BASIC CONCEPTS IN TOURISM

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1
Dorosan, Kristian Joseph
Leonidas, John Paulo
PLANNING
is one of the most fundamental skills that you will need as future tourism
professionals.

Your planning skills will get better with experience, and you will gain a lot of
that when you enter the "real world."
 Tourism Policy is defined as
a set of rules, regulations, guidelines, directives, and development/promotion

objectives and strategies that provide framework within which the collective, as
Tourism Policy, Tourism well as individual decisions directly affecting long-term tourism development and
Planning and the daily activities within the destination are taken"
Tourism Product Development
Tourism Plan is an output of the tourism planning process:
•Gathering and evaluating information to identify and prioritize current tourism
developments.
•Imagining a desired future state of tourism in the destination.
•Choosing from a number of alternatives in achieving them.

In technical terms tourism planning process involves:

•Situational Analysis
•Setting Vision, Goals & Objectives
•Strategies
New Zealand's Tourism Recreation and Education Centre provides these
definitions:

•Vision - a desired future state of the destination

•Goals - broad-based targets for tourism

•Objectives - targets that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound

•Strategies - the method by which objectives will be achieved.

The National Tourism Development Plan provides an illustration of an action
plan for accomplishing the goals of improving market access and connectivity
at the national level
•Renegotiation of Air Service Agreements with key growth markets to include all international
airports as points that can be served by international carriers of other countries

•Reducing foreign carrier operations in the Philippines by removing ad hoc charges such as Customs,
Immigration, and Quarantine Services (CIOS) overtime costs, and eliminating the common carriers
and tax on gross Philippine billings that reduce the competitiveness of the Philippines a destination
through higher airfares.

•Simplifying border formalities/procedures for key growth markets such as China.

•Improving sea and road transportation services focusing on safety, reliability, frequency of service,
and ability to book a sear online.
 Tourism Planning Dimension
The Complexity of tourism plans varies according to
LEVEL, TIME FRAME, SCOPE & SPACE.

•LEVEL

Depending on the scope and detail involved, a tourism plan may be carried out at the international, national, regional,

provincial, municipal/city, or site level.

The TMP basically sought to increase supply capacities in order to promote increased tourist arrivals to the country. It

focused on international inbound tourism.

 The closest example for a regional tourism master plan is the Samar Island
Tourism Master Development Plan (2012)
which covers the provinces of Northern Samar, Western Samar, and Eastern Samar. The plan also integrated Tacloban
City, Leyte, as the gateway to several destinations in Samar Island.

•TIME FRAME

All plans are future-oriented and these plans may be short-,medium-, or long-term

The first Philippine Tourism Master Plan was a long-term plan covering the years from 1991 to 2011. The present
National Tourism Development Plan is a medium-term plan, covering the period 2011-2016
 3. SCOPE

A tourism plan may be comprehensive in scope or focused as on one or just a few aspects of tourism planning.

A Master Plan is actually composed of several smaller plans

•Physical (Structure plan & the transportation infrastructure plan)

•Environmental Management Plan
•Conservation Management Plan
•Entrepreneurship Development Plan
•Various Sustainable Development Proposal
•Implementation Plan
 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities &
Threats
• Policies & Regulations
• Environmental Sustainability The SWOT analysis may use the tourism competitiveness

• Safety & Security framework of the World Economic Forum

• Health & Hygiene

• Prioritization of Travel & Tourism
• Air Transportation
• Ground Transportation
• Tourism Infrastructure
• Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure
• Price Competitiveness
• Human Resources
• Affinity for travel & Tourism

• Natural Resources
• Cultural Resources
 SPATIAL UNITS

The space covered in tourism planning is called a tourism development 01 TOURIST SITE
unit. The Department of Tourism-Japan International Cooperation
02 TOURIST DEVELOPMENT AREA
Agency (DOT-JICA) and the UNESCO provide
the following spatial concepts 03 TOURISM CLUSTER

04 TOURISM CIRCUITS

05 TOURISM CORRIDOR
01 TOURIST SITE
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 customer or market, including climate, scenery, activities, and culture”.

