INFORMATION SHEET PR-1.

1-1
“Introduction to Tourism Planning Policy and Development”

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Explain tourism planning and policy.
2. Understand tourism planning dimension.
3. Identify four categories of attraction.

TOURISM POLICY

- Is defined as “set of rules, regulations, guideline, and directives that provide framework within
which the collective, as well as individual decisions directly affecting long-term tourism
development and the daily activities within a destination are taken”.

TOURISM PLANNING

Is the process of:

1. Gathering and evaluating information to identify and prioritize current tourism
development issues,
2. Imagining a desired future state of tourism in the destination, and
3. Choosing from the number of alternatives for achieving them. This process involves:

a. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS – involves examining the environment in which a tourism

business operates to identify key factors that will influence how the business is
developed, marketed, and managed overtime as part of the strategic planning
process.
b. VISION – a desired future state of the destination.
c. GOALS – broad-based target for tourism
d. OBJECTIVES – targets that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-
bound.
e. STRATEGIES – the method by which objectives will be achieved.

TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSION

 LEVELS
- A tourism plan may be carried at the international, national, regional, provincial,
municipality, or site level.
 TIME FRAME
- All plans are future-oriented and these plans may be short, medium or long-term
 SCOPE
- refers to a project management process that defines boundaries and deliverables.
 SPATIAL UNITS
- Tourism Development unit is the space covered in tourism planning.

SPATIAL CONCEPTS provided by Department of Tourism-Japan International Cooperation Agency (DOT-

JICA) and the UNESCO:

a. Tourist site
b. Tourism Cluster
c. Tourism Circuits
d. Tourism Corridor
 a. Tourist Site
- A tourist site is an area that contains one or more tourist attractions.

A tourist attraction is defined by Tourism Western Australia (2006) as either “a physical or

cultural feature of a particular place that individual travelers or tourists perceive as capable of
meeting one or more of their specific leisure-related needs, or positive or favorable attributes of
an area for a given activity or set of activities as desired by a given costumer or market, including
climate, scenery, activities and culture”

Four (4) categories of attractions:

1. GEOPHYSICAL-LANDSCAPE-AESTHETIC
- Mountains, gorges, big rocks, rock formations, caves, rivers, water bodies, scenic views,
unusual cloud formations, unusual meteorological conditions, thermal waters, volcanic
activity and unusual celestial events.

2. ECOLOGICAL-BIOLOGICAL
- Organisms and ecological events or processes.

3. CULTURAL-HISTORICAL
- Churches, historical houses, archaeological sites, ancient monuments, amusement
parks, theme parks, open air museums, marinas, exhibition centers, craft centers,
casinos, health complexes, picnic sites and retail complexes.

4. RECREATIONAL
- Theme parks, botanical gardens, sports fields, motion-based attractions, zoos,
museums, theaters, shopping malls and events.

b. Tourist Cluster

The central visayas tourism cluster in the NTD consist of five Tourist Development Areas (TDA’s):

1. Northern Cebu Bantayan Malapascua

2. Metro Cebu Mactan Olango Island
3. Southern Cebu
4. Negros Oriental Dumaguete Siquijor
5. Tagbilaran Panglao Island

c. Tourism Circuit
- A tourism circuit is defined as a route involving at least three major tourist destination
which are located in different towns, villages or cities.
- Examples are: Gastronomic and Surfing circuit

d. Tourism Corridor
- A tourism corridor refers to a route defined by a theme spanning several countries or
even continents. The inca-corridor in south America covers Chile, Bolivia, Peru and
Ecuador. Argentina and Colombia.
that they meet consumers’ requirement
 Northern Philippines
1. Batanes Cagayan Coast And Bayuban Islands
2. Laoag Vigan (Laoag Pagudpud Vigan)

 Central Philippines
1. Bicol
2. Marinduque-Mindoro-Romblon

 Southern Philippines
1. Surigao-Dinagat Island
2. Agusan River Basin