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Tourism Policy

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2674-1

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 © Springer International Publishing AG 2016
Ali Farazmand
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance
10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2674-1

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Tourism Policy
María Velasco1
(1)Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

María Velasco
Email: mvelasco@ucm.es

Synonyms
Tourism public action; Tourism government decisions or nondecisions; Public tourism
objectives; Tourism public planning

Definition
Tourism policy is a set of discourses, decisions, and practices driven by governments,
sometimes in collaboration with private or social actors, with the intention to achieve diverse
objectives related to tourism.

Introduction
Tourism is a relatively young phenomenon which involves the development of a singular and
important economic sector. From the very beginning, that economic dimension of tourism has
been the main priority for governments, and this has also been reflected in the tourism policy
research. In fact it is very common considering tourism policy as a part of the economic policy,
but tourism is much more than an economic sector. Tourism is probably one of the most
determinant influences on our societies, and it will remain AS a key issue in the future.

The aim of the present text is to contribute to the debate on the nature, content, and
instruments of tourism policy by expanding the scientific approaches to this issue and
furthering the understanding of public decisions related to tourism.

The analytical perspective of policy analysis is used to propose an operative definition of

tourism policy, enumerate the constitutive elements of this type of public action, and describe
the instruments available to public decision-makers in order to reach the intended objectives.
A Public Policy for a Multifaceted Phenomenon
Tourism is a key economic sector. It has positive impacts on economy due to the fact that it
could be an interesting surplus on the balance of payments and that it is a very labor-intensive
sector (WTO 2012a, b). The employment development related to the activity has also benefited
from the continued growth of domestic and international demand during the last 50 years.
However, tourism also has some negative economic impacts, like the increase of prices in tourist
destinations, the unequal distribution of the benefits, strong international inflows, economic
inequality between population of tourist destinations (Wall and Mathieson 2006), and the
quality of employment has different problems (ILO 2010). In this case the rationality of public
policies had to be explained through the market’s failures with regard to public assets.
Effectiveness efficiency become the reference values.
Tourism is also a key cultural factor. It has become a fertile mechanism to make different
cultures come together, to fostering communication, and to allowing people to understand the
richness of our diversity. Tourism had increased the awareness about heritage, and inverstment
in conservation had been made due to the interest of more people. On the other hand, problems
of authenticity had been highlighted by different researches (MacCannell, 2013); tourism can
cause an intense acculturation process, especially towards fragile cultures. Much of the
investment in culture attractions is not intended to be oriented to citizens, but to foreign tourist
(McKercher and Du Cros 2002).
Something similar occurs if to the environment dimension is considered. Tourism had been a
crucial element to unfold more effective environmental protection policies, but there is a deep
controversy about the negative impact of the activity related with the uncontrolled tourism
development, the urbanization of natural areas, and the overconsumption of natural resources
(Gössling 2002).

If we look at the research dimension, we also find complexity. The different fields of knowledge
emphasize specific dimensions of the issue and overshadow others. To advance in the study of
the tourism policy, it is better to assume that:

1. Tourism has a multifaceted nature. It is no possible to build a universally accepted definition

of tourism, but rather definitions which make sense to each one of the related scientific
fields which may engage in the analysis of the issue. Only if we have significant definitions to
our scientific field it will be possible to improve our understanding.
2. Tourism can be studied from a range of different disciplines, and the sum of all these
contributions will enrich the resulting analysis.
3. Tourism is an issue that has only recently come to the fore and thus has to compete for the
attention of a scientific community which is focused on dealing with far more established
study objectives. Notwithstanding this tension, tourism is an important issue in all
disciplines now.