There are four categories of attractions:

• Geophysical - Landscape - Aesthetic
• Ecological - Biological
• Cultural - Historical
• Recreational
 •Geophysical - Landscape - Aesthetic
•Mountains
•Gorges •Unusual Meteorological Condition (eg., high velocity wind behavior)
•Big Rocks •Thermal Waters
•Rock Formations •Volcanic Activity
•Caves •Unusual Celestial Events (eg., Northern Lights, Meteor Showers or Star Gazing)
•Rivers
•Water Bodies
•Scenic Views

2. Ecological - Biological
•Organisms (their parts, behaviors, aggregations, or association in communities with other organisms)
•Ecological events or process (decomposition, reproduction, predation, migration and fossil remains)
 Cultural - Historical
•Churches
•Human constructions, practices, and remains (archeological)
•Historical Houses
•Manifestations of human evolution and cultural expressions
•Archeological Sites
•Ideas of particular individuals or events that are interpreted
•Ancient Monuments
through objects and places like a house or a person’s possession •Amusement Parks
(e.g., house of a national hero) •Theme Parks
•Buildings which may be tourism-specific and/or not tourism- •Open Air Museums
specific attractions •Exhibitions Centers
•Craft Centers
•Casinos
•Health Complexes
•Picnic Sites
Recreational •Retail Complexes
•Theme Parks
•Botanical Gardens
•Sports Fields
•Motion-based attractions
•Zoos
•Museums
•Theaters
•Shopping Malls
•Events
 02 TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AREA
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AREA
Tourism Development Area is an area designated for possessing an important site or groups of tourist sites.

03 TOURISM CLUSTER
TOURISM CLUSTER
is composed of two or more TDAs. The Central Visayas Tourism Cluster in the NTDP consists of five TDAs,
namely

•Northern Cebu-Bantayan-MaIapascua,
•Metro Cebu-Mactan-Olango Island
•Southern Cebu
•Negros Oriental-Dumaguete-Siquijor
•Tagbilaran-Panglao Island.
04 TOURISM CIRCUIT
TOURISM CIRCUIT

Tourism Circuit is defined as a route involving at least three major tourist destinations which are
located in different towns, villages or cities (tourism.gov.in,2013); and the destinations share common
characteristics or themes.

05 TOURISM CORRIDOR

TOURISM CORRIDOR

It refers to a route defined by a theme spanning several countries or even continents.

 20 Clusters composed of existing and emerging Tourism Development Areas
identified by National Tourism Development Plan

Northern Philippines Central Philippines Southern Philippines

•Batanes, Cagayan Coast, Babuyan •Bicol •Surigao-Dinagat Island

Islands •Marinduque-Mindoro- •Cagayan de Oro Coast and
•Laoag-Vigan Romblon Hinterland
•Sierra Madre •Palawan •Zamboanga Peninsula
•Cordillera •Western Visayas •Davao Gulf and Coast
•Lingayen Gulf •Central Visayas •Cotabato-Sarangani
•Central Luzon •Eastern Visayas •ARMM
•Metro Manila and CALABARZON
 TOURISM DESTINATION

•Any tourism development unit regardless of the area, number, and levels of political units involved may comprise a tourism
destination

•The UNWTO (2014) defines a tourism destination as a physical space in which a visitor spends at least one overnight.
TOURISM CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR
PLANNING IMPLICATIONS
 THE BENEFITS OF TOURISM PLANNING

•Planning forces us to focus on the task at hand and to think critically.

•Planning prevents waste of time, money, and effort.
•Planning helps avoid mistakes that can lead to irreparable damage to destinations.
•Tourism planning contributes to the development of social capital by building trust and support among

various stakeholders in a destination.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
•Availability and quality of Tourism-relevant data
The availability of up-to-date and comprehensive tourism-relevant data affects the level of accuracy estimating supply
capacity, forecasting demand, and monitoring outcomes

•Caliber of Planning Expertise

The caliber of planning expertise determines the quality of planning outputs.

•Type and Variety of Tourism Resources

The type and variety of tourism resources in the tourism development unit limits options for tourism product
development.

•Kind of Tourism Resources in Adjacent Destinations

A destination needs to differentiate its product with real or imagined uniqueness to compete with
destinations offering similar attractions.
•Kind of Tourism Resources in Adjacent Destinations (Cont.)

