective planning of the tour managers
and operators. It will further focus on evaluating various planning approaches that will be
beneficial for the tourism industries of the third world countries in the way of ensuring effective
sustainability in the competitive industries in a long run. Moreover, the study will also focus on
identifying the role of historic buildings and the process of reuse of the same in the overall
strategic tourism development.
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Part 1
A. Examining the benefits of producing tourism strategic plans with reference to a
destination that has benefited from it
Tourism planning can be stated as the plans and strategies that are developed and taken by the
tour managers in order to develop tourism by attracting and influencing people in such ways so
that they love to visit those places again and again. Developments of tourism plans are essential
for the purposes of enabling tour operators and managers in the way of effective management of
all tourism operations so that optimal use of tour resources are ensured, enhancing the overall
productivity of the entire tour industry (Rogerson, 2018). Planning can be considered as set of
strategic decisions that are to be executed in future at a specific time. In the same context,
tourism planning refers to various plans and strategic decisions that are undertaken by the tour
operators and managers in order to execute the entire tour operations effectively and efficiently
in future at a specific time. Thus, strategic plans and decisions play a vital role in the strategic
execution of all the operational activities of an organization relating to any sector, whether
tourism or any other sector (Bello et al., 2018).
Strategic plans are those plans which are developed and formulated by the managers of every
organization relating to any sector for systematic arrangement of their operational or business
functions. Management plays a vital role in every organization. It is considered to be the
backbone of an organization without which an organization cannot accomplish its organizational
objectives successfully in a long run. Strategic planning is an important part of the entire
management process of an organization. It helps the managers to plan various managerial
strategies in the most systematic ways that will ultimately help the organization to achieve its
organizational goals effectively and efficiently in future within the set period. Thus, it can be
said that the tour managers and operators of various tour organizations in the third world
countries need to follow and implement the policies of strategic planning into their operational
activities which will further help them in managing their overall business operations effectively
and efficiently (Rogerson, 2018). Moreover, strategic planning will further help the tour
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organizations of the developing countries to regain their positions in the tour market places in the
way of attracting more and more tourists from every parts of the world.
The tourism planning contains various steps that are comprehensive, continuous, integrated,
environmental, focused on enhancing community involvement and sustainable development. The
main aim of tourism planning should be focused on attaining four major goals which include
 Increased visitor satisfaction
 Sustainable use of tour resources
 Improving business success and economy of the country
 Integrating local area and community (Dodds et al., 2018)
Thus, it can be said that tourism planning is important in enhancing total visitors’ satisfaction
level through attainment of the above stated goals that further helps the tour operators and
managers in the way of attaining a secured position in the entire competitive markets in a long
run. Again, sustainable use of tour resources will help the tour operators to cut the extra costs
and wastes from their tour operational activities and will provide them the various opportunities
to reuse those resources for future operations (Harilal et al., 2018). Again, the strategic plans
should be developed in such ways so that it can help the entire members related with the tour
organization in order to improve the business prospects as well as economy of the country in
future. Again, the strategic plans of the tour organizations should be developed and formulated in
such ways so that those can easily integrate the entire local community with the area of tourism,
safeguarding the cultural and heritage aspects of that area.
Benefits of producing strategic plans for the tourism industry:
The post Second World War era has seen many developments in the travel and tourism industry
across the world. Many new tourism organizations have been emerged in the entire tourism
industry with various strategic and innovative strategies in order to attract more and more visitors
across the globe. The post Second World War era has mostly benefited the travel and tourism
organizations of the developed countries. However, the travel and tourism organizations of the
third world countries including the developing, underdeveloped, less-developed countries, the
South countries and the poor countries are lacking behind in the way of proper development of
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their tour operations which became the main reasons for the downfall of their market shares in
the entire global tourism industries (Porter et al., 2018).
The various benefits of producing strategic plans for the development of travel and tourism
industry for the third world countries are mentioned below:
It allows the travel and tour organizations to become proactive rather than reactive
A proper strategic planning helps the tour managers and tour operators to foresee the future and
identify and analyze unfavorable situations so that they can develop appropriate strategies to
handle the same in future if those occur (Marquardt, 2018). It helps the tour managers of tour
organizations to become more proactive and develop strategic actions in advance in order to
mitigate the unseen contingencies in future.