A Broader Definition of Tourism Policy

Tourism policy has been the subject of extensive research over the past decades (Hall 1994,
2011; Hall and Jenkins 1995; Branwell 2006; Burns and Novelli 2007; Branwell and Meyer 2007;
Dredge and Jenkins 2011), and there have been relevant efforts to incorporate the main
discussions in the field of public policy to the subject of tourism policy (Hall, 2005, Scott 2011);
nevertheless, “the field is not as well served as it could be” (Hall 2014:537), and many issues
regarding tourism policy still need to be addressed.
A broader definition of tourism should be adopted to be able to extend the analytical boundaries
of the tourism policy arena. This definition should considerer the issue from a dynamic and
reticular viewpoint, admitting tourism policy is about dispute between interests which have
different power, ideologies, and values. Is that a complex reality, which perfectly fits into the
image of “wicked problem,” which requires the design and implementation of public actions?
Tourism creates a wide variety of interactions and relationships deriving from the processes
whereby citizens are attracted to, stay, and take up occasional residence in a particular
territory. Considering that, tourism policy could be defined as a set of discourses, decisions, and
practices taken by governments, sometimes in collaboration with private or social actors, with
the intention to achieve diverse objectives related to tourism.
Tourism policy is an intentional course of action which goes beyond the level of theoretical
reflection and political intention materialized into real actions, involving the use of public
resources. It is also integrated by consistent actions or, at least, actions which were designed to
be consistent.
Governments should be a central actor; nevertheless, tourism policy does not necessarily have
to be promoted and implemented exclusively by public actors. Precisely the opposite, it is
essential to involve private and social actors in the process. This is an issue connected with the
rich and interesting raise of the studies focused on governance, which rightly question the role
of the government nowadays (Hall 2011; Bramwell and Lane 2013).

Tourism Policy Objectives

Tourism policies combine in a diverse manner five major objectives related to the nature of the
phenomenon and their different dimensions (Velasco 2004). There are differences in intensity
and degree on the government aims depending on the political system, the level of overall
economic development, and the level of tourism development of the destination.
The first objective is to pursue tourism growth or remain competitive, in the case of mature
destinations. Whereas in new or emerging tourist destinations, the governments usually
consider the following objectives:

1. To promote the destination trying to improve internal and external tourism demand.
2. To achieve international tourism growth and increase foreign currency income to
support the balance of payments.
3. To establish public institutions, national tourism administrations in terms of WTO (
1997), to stimulate tourism growth and to do so in a sustainable manner.
4. To increase awareness of the importance of the activity among entrepreneurships and
private sector in order to make tourism more attractive for private investment. It has
also been a common practice to atract public companies in order to have a
demonstration effect.
5. To support the right to travel and move freely as laid out in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Tourism can be an instrument stated of peace since it encourages people
to become closer and means a better understanding of other cultures.
In the case of mature destinations, the major objective should be to maintain the level of
international competitiveness through marketing and international promotion and to
modernize and reassess programs.
The second objective is related to spatial dimensions of tourism and its impacts on land use
dynamics. Here the central concept is the idea of planning, a precess to achieve a better spatial
distribution of tourism activities, promoting the use of untapped resources, or improving local
participation in decision-making process related to sustainable strategies. Some common aims
are:
1. To formulate development strategies and programs.
2. To invest in better mobility systems in the tourism areas to help manage tourism flows
and build of tourism-related infrastructure (like marinas or theme parks).
3. To invest public budget in tourism-related resources, for instance, in order to make
accessible new coastal areas or investing in cultural and natural heritage restoration.
4. Recently, as the tourism has own objectives related to the reinforcement of the
coexistence between tourists and locals have started to appear. In some destinations,
the problems that local communities are suffering – disrespectful behavior or noise – lie
at the heart of the public debate.

Thirdly, as tourism is also an experience or service consumed by people, there are objectives
related to provide a safe, satisfying, and fulfilling experience for visitors. Common aims could
be:

1. To protect tourism-consumer
2. To improve the regulation framework across different tourism subsectors through the
adoption of regulations concerning safety levels in accommodation, travel
intermediation, as well as new products such as active tourism
3. To promote actions to improve quality standards of tourism products and customer
attention, usually through training programs.

In the fourth place, coordination appears to be a central need due to the transversal nature of
the issue. In tourism, policies often appear, as objectives:

1. To stablish coordination bodies to coordinate actors from different backgrounds and

different subsectors (culture, environment, infrastructure, etc.).
2. To create Destination Management Organizations (DMO, in WTO terms) involving public
and private sector and other different stakeholders.
3. To stimulate business platforms, as clusters or product clubs to pursue better
competitiveness.
4. Finally, tourism is considered a young phenomenon which is in a process of constant
change.