According to Prof. Felipe de Leon Jr., a destination can compete by establishing its cultural
identity in terms of the following:

•Originality
•Indigenousness
•Authenticity
•Uniqueness
•Historicity
•Magnitude
•Excellence
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
•Culture of the Destination Residents
The cultural characteristics of a destination have an impact on the kind of tourists that
are attracted to it.

•Geographic Location and Spatial Distribution of the Tourism Development Units

Geographic location has direct impacts on several factors that affect tourism development such as climate,
security, vulnerability to natural disasters, and infrastructure requirements
•Target Market
Market Volume and characteristics influence the kind of amenities and services that are offered in the destination.

•Stages in the Tourism Area Life Cycle

Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) was conceived by Butler in 1980 and has become a popular model for analyzing
the development of a tourist destination.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
TALC also affects the choice of marketing strategies. Andriotis (2001) prescribed possible
measures at each stage.
Exploration and Involvement
•Selling new products/services to new markets (Ansoff 1965)
•Building market share (Health and Wall 1992)

Development Stage
•Overall cost leadership strategy
•Differentation trategy
•Focus or Niche Strategy

Consolidation and Stagnation Stages

• Selling new products/services to existing markets (Ansoff 1965)

•Maintain market share
•Selling existing products/services to existing markets (Ansoff 1965)
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
TALC also affects the choice of marketing strategies. Andriotis (2001) prescribed possible
measures at each stage.

Decline
•Harvesting
•Ceasing operations (withdrawal)

Rejuvenation
•Offer existing products/services to new markets (Ansoff 1965)
• Boost sales, revenue growth, and high market share (Henderson 1979)
• Reposition from "commodity" to a position of "status" by product differentiation (Gilbert 1990)
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
•Tourism Development Paradigm
The development paradigm or philosophy held by the most influential actors in tourism development
defines the choice of issues, goals, and strategies of tourism development.

•National Tourism Policy and Legislation

These set parameters to what can and cannot be done.

•Stakeholders' Perceptions and Attitudes

This factor affects the degree of support the stakeholders give to tourism development.

•Awareness of External Forces

Tourism Planners must also be conscious of external developments that can affect the viability of planned
tourism projects.
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT

These priority areas are outlined in the Republic Act (RA) 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009 and translated into plans in the
National Tourism Development Plan for 2011-2016. Section 2 of RA 9593 states that:
“The state declares tourism as an indispensable element of the national economy and an industry of national interest and
importance, which must be harnessed as an engine of socio-economic growth and cultural affirmation to generate investment,
foreign exchange, and employment, and to continue to mold an enhanced sense of national pride for all Filipinos.”
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT

Some aspects of the external environment which could impact tourism include:

•The trend toward instant gratification, health, and fitness consciousness

•Aging population in the source markets

•Rise of China, India, and Russia in the world economy

•The convergence of technology, broader access to internet, and the growing use of social media

•Climate change, global warming, deforestation, species extinction

•Passage of pro-tourism laws, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
 FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR EFFECTIVE TOURISM
PLANNING DEVELOPMENT

•Financial Capital Requirements

The amount of financial capital required by a tourism project and the ability to raise such amount are also

a major consideration in whether to proceed with tourism development or not.

 BASIC CONCEPTS IN TOURISM
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
•Planning is one of the most fundamental skills that you will need as future tourism professionals. This is because every
company that you will want to work with makes plans at every level of the organization, that includes the company that you
might want to establish on your own. Every project or program that you will propose will require some budget, the approval of
which depends on the quality of your proposal, which is essentially a plan. Planning sets the stage for the other major tasks of
management, such as implementing and monitoring. The success of any activity is benchmarked against the set objectives,
which are formulated during the planning stage.
•Your planning skills will get better with experience, and you will gain a lot of that when you enter the "real world." For now, it
is important that you gain a thorough conceptual understanding of tourism planning. We begin by presenting fundamental
concepts in tourism planning and development.
 TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

•Tourism policy is defined as “a set of rules, regulations, guidelines, directives, and development/promotion objectives and
strategies that provide framework within which the collective, as well as individual decisions directly affecting long-term
tourism development and the daily activities within the destination are taken” (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2003 p. 413 in Scott
2011)
•Tourism policy is one of the primary bases of tourism planning, along with national (e.g., Tourism Act of 2009: National
Integrated Protected Areas system (NIPAS) Act of 1992, local development plans, land use plans, natural and cultural assets of
the place, environmental policy, cultural policy, foreign policy, and expressed national or local needs.
 TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

