Tourism Planning

ORAL QUIZ

1. Why is there a need for Tourism Planning?

Importance of proper tourism planning? (1) Destinations receive material benefits from tourism but seek cultural acceptance and equality with the cultures of tourist in exchange for the welcome that they extend. (2) Attitude of the host toward guest could change when certain capacity limit is reached. (3) Indiscriminate tourism growth and opening new destinations without proper tourism planning and development could have serious long - term negative impacts on the environment, social, and culture of receiving areas. Planning is the process of setting goals, selecting alternative courses of action to achieve those goals, implementing the chosen alternative, and evaluating the choices to find out if it is successful. In our government today we are lacking in this last step because we don't test if the solutions really answer the problem. There is a need for Tourism planning so we can avoid decline in our industry. This can also provide guidelines for areas in which the government and the private sector have little or no experience on how to develop these areas, we can also coordinate among different sectors to better the needs of tourism and the general public, help achieve direct and indirect economic benefits, help attain environmental conservation objectives, help achieve cultural conservation objectives and produce socio - cultural benefits, invigorate poorly developed tourism destinations, and develop necessary training programs and facilities. But we should remember that successful tourism planning requires suitable attractions, planning, commitment, and management.

2. What are the levels of Tourism planning and why is it important to have levels in Tourism Planning?

Tourism development plans are implemented at several levels: (1) International level that refers to the global scale of tourism in terms of tourism potentials, problems, policies, and standards. It includes international transportation services, the movement and scheduling of tours of tourists among different countries, and development of major tourist attractions and facilities in neighboring countries as well as the working strategies and promotional programs of many countries. (2) National planning in recognition that tourism is a viable economic activity for the country. It requires need for national policies, committing resources of national government for tourism development, mobilization of government structures at all levels, and goal is to develop tourism in best interests of the country in cooperation with private sector. (3) Regional planning refers to tourism planning for one region of a country. (4) Destination planning could be as small as a resort complex or as large as one or more local communities. It deals with individual objects.

Tourism plans must be prepared at various levels. Planning connects the upper and lower level elements of the system. This level of Tourism planning especially the national planning is integrated with the international planning. As we can see these levels is sequence from general to specific. This is because general levels provide the framework and guidance for preparing specific plans.

3. What are the Tourism Goals, Objectives, and Strategies cited in the Philippines Tourism Masterplan? Do you think these are achievable?

TOURISM GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES

The extent to which there can be a commitment to expanding tourism, using increasingly scarce public sector resources, especially in light of the need to divert funds to disaster relief, will depend upon the level of investment involved, and ultimately on the extent to which this will contribute to economic, social and environmental goals and objectives.

At a national level, the main goals of tourism master plan must be to:

 optimize the contribution of tourism to economic growth at a national and regional level;

 enhance and contribute to social cohesion and cultural preservation at a local level;

develop tourism on an environmentally sustainable basis; and

 develop a diversity of destination, attractions and markets to minimize exposure to major internal threats to tourism activities.

The results of an evaluation of the alternative strategies available to achieve these goals and objectives concluded that the best strategy would be to:

 adopt a cluster development approach based on the establishment of three main international gateways and associated satellite destinations;

 adopt a niche/mass market approach based on diverse mix of special interest, vacation, resort, convention, exhibition, touring and incentive travel products; and

 work towards a balance of development between foreign and domestic tourism

Given the restraint on the provision of infrastructure in the short to medium term, the implementation of strategic objectives will need to be phased. Up to 1993, the focus should be on:

 completing the development of key infrastructure projects;

 planning strategic infrastructure and resort development;

 making the best use of existing tourist attractions, facilities and markets;

 unlocking policy constraints and streamlining the institutional structure; and

 developing contingency plans.

Yes, it is all achievable. Its goals and objectives are can be achieve with right tourism planning. We should just know what we value and why we need to value these things. We have suitable attractions that we should be proud of. We also have strategies on how we can developed it all we need is to have commitment and management to this place, tourist and the local community. We should think deeply from all directions and look if we are following the principles of sustainable tourism.

4. Who are the key players in Tourism Planning and what are the roles they play in tourism planning?

The key players in Tourism Planning are the tourists, host community, government, tourism industry, NGOs, and the media. First in our key players are the tourists who are the major source of revenue in our industry. As part of the industry we should cater their wants because they have their rights as a tourist