Link Between Policy and Plans

Well, good morning and welcome to our tourism planning course. My name is professor Carson Jenkins. I am a visiting professor at the Nankai University School of Tourism and Service Management. And I am also Emeritus Professor on International Tourism at the Business School University of Strathclyde Scotland. Now, let me tell you first of all what I am going to do today. I am going to talk to you about four components of planning. First one is to look at tourism policy and tourism planning. And secondly to consider for planning are there planning principles. If there are what might they be, we have a look at those in some detail.

And thirdly, we need to look at how planning can operate at different levels at national level, sub-national level city level and obviously province or village level as well. Then what I’d like to do is to conclude my presentation by raising with you a number of questions. Because obviously, if you look at the history of planning and Professor Wu will do this. If you look at the history of planning, it is changed dramatically over the last forty to fifty years. And it going to change again in the future. As it changes then It poses for us questions. It actually then says if planning is not going to be the same.

If the issues are not going to be the same, then how do we confront these.

Now I’ll start off if I may by saying I made a distinction between policy and plans for a number of reasons. But first of all, you notice I have used the plural policies and plans are not singular. Because if there is one characteristic about the tourism industry, it is multisectoral. And if you look at how we define, how we develop tourism policies that we cannot simply do it by looking at the tourist industry. We have got to take into account some of the vital components of tourism which we will look at. For example, transport Transport policy affects tourism Immigration and visa policy affects tourism. Regulations on foreign investment affects tourism.

And all these things that have to be taken into account. So we can not simply look at tourism as an enclave. We have to look at it in the context then of the national situation, and the national objectives. So for that reason, I would like to suggest you that I would like to suggest you that when we think about tourism policy and planning, we think about three letters P P P. And this simply means policy precedes planning. And what does this mean? What it means exactly what those three words suggest. What it means exactly what those three words suggest. Policy then comes before planning. Now some people would argue no. Policy actually comes out to the planning process.

In fact, they are if not interchangeable, they are certainly reinforcing each other. But why is a policy precedes plans. Because when we look in a few minutes time at policy, we find that policies tend to be very much indeed a macro level exercise. And now, what I’m using the word micro. And now, what I’m using the word micro. I’m using it in an economic sense. Macro means if you like the country China India the United Kingdom. Micro means it subsection of that. For example, a macro policy for China would be one which government has defined. But, within that overall, the official definition within that overall structure will come policies for different parts of China.

So you know, we’re talking now, I think about the Big Bay development in China. But if you look at the big cities in China, in Shanghai, certainly Beijing, Guangzhou. Places like that have their own policy. And so what we find then is that this whole question about, policy is a very important thing. Because policy if you like, is very much a large structure which sets out what it is we want to achieve. So we call it a macro issue. Then, what we find is that within the next question. if we have a macro policy that how do we develop it. And that is where you come down the stage to the micro level where actually planning takes place.

Now, I’ll give you two examples of this one outside of tourism. And the reason I do this is because you know tourism must be looked at in the overall national structure, the political structure, the economic structure, the social structure of the country. So, it’s just we though we may be concerned with tourism policy in China. Many the principles we talk about applying to South Africa, and to Australia, and to Italy and the small islands in the Caribbean. Ok, so if you accept with me. then the policy needs to proceed planning because why. Because one policy doesn’t it, it sets out the structure. It is what I call it later a wish list. Ok, now for this purpose then.

I right throughout my career, and used my own definition of policy and there are many of them. And, I say a policy is a reasoned evaluation of alternative actions to achieve a goal. You say wait a moment, what does that mean? A reasoned evaluation of alternative actions to achieve a goal. I would like to take an example then from China. Some years ago the Chinese government, if you look at the policy level, said we need to increase our capacity to generate electricity, we need to do this, because it is holding back our industrialization program. Other programs are social levels to put electricity in the villages and various things.

If we think about the options of open China then, one they could develop a nuclear power station. Because they have the capacity and the technology. Two you could use that most abandoned the fuel, but the most polluting fuel which is coal and you can use gas gas pipe fire stations. You could use oil fire stations. What they choose to do was use hydro power water power, and in the slides of which you can look at later, that you find the Three Gorges dams is a huge project, which has tremendous social and tremendous environmental, tremendous political and of course economic things was the way in which the government decide to generate the extra electric capacity.

So, if you like then looking at the five options, they reasoned that in order to achieve the goal, which is more powerful generation this is the best way of doing it. Then, we take a second example from the tourists business. The government says we need more foreign exchange, therefore we need to earn more money from our tourists. How do we do it? There are three ways of doing it. One bring in more tourists. But what happens? If we are at maximum capacity, we do not have enough rooms. Maybe we have problems of water shortage, maybe we have difficulties like seasonality. So that options we have to look carefully. The second thing would be, it change a market a little bit.

Let us try get more higher per capita spend tourists. So we do not increase numbers, but we increase the spend of the tourists. And a third possibility would be to try and devise a new attraction. So, for example, if you have seasonality, can you attract tourists off-season in order to extend the number of visitor who come. If you look at the very famous Harbin winter festival, in that ferociously cold area they have created and an attraction which many international visitors come to see. In Scotland where I live in occasionally, then you find that in Edinburgh the city has developed three festivals. they have a major art festival, they also have a jazz festival, they have a book festival.

And that New Year which is very important in Scotland called Hogmanay. People from all over the world in order to enjoy this thing, they would create four things which now, has made Edinburgh an international all year-round city. So what I sat to you here, it is clearly that is very often to achieve a goal, that are different ways of doing it as I described to you. Now policy is separated but interlinked. So, if we look at the four components of developing tourism. First of all, we would need to formulate to agree on a tourism policy. Then, secondly how do we implement the policy? Well, first of all we need plans. So, that is our second stage.

And, the third stage then would be to actually implement plans, how do we get these things done after the plans have been formulated and approved. And the last stage is we need to monitor it as tourism develops then. Are we getting what we intend to get? This is where the interlink between planning and policy comes in. The planners might say, what you want is not to achievable a goal in the short term. There are many reasons for this, maybe all the tourists come by air, and we do not have the airline capacity, we do not have airport capacity to increase tourists. Or, in some countries I am thinking of Goa In India.

There is a big water shortage, and there is now great economic and social conflict between Goa farmers and tourists who gets water. So, in this sense then these is a loop back from the monitoring back to the policy and we may then have to adjust our policy. And maybe if I give you last example, minister of tourism in China recently said we need to develop more MOOCs programs, recently said we need to develop more MOOCs programs, MOOCs massive open online courses. And it is a big big goal here, I think you said that they want to develop, something like 10000 courses in the next come of years. So, there you are. So, that is the policy.

But, is the ministry of education going to plan for this. No, of course they are not. They say universities and colleges, this is what we want to do. You do it that is your area of expertise. You do it that is your area of expertise. So, again then you have a system where policies guides plans. This is very very important area where I say, Policy proceeds planning. Because policy lays down then what the planners should aim achieve. Sometime it is not possible, but at least we know what it is.