•Tourism has become a major pillar of the Philippine economy because it offers much greater latitude for creating employment
and livelihood opportunities, compared to other economic activities.
•As such, tourism enables the attainment of inclusive growth and poverty alleviation
 TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

A tourism plan is an output of the tourism planning process. Tourism planning is the process of

•Gathering and evaluating information to identify and prioritize current tourism developments
•Imagining a desired future state of tourism in the destination
•Choosing from a number of alternatives in achieving them
TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

In technical terms tourism planning process involves

•Situational analysis
•Setting vision, goals, and objectives
•strategies
 TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

New Zealand’s Tourism Recreation and Education Centre provides these definitions:
•Vision – a desired future state of the destination
•Goals – broad-based targets for tourism (e.g. to modernize the international airport)
•Objectives – targets that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound (e.g. to increase passenger handling
capacity of an Airport to two million a year starting in 2016)
•Strategies – the method by which objectives will be achieved (e.g. public-private partnership arrangement)
TOURISM POLICY, TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
For short-term and medium-term plans, in addition to the plans should also contain an implementation or action plan, which

provides a detailed list of activities that need to be done within each strategy. The National Tourism Development Plan
provides an illustration of an action plan for accomplishing the goals of improving market access and connectivity at the

national level
•Renegotiation of Air Service Agreements with key growth markets to include all international airports as points that can be

served by international carriers of other countries

•Reducing foreign carrier operations in the Philippines by removing ad hoc charges such as Customs, Immigration, and

Quarantine Services (CIOS) overtime costs, and eliminating the common carriers and tax on gross Philippine billings that
reduce the competitiveness of the Philippines a destination through higher airfares.
•Simplifying border formalities/procedures for key growth markets such as China.

•Improving sea and road transportation services focusing on safety, reliability, frequency of service and ability to book a sear
online.

The action plan can get more detailed at lower levels, timeframes and scopes Of These concepts will be discussed in detail in
the following section.
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS

•The complexity of tourism plans varies according to level, time frame, scope, and space.
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS
LEVELS
•Depending on the scope and detail involved, a tourism plan may be carried out at the international, national, regional,
provincial, municipal/city, or site level. An example of international tourism planning is the Greater Mekong Subregion
Tourism Development Project, which covers Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic {Lao POR), Myanmar, Thailand,
Vietnam, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan province in the People's Republic of China. It is funded by the
Asian Development Bank. An even bigger one is the Silk Road Heritage Corridors initiative of the United Nations World
Tourism Organization-United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNWTO-UNESCO), which involves
countries in Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The Philippine Tourism Master Plan (TMP) of 1991-2011,
and the (Philippine) National Tourism Development pian (NTDP) of 2011-2016 are examples of national-level tourism plans.
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS
LEVELS
•The TMP basically sought to increase supply capacities in order to promote increased tourist arrivals to the country. It focused
on international inbound tourism. Some of the recommendations in the TMP that have been implemented were the adding of
more international airports to the Philippines, expansion of accommodation capacities outside of Metro Manila, and the
deregulation of air transportation industry. The NTDP, on the other hand, adopts an “inclusive and sustainable development"
framework, focusing on “improving market access and connectivity”, “developing and marketing competitive destinations and
products” and “improving tourism institutional governance and human resource capacities”. The NTDP recommended the
development of 20 strategic thematic tourism clusters in the country, built around key products of nature tourism, cultural
tourism, sun and beach tourism, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), and events, health wellness and
retirement, cruise and nautical tourism, shopping, leisure and entertainment, diving, marine and sports tourism, and educational
tourism.
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS

LEVELS
•The closest example for a regional tourism master plan is the Samar Island Tourism Master Development Pian (2012), which
covers the provinces of Northern Samar, Western Samar, and Eastern Samar. The plan also integrated Tacloban City, Leyte, as
the gateway to several destinations in Samar Island. As such, the plan covers four out of the six provinces in Region 8, the two
others being Biliran and Southern Leyte. An example of a provincial tourism plan is the Bohol Tourism Master Plan (2007). An
example of site-level tourism plan is the Community-Based Sustainable Tourism Master Plan in Ulugan Bay, Puerto Princesa

