Introduction To Tourism

Policy Formulation

SUBTOPICS
1. Introduction To Tourism Policy
2. The Purpose of Tourism Policy
3. Characteristics of Tourism Policy
4. Importance Of Tourism Policy
5. Areas Addressed by Tourism Policy
6. The Focus Of Tourism Policy
7. Tourism Policy Structure and Content

Policy
Policy is a statement made by an administrative organ
intended to achieve stated objectives and provides clear
guidelines to be followed by all those concerned.
Most common policy objectives formulated at a national
level include:
Achieving economic growth
Maintaining price stability
Maintaining full employment
Alleviating poverty
Achieving sustainable development
Environmental conservation

Tourism Policy
It is a set of regulations, rules, guidelines, directives and
development/promotional objectives and strategies that
provide a framework within which collective and
individual
decisions
directly
affecting
tourism
development and daily activities within a destination are
taken.
Tourism Policy is a progressive (sequence) of course of
actions, guidelines, directives, principles, and procedures
set in an ethical framework that is issues-focused and
best represents the intent of a community (or nation) to
effectively meet its planning, development, product,
service, marketing, and sustainability goals and
objectives for the future growth of tourism.

A tourism policy defines the direction or course of action that

a particular country, region, locality or an individual destination
plans to take when developing or promoting tourism.
The following is a set of core tourism policy component
issues
Guidelines/set of rules/regulation for the common good/influence
behaviour/education;
Framework participatory process;
Codes of conduct;
Philosophy vision to make tourism the sector;
Dynamic change;
Collaboration/converging views = effective policy;
Consensus among key stakeholders;
Based on research measurable.

Characteristics of Tourism Policy

Multidisciplinary nature of tourism policy those involved in
tourism formulation process must appreciate he complexities and
importance of each discipline and their interactions in any given
situation
It considers international and macro-level policies
It must be designed to formulate long perspective actions
It must recognize the intellectual nature of the process of policy
formulation (based on research)
It must encourage and stimulate organized creativity so as to
avoid policies based on stereotyped or outmoded perceptions
It must break traditional boundaries between sub-sectors in
tourism industry

International tourism policies,

1945present

Phase

Characteristics

19451955

The dismantling and streamlining of police, customs, currency, and health

regulations following the Second World War.

19551970

Greater government involvement in tourism marketing in order to increase

tourism earning potential.

19701985

Government involvement in the supply of tourism infrastructure and in the

use of tourism as a tool of regional development.

1985present

Continued use of tourism as a tool for regional development, increased focus

on environmental issues, reduced direct government involvement in the
supply of tourism infrastructure, greater emphasis on the development of

Late 1990s

publicprivate partnerships and industry self-regulation.

In addition to the characteristics for the period from 1985 to the present,
there is now an emerging stage of international tourism policy marked by
international regulation and agreement with respect to matters such as the
environment, trade in goods and services, investment and movement of
people.

Importance of tourism policy

Defines ruler of the game - terms under which tourism operators must function
Provides a common direction and guidance for all tourism stakeholders within
a destination
To ensure that a country has a clear idea as to where it is going or what it is
seeking to become in the long term in tourism context
Creates framework for stakeholders collaboration
Provides maximum benefits to stakeholders while minimizing negative impacts
Provides a framework for public/private sectors discussions on the roles and
contributions of tourism sector to the economy and to the society in general
Allows tourism to interface with other sectors of the economy
Seeks to provide high-quality visitor experience
Sets out activities and behaviors that are acceptable

AREAS TO BE ADDRESSED BY A
TOURISM POLICY
In general terms, a formal tourism policy for a given destination
will address (at the national level) such areas as:
Objectives and roles of tourism sector to the environmental,
sociocultural and economic development of the country
Taxation types and levels
Financing for the tourism sector
Nature and direction of product development and maintenance
Transportation, access and infrastructure
Regulatory practices
Environmental practices and restrictions

Industry image and credibility

Community relationships
Human resources and labour supply
Technology
Foreign travel rules
Marketing practices
Roles of different stakeholders in tourism development

The Focus of Tourism Policy

Tourism policy focuses on creating a competitive and
sustainable destination
Competitiveness and sustainability are main parameters
for a successful tourist destination
Competitiveness of a destination means its ability to
compete effectively and profitably in the tourism
marketplace
Sustainability of a destination means its ability to
maintain the quality if its sociocultural, physical and
environmental resources while it competes in the