It helps tour managers to define directions in executing tour operations
A proper strategic planning helps a tour organization in the way of defining various directions to
the members related with the tour organizations for the purposes of executing the tour operations
effectively and efficiently.
It helps the tour managers to increase operational efficiency
A proper strategic management helps a tour organization in the way of enhancing operational
efficiency in a long run. It guides the tour managers in the systematic conduction of various tour
operations which will help them in delivering excellent tour services to their visitors, thus
increasing the goodwill of the organization in a long run (Hoogendoorn and Fitchett, 2018).
It helps the tour organizations to enhance their market share by increasing rates of
profitability and revenues
A proper strategic planning helps the tour organizations in the way of improving their
operational activities in such ways so that it can attract maximum visitors and increase the
profitability of their organizations accordingly through delivering excellent tour services. Thus, it
will further help the tour organizations to increase their market shares and contribute towards dev
elopement of the economy as well.
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It helps the tour organizations to make durable businesses
A proper strategic planning can help the tour organizations in the way of making an effective
durable business. It helps the tour managers to develop various tactful strategies which will help
them to extend the life tenure of their tour organizations in the ways of more business expansions
including both local and international (Saner et al., 2018).
The tourist destination of Turkey can be a good example to explain the benefits of strategic
planning that the company has utilized in the way of developing their tour business successfully.
The tourism organizations of Turkey have focused on four main objectives in applying the
strategic planning within their tour operations (Lima et al., 2018). Those four objectives are
illustrated below:
Vision:
The tourism industry of Turkey focused on developing strategies which can help the entire
industry to sustain effectively in a long run. They have developed their short term as well as long
term goals. The short term goals of the tour organizations include developing strategies like
attractive offers, lucrative holiday packages, providing various discounts and many more in order
to attract most of the visitors (Almeida-García, 2018). The long term strategies include
development of tour destinations, maintaining cultural and natural heritage, taking care of local
people and communities, enhancing profitability and contributing towards economic
development of the nation.
Branding:
Branding of destinations is essential in the way of establishing a unique identity of the same in
the competitive markets. The tour organizations of Turkey have applied this branding policy in
their strategic business planning. They have collaborated with various other corporate bodies in
the way of using their brands for promoting their products and services.
Evaluation:
The evaluation practice has been followed by all the tour managers of tour organizations of
Turkey in the ways of identifying the various strategic planning procedures undertaken by the
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other competitive tour organization of the developed countries and comparing the same
effectively (Spencer, 2018). This comparison technique has helped the tour organizations of
Turkey to formulate those unique strategies which ultimately helped them in regaining their
market position in the international markets.
Monitoring:
This is an important part of entire strategic planning procedures. This process is broadly
followed by the tour organizations of Turkey in order to review the entire processes taken by
them and finding out flaws or areas for improvements. This has helped the tour industry of
Turkey to further develop their operational activities in future (Handaru, 2018).
B. Evaluating one planning approach for tourism development and illustrating the same
with an example where this planning approach has been implemented. Discussing the
advantages and disadvantages of this approach
Proper planning approaches help tour organizations to develop effective strategic plans for the
growth and development procedures of the same in future. There are various planning
approaches which are followed and applied by the tour managers of various tour organizations in
order to provide guidelines to improve a specific area that has been identified by them as areas of
importance that need to be improved further for the purposes of growth and development of the
entire industry. Those planning approaches include systematic approach, integrated approach,
comprehensive approach, community approach, environmental and sustainable approach,
implementable approach and systematic approach (Laurie and Baillie Smith, 2018).
System approach helps the tour organizations in ensuring the availability of all the resources of
tourism and also optimum utilization of the same.
Comprehensive approach helps the tour organizations to plan and develop the overall aspects of
tourism development in a broader sense.
Integrated tourism approach helps the tour managers to organize and integrate the tour operations
in such ways so that it can deliver excellent tour services to the customers (Knight, 2018).
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Environmental and Sustainable approach helps mangers of tour organizations to plan and
develop operational strategies in such ways so that it can contribute towards environmental
development in the way of preserving the natural and cultural heritage of tour destinations.