City (1999)
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS

TIME FRAME
•All plans are future-oriented and these plans may be short-,medium-, or long-term. Short-term usually means two years or less
in the future, medium-term is two to five years, and long-term as five years and up. The first Philippine Tourism Master Plan
was a long-term plan covering the years from 1991 to 2011. The present National Tourism Development Plan is a medium-term
plan, covering the period 2011-2016
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS

SCOPE
•A tourism plan may be comprehensive in scope or focused as on one or just a few aspects of tourism planning. A
comprehensive tourism plan is also known as Master Plan. A Master Plan is actually composed of several smaller plans. The
Bohol (Province) Tourism Master Plan (2007) has six principal components: namely, physical (structure plan and the
transportation infrastructure plan); environmental management plan; conservation management plan; entrepreneurship
development plan; various sustainable development proposal; and the implementation plan. Other master plans may include

institutional framework plan, human resource development plan, marketing plan, and investment promotion plan.
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS

SCOPE
•Most plans start with a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)analysis. The SWOT analysis may use the
tourism competitiveness framework of the World Economic Forum, which analyzes how a country fares in terms of the
following aspects: policies and regulations, environmental sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene, prioritization
of travel and tourism, air transportation, ground transportation, tourism infrastructure, and Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) infrastructure. price competitiveness, human resources, affinity for travel and tourism, natural resources, and
cultural resources
•A tourism plan may concentrate on just one or two specific components. A tourism plan developed by the UNWTO for Sri
Lanka after the asian tsunami in 2004 focused on developing livelihood for the coastal areas of the island. A tourism plan for
North Korea (2006) dwelt on product development and promotion, and upgrading the country's service standards
 TOURISM PLANNING DIMENSIONS

SPATIAL UNITS
the space covered in tourism planning is called a tourism development unit. The Department of Tourism-Japan International
Cooperation Agency (DOT-JICA) and the UNESCO provide the following spatial concepts
•Tourist site
•Tourist development area
•Tourism cluster
•Tourism circuits

•Tourism corridor
 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 customer or market, including climate, scenery, activities, and culture”.
It may be any “object, person, place, or concept that draws people either geographically or through remote electronic means so
that they might have an experience. The experience can be recreational, spiritual, or otherwise” (Strange, et.al)
 Tourist Site

There are four categories of attractions:

•Geophysical-landscape-aesthetic
•Ecological-biological
•Cultural-historical
•Recreational
 Geophysical-landscape-aesthetic

•Mountains •Unusual Meteorological Conditions (e.g., high velocity

•Gorges wind behavior)
•Big Rocks
•Thermal Waters
•Rock Formations
•Volcanic Activity
•Caves
•Rivers •Unusual Celestial Events (e.g., Northern Lights, Meteor
•Water Bodies Showers or Star Gazing)
•Scenic Views
 Ecological-biological

•Organisms (their parts, behaviors, aggregations, or association in communities with other organisms)
•Ecological events or process (decomposition, reproduction, predation, migration and fossil remains)
 Tourist Site
•Attractions can vary in scale of popularity – local, regional, national, or international. An attraction, which is generally found
on a single site or smaller delimited geographical area based on a single key feature forms part of a tourist site. In turn, tourist
sites make up tourism development area. A number of TDAs comprise a tourism cluster
•Swarbrooke (1995) classified attractions according to ownership, being primary or secondary attraction, catchment area,
visitor numbers, location, size, and target markets, and benefits sought by visitors. Attractions maybe owned by the
government, private company, or individual, non-governmental organization, private foundation, or be jointly owned between
public and private entities.
•Primary attractions are those that provide the main reason why most visitors come to a destination. An example of a primary
attraction is the white sands of Boracay or Disneyland theme parks. Secondary attractions are places that complement the
primary attractions but are not “must-see”. Location can be urban or rural, coastal or beach, island, mountains, historic town,
etc
 Tourism Development Area

•A tourism development area is an area designated for possessing an important site or groups of tourist sites. Any town or city
that has one or more tourist sites can be considered as a TDA. For instance, Baguio City, which has several important tourist
sites is an example of a TDA. There is Session Road for shopping, dining and entertainment, the Mines View Park, Philippine
Military Academy, Wright Park, and several others. A TDA may also cover more than one town or city, such as Vigan-Laoag
TDA
T h a n k
you!