The General Economic & Social

Policies Affecting Tourism
Taxation affects costs and thus profitability;
Interest Rate Policy affects costs and thus
profitability;
Bilateral Air Agreements determines foreign visitor
access;
Environmental Policy limits growth and access to
attractive, but sensitive areas;
Customs and Immigration Policy can facilitate or
hinder international visitation;

The General Economic & Social

Policies Affecting Tourism
Communications Policy can restrict use of certain
advertising media;
Minimum Wage Policy can affect labor markets;
Welfare Policy can influence nature and behavior
of work force;
Education Policy can affect quality of workforce;
Cultural Policy can affect preservation and
promotion of national heritage;

Tourism Policy Structure and Content

Tourism Philosophy

Tourism Vision & Mission

Tourism Objectives and

Constraints

Supply Devt
Strategies

Operational
Supply
Development
Programmes/Polic

MacroManagement
Organizational
Structure

Demand Devt
Strategies

Operational
Demand
Development
Policies/Program
mes

Tourism Philosophy

Philosophy is a system and body of principles of conduct,

beliefs within particular field of activity of knowledge
Therefore, tourism philosophy refers to general principles
which indicate guidelines, beliefs and values of members of a
society concerning how tourism shall serve the population of
a country.
The values and philosophical stand of the society provide the
foundation on which policy and its components such as
vision, objectives and others rest
Tourism philosophy sets out overall nature of tourism in a
country

Tourism Vision and Mission

Tourism vision provides more functional and
inspirational portrait of the ideal future
In contrary to tourism vision which is more
extensive, broad and idealistic, tourism mission is
very concise and shows what destination hopes to
bring about in some defined future
Although it is somehow a broad statement, the
mission can be said to operationalize the vision

Tourism Objectives and

Constraints
Tourism objectives are operational statements of
specific results of developing tourism within a
given time frame
They must reflect the achievement of tourism
vision and mission
In other terms, they operationalize tourism
mission in a very specific and realistic manner
Tourism objectives must be vision-oriented,
measurable, timed, action-oriented, specific,
reasonable

Tourism Objectives and

Constraints
Tourism constraints include types of undesirable
outcome of tourism development in the country.
Such constraints must be known earlier to guide the
formulation actions

Tourism Development Strategies

Tourism Development Strategies
These are specific major actions designed to attain
objectives of the tourism system of a country
The strategies are classified into three:
1. Supply development strategies
2. demand development strategies;
3. organizational structure strategies

Supply development strategies - Concerned with main

categories of resources which are required to provide an
attractive and viable tourism destination.
When
formulating
tourism resource development
strategies, it is essential that attention be paid to identify
relative strength and weaknesses of each resource
category in determining principle actions necessary to
upgrade them.
The resources include physical resources (natural beauty,
climate, social characteristics; infrastructure, tourist
facilities and services, economic activity and price levels;
visitor access and transportation facilities, residents
attitude toward visitors)
Human resources (strategies focusing on quantity, quality

Supply development strategies

Financial resources include finding capital to
implement chosen strategies related to physical
resource
development,
human
resource
development etc
It involves decisions on amounts of capital,
sources of capital, and the conditions under which
capital is obtained
Information Resources This involves making
strategies on creating awareness of tourism
products to the market. They are made after

Demand Development Strategies

Involve decisions with respect to the following
components:
Selection of strategic target markets; identification
of destination positioning strategies at the
marketplace and determination of appropriate mix
within each target market needs); overall level of
marketing support (expenditures for demand
development) should be provided; promotion policy;
pricing policy; packaging and distribution policy

Organizational Policy
This is concerned with decisions on organizational
structure to implement tourism supply and
demand strategies
Without such organizational structures, effective
leadership and coordinated tourism activities, a
destination is ill-equiped to be either competitive
or sustainable
The entity/organization to which this responsibilty
falls is referred to as the Destination Management
Organization (DMO)
At a country level, DMO is referred to as National

Organizational Policy
DMOs can either be public sector agency or private
sector driven organization
Whatever the nature of the organization, DMOs
must be clearly identifiable as the organization
responsible for coordinating and directing the efforts
of the many pacts of the diverse and complex
tourism system at a national level or regional level
or particular locality level (city, island etc)
There must be decisions on the roles of the DMO,
structure and its funding

Tourism Policy Formulation

Tourism policy formulation aims to enable you
understand the process by which the discussed
structure and content of tourism policy may be
developed
The process of tourism policy formulation has four
phases:
1. Definitional Phase
2. Analytical Phase
3. Operational Phase
4. Implementation Phase