In order to intervene on the tourist market with a strategic vision, it is necessary to have
updated information and have expertise that can be applied by various actors.
The tourism sector is comprised mostly by small and medium enterprises. Typically, these
business structures cannot bear the cost of research and produce knowledge, although they are
the ones who have daily contact with the reality of the activity. The dynamics of the
phenomenon makes public decision-making difficult.
Therefore, one of the classic goals in tourism policy is to invest in research and production of
knowledge and ideas and to create tools that enable innovation and improvement spread. This
objective is carried out through:

1. Establishing institutes or research entities and analysis to have a more precise

knowledge of the tourism phenomenon and its changes
2. Generating knowledge that will help manage business decisions, like new management
tools
3. Disseminating information to help business decision-making, like data conjuncture of
sending countries or new market niches
4. Supporting innovation process sector

Policy Instruments for Tourism Policy

Any of the above objectives can be achieved by using some of the instruments that governments
have. Instruments can be defined as the techniques or means through which governments
attempt to attain their goals (Howllet 2001).
One of the most cited typology of instruments was initially proposed by Hood ( 1986; Hood and
Margetts 2007) and completed by Howllet ( 2011). This typology contains the following
categories:

Organization: By using both human and material resources, different organizations allow the
government to act on a particular matter. These organizations can be traditional
bureaucratic organizations, public enterprises, or other hybrid entities.

Authority: Regulations control or prevent some types of behavior and are usually used to
confer rights or impose obligations.

Treasure: Different measures attempt to align the goals of nonpublic actors with objectives
that are fixed by the policy. These measures may fundamentally relate to economic
incentives but can also be honorific.

Knowledge and information: Provision and diffusion of knowledge and information.

By adapting these categories to the tourism arena, we propose to consider that there are five
differentiated categories of instruments which can be used by public decision-makers:
organizational instruments, regulatory instruments, incentive and promotion instruments,
improving knowledge instruments, and communication instruments (Velasco González 2004).

1. Organizational instruments. Institutions who design, implement, or merely act on

tourism policy. For the development of any policy, program, or action, it is always
necessary to have some institution who manages programs and actions using both
human and material resources. The institutional framework is a key element in any
policy and thus in tourism policy. There are three basic types: the traditional
administrative political structures, the executive structures dependent of the formers
 and usually related to marketing and destination promotion, and structures of
cooperation between public and private actors.

2. Norms or regulations of a compulsory character. They confer rights or impose

obligations related to tourism and they stablish direct or indirect government
regulation.

3. Incentive and promotion instruments. Instruments that seek to stimulate private actors
to be aligned with the goals of tourism policy, usually through economic stimuli that are
articulated through grants, soft loans, subsidies, and tax credits. It could also honorific.

4. Improving knowledge instruments. Related to the need to generate relevant data on

tourism, the importance for investigations in this field, and the willingness to help
tourism knowledge. An example would be plans or programs that seek to promote
R+D+i in tourism or generate information systems to support decision-making.

5. Communication tools. The use of mass media could be both for raising awareness of
specific values, as hospitality, and for supporting promotional campaigns of tourism
destinations.

There are subsets of policy tools that are more feasible and appropriate at a given time. Not all
of these instruments need to be used, or used at the same time, although the conclusions of
other analyses indicate that the combination of several is usually more fruitful than the use of a
single instrument. This is because each instrument has its own distinctive character and is
geared to a specific objective being pursued by a government through its tourism policy (Table
1).

Table 1. Instruments for tourism policies

Instruments Nature Purpose

Institutional Binding for the

Self-organization
arrangements government

Regulatory instruments Compulsory Regulation and control

Incentive and promotion Voluntary for those

Promotion and encouraging
instruments involved

Instruments for Dissemination of knowledge,

Voluntary
improving knowledge training, and information

Communication Symbolic Dissemination of values

 instruments Promotional campaigns

Source: Velasco ( 2011)

Conclusion
There is no doubt that the analysis of tourism policy could be conducted from an economic
perspective. However this is not the only perspective that should be taken into account when
governments are facing designing tourism policy; they must also consider culture, environment,
and social dynamics. In this sense, it is necessary to use a broader definition of tourism and
tourism policy. It may be helpful and necesary to consider the issue from the perspective of the
dispute between interests which have different power, ideologies, and values. Growing
importance of conflicts emerge, and the tourism policy cannot stand aside.

There remains a need to advance in terms of research by addressing some of the central
questions facing the tourism policy today: how to combine a steadily growth with sustainable
principles; how to achieve cohabitation between tourist necessities and local, or which is the
role of the tourism policies in a better balance between costs and profits to local societies.

Cross-References
Decentralization Policy
Environmental Policy.
Ethics and Public Policy.
Governance and good government in Latin America
Local Development
Local Government
Local Public Policy
Public enterprises
Stakeholder analysis and wicked problems
Strategic Management Principles

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