Community approach helps the tour managers to involve the members of local communities in
the planning and developmental procedures of the tour operations. This approach allows the
people of local areas of the destinations to take part in the decision making procedures regarding
tour operations (Harris and Vogel, 2019).
Implementable approach helps the tourism organizations to implement the strategic plans and
policies in an achievable and a practical manner.
Systematic approach helps the tour organizations to follow and maintain an orderly and
systematic arrangement of tour operations (Del Chiappa et al., 2018).
Out of the above mentioned planning approaches, community based planning approach is mostly
used by the tour organizations of the developed nations like US and UK. The best example for
showing the application of this kind of planning approach in the growth and development of
tourism can be London. London can be stated as one of leading countries which has been leading
in the sector of travel and tourism in the entire global tourism markets since many years. The
tour managers of the tour organizations of London built various strategies in collaboration with
the government and other influential bodies towards development of both the communities and
cultural aspects of the destinations. They continuously welcome the members of the local
communities to take part in the overall decision making procedures towards the growth and
development of tourism. This approach has helped the members of the tour organizations to
protect the cultural heritage of the local destinations along with protecting the interests of the
local people residing in those destinations as well. Thus, this planning approach has helped them
to attract most of the visitors all over the world as the visitors often visit those places which are
rich in cultural heritage (Alexander et al., 2018).
Advantages of community based planning approach:
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Community based planning approach helps to increase people’s engagement towards
development of tourist destinations
This kind of planning approach helps the tour managers to enhance the involvement of people or
members of local communities to take part in the decision making procedures of tour operations.
Community based approach helps to strengthen the capacity of tour organizations in
identifying problems and solving them accordingly
This kind of approach helps the tour managers to strengthen the capacity of tour organizations in
the way of identifying the exact problems or areas of improvements and taking appropriate
measures accordingly to improve those with the help of the local people (Zaharia et al., 2018).
Community based approach help in the traditional development of tour destinations
This kind of approach helps the tour managers in the way of overall traditional development of
the tour destinations.
Community based approach helps the tour organizations in restoring and protecting the
cultural heritage of local tour destinations
This kind of approach helps tour managers in restoring and protecting the entire cultural heritage
of local tour destinations (Kwong and Mohamed, 2018).
Community based approach helps the tour organizations to include various members with
powers for assistance and guidance
This kind of approach helps tour managers to take assistance and financial help from various
influential persons for developing destinations further.
Community based approach helps the tour organizations in identifying the appropriate
resources that are essential for tourism development
This approach helps tour managers to identify and allocate appropriate resources that will help
them in overall tour development process (Bittar Rodrigues and Prideaux, 2018).
The various disadvantages of community based approach are illustrated below:
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This approach can be challenged by government bodies and other development
practitioners
One of the greatest disadvantages of this kind of approach is that it can be challenged by most of
the government bodies and other practitioners if it fails to maintain the standards set by them.
This approach can increase the possibility of conflicts due to difference in views and
opinions of community people and tour managers
Another disadvantage of this kind of approach is that it can increase the possibility of conflicts
between tour managers and local people if their views and opinions are mismatched, which can
create a lot of trouble for the visitors (Bittar Rodrigues and Prideaux, 2018).
This approach can sometimes lead to ineffective decision making procedures due to lack of
complete participation of all the members
Another disadvantage can be the lack of active participation of all local bodies in the planning
processes which can create miscommunication and ineffective decisions, thus hampering the
entire process of tourism development.
Due to lack of this kind of approach, most of the third world countries are lacking behind. The
greatest example can be Turkey. Though tour organizations of Turkey has applied strategic
tourism planning effectively but still those lacks in the community approach procedures which
has made the country still a developing nation in terms of tourism. Tour organizations of Turkey
need to apply this kind of approach in order to reform and preserve the cultural heritage of the
local destinations along with protecting the interests of local people as well. This process will
help them to reduce the financial burden and develop tourist spots effectively with the help of
local people and other influential bodies (Bittar Rodrigues and Prideaux, 2018). Thus, it will
further help the country to become a developed nation in respect of tourism effectively.
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