Perspectives of Tourism Planning

We need to understand there are different perspectives of planning when I started off my professional career. I worked as I mentioned earlier on in statutory and development control planning. Here we look at things very much from a land-use perspective and I came to realize that this in fact was a narrow-based view. And why do I say this simply because land-use planning tends to be insensitive to the business aspects of development. And you may recall that I said that we need understand that tourism is very much a business-led activity, so plan is turned out does not have a good understanding of the nature and characteristics of tourism.

Then we need to understand that the land-use planning approaching perspective is indeed part of the overall planning of development. And what do I mean by this, I mean that we need to look at not only at the beginning when we plan and set aside land for particularly users, but then look through the next stage of the planning which is the construction and more importantly the management and operation upon completion of the project. Then what is the development perspective? It includes a number of items beside land-use and site assessment. You need to consider market assessment. When we refer to market assessment, we are talking about you know,who are the visitors? Where are they coming from?What do they do?

Importantly we also need to look at the financially systems, look at things from financial and economic perspectives. We need to ensure that if we are talking about sustainability and continuity that we need to make sure that we run and operate the tourism business or the tourism attraction on a profitable basis. Worth cases there are is break even basis.

We also need to understand when we talk about market assessment and financial assessment that we need to consider and undertake a feasibility analysis, feasibility study. Looking at site and physical feasibility, market feasibility,financial feasibility. These first three as I’ve mentioned to you are in fact what we typically find in standard textbook information they are covered. We need to understand there is a fourth feasibility, that is political feasibility. What do we mean by this? When we think politics, we typically think in terms of government and decision making by local leaders. Yes,that include political feasibility. While we also need to consider who are the others stakeholders involved reviving interested in tourism and the development of tourism.

That could include your local residents, community groups who may be supportive of tourism or community groups and maybe appose to the development of tourism. So another way of addressing and talking about political feasibility, you can see that we referring to stakeholder analysis. We have developed approaches, we also need to address management and operation. As I’ve mentioned this is a very important aspect, so what do we mean by this? Those involved in managing and operating the attraction or the service must be qualified and experienced. They must know what they are doing. Management and operation should also always focus on quality. Because when people are seeking memorable and enjoyable travel experiences, they want it to be a quality experience.

We need to ensure that we develop and maintain high standards, because this is what the visitors and tourists is looking for. And it’s also important to remember that you need to set aside funds for regular maintenance and re-investment to ensure that your attraction remains fresh and attractive for people to come and visit.

We need to consider also things from a development and action financial timetable. An issue you can see in this particular table and chart that has been prepared by Horwath.And Horwath Hotel development which I mentioned is a consultancy company. They indicate that right when we look at the first action which is conceptualization. When I know already develop how is the idea I think we should build a hotel, I think we should build a tourist attraction. Now when you start on this, there is little financial commitment. You’re talking about3-5% so most of the time this is done in health. Some preliminary investigations are done to see whether this idea is good idea or not.

If they believe that this is a good idea then the second action is the go-ahead decision. And this involves substantial investment up to 15% of the project cost. And this is when you need to purposely engage external consultants who will undertake the different types of feasibility studies that have been mentioned previously. You may find that after spending 20% of your budget on a particular project that, Oops,wait a minute this project after all is not a good idea. Financially,it may not be feasible. Therefore,you need to make a decision,right? Having been 20% of project cost only to find out the answer is oh this is not a good project or a good idea to pursue.

But then you need to consider the consequences,right? If you decide to go-ahead where this is step number three, the second go-ahead,right? Where up to 80% of your financial spend in developing and constructing the project completing it and this is mentioned as a major risk period.

The planning process as I mentioned earlier on planning is about balancing demand and supply. And I provide a simply model of the planning process for you, when demand exceed supply it means there is a need. And with this need, we must undertake planning action to ensure there is a balance of demand and supply.