Plans may also vary in terms of the time horizon.
In many literary works about planning, short-term may be from one
to two years; medium-term will be for up to five years, and long-term for 10 years or more. Tourism development
plans may be made to coincide with the term of local officials-which is in multiples of three years. For example, the
plan could be for one to three years, six years, or nine years. In other industries, long-term planning may actually be
for hundreds of years, say in high-stakes space exploration, energy, and car manufacturing. The scope and time
horizons are usually correlated. The more comprehensive a plan is, the longer the time horizon as well.
A plan must also be hierarchical. This means that a local tourism plan must be consistent with a larger plan, starting
with the provincial tourism plan, regional tourism development plan, and national tourism development plan. There
should be complementarity between the Tourism Development Plan (TDP), the Comprehensive Development Plan
(CDP), the Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plan (PDPFP), the Comprehensive Land-Use Plan
(CLUP), and the like.
A master planning team consists of experts in land, use planning, human resource development, disaster risk
reduction, architecture, product development, marketing, finance, community development, and environment among
others. The project will include hazard analysis, impact analysis, tourism resource assessment, product development
plan, and transportation infrastructure plan. Other components include a marketing plan, gender, development plan,
disaster reduction and risk management plan, financial and investment promotion plan, and institutional capacity
development plan. Each of these component plans could already be major undertakings by themselves.
National or local government agencies may hire a consulting firm to formulate the tourism plan. In many cases, the
consulting firm will contract external experts to form the planning team. The firm will usually assign its staff to manage
the project and provide technical support. The project management team will have a project manager and assistants.
They take care of travel arrangements, logistics, and coordination with stakeholders to be consulted in the planning
activities. Working closely with counterpart staff of local government units (LGUs), Department of Tourism (DOT), and
other government offices, the support staff arrange the site visits, interviews or focus group discussions, and
workshops. The funding may come from the DOT office Still, LGUs provide counterpart support not just with contact
persons but also itinerary planning, accommodation, and travel expenses for the planning team. Depending on the
plan's scope and area coverage, the cost of the planning project could run into millions or tens of millions of pesos.
Tourism planning is consultative. There are several stakeholders or groups of people who could be affected by
tourism development. Stakeholders are an important source of local knowledge and provide a barometer of the
community's sentiments about tourism development (whether in favor or against it). Stakeholders need to be
consulted regarding their vision of what tourism could do for their communities. This method cultivates a sense of
ownership. Ignoring one or more groups' concerns could mean resistance to the project and delays in the
implementation. In the Samar Island Tourism Master Development Plan (2011-2016; and 2019-2029), the following
stakeholders were identified for consultations:
Local chief executives
Tourism councils (multi-sectoral representatives)
Tourism officers
Local planning and development coordinators
Sangguniang Bayan chairperson for tourism development
Local agriculturist (for farm tourism)
People's organizations
Nongovernment organization in tourism
Barangay captains of barangays with tourism attractions
Academe
DOT regional office
DILG local government operations officer
DENR local officer
Philippine National Police
Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) Council
Transport sector
Protected Area Management Board, if the area is in a protected area
National Commission for Culture and the Arts
National Commission for Indigenous Peoples
In a community setting like Mauban in Quezon Province, the tourism stakeholders and actors could be as specific as
resort owners, transient homeowners, porters, boat operators, boatmen, tour guides, porters, T-shirt printers,
souvenir sellers, handicraft makers, painters, choreographers, fire dancers, overseers, shell craft artisans, massage
therapists, van operators, tricycle drivers, jeepney drivers, LGBTQIA+ organizations, senior citizens organizations,
and so on. In practice, there is a core group that consistently supports tourism initiatives and whose opinions and
advice are given more weight by the LGU and tourism planners.
As mentioned, a tourism plan is specific in scope and territorial coverage. It could be one part of a comprehensive
development plan. It could also be a stand- alone plan. It could be a master plan or a specialized plan, such as a
marketing plan, recovery marketing plan, or crisis management plan. It could be national-, regional-, subregional-,
provincial-, sub-provincial-, city-/municipal-, or site-level plan in terms of territorial coverage. A tourism plan gets more
detailed as one zooms from the national to a site plan. A city tourism plan indicates the type of tourism to be created
and its location. However, a site plan will show detailed architectural designs.
IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM PLANNING
Tourism planning is fundamental to having a good tourism development program. By reflecting on past failures or
successes, planners avoid costly errors. A plan also establishes timelines for meeting development targets. It helps
us imagine scenarios and choose from alternative courses of action based on what we know and do not know.
Planning is about making decisions based on available resources and opportunities. A tourism plan provides a legal
basis for the approval of requests for infrastructure projects, technical and financial assistance by the government
and
private and nongovernment organizations. An industry as complex as tourism requires informed decision-making.
The complexity of tourism planning arises from the diversity of resources, functions, agencies, stakeholders, and
legal parameters. A good plan articulates priorities and describes the sequence of development to optimize time and
resources. Particularly for low-income LGUs (e.g., fifth class municipality), having a well-crafted tourism plan enables
them to allocate funds to projects with solid chances of generating
good returns for the local constituencies. Haphazardly planned tourism development
often results in environmental catastrophes, social displacement, and many other
negative impacts that degrade the quality of life. A good plan helps identify measures
to prevent and mitigate such effects even before they happen.
Having a tourism plan has become mandatory with the Seal of Good Local have their Tourism, Culture, and Arts
Governance Act GLG. Besides having a tourism plane Los Come a need to appoint or designate a full-time tourism
officer to oversee the LGU's TCA program to appoint of designat prestige and financial rewards, which the LGU could
use for development projects.
PLANNING VERSUS DEVELOPMENT
Planning and development are closely intertwined. A lousy plan will lead to impaired development. The quality of a
plan depends on the quality of data (accuracy and timeliness) and the development paradigm adopted. Inaccurate or
stale data will cause wrong projections. A booster, mass tourism orientation often results in severe environmental,
social, and even economic costs. A good plan will have a well- chosen and complete set of development
components, while a flawed plan will have a poorly chosen or incomplete set of development components. Planning
is primarily an intellectual exercise and should include details of tourism development. It is something you do in the
present for the future. Development is the process of putting together the components to convert a raw natural,
cultural, or historical resource into a tourism destination. The development could also mean reviving, restoring, or
enhancing an already existing tourism destination.
The components of tourism development are often called the A's of tourism: accessibility, accommodation, activities,
amenities, ability, administration, awareness, and attitudes. Accessibility involves infrastructure and transportation.
Infrastructure could be airports, seaports, roads, bridges, and terminals. Transportation modes could be land, water,
and air, depending on the development area's geography and size. One goal when planning for accessibility is not
only providing a gateway (entry and exit point) to and from the destination but also internal connectivity. Convenient
transportation interconnections create seamless connectivity. For example, an airport that connects directly to the rail
or bus lines via a dedicated train line or is located just a few steps outside the airport's arrival gates, with the trains or
buses going directly. to the traveler's final destination.l
STEPS IN TOURISM PLANNING
The immediate output of tourism planning is a written plan. A plan is sometimes called a roadmap. Roadmaps should
always be written on paper so that they can provide consistent information for guidance. Concerned parties will be
able to grasp a written plan more quickly.
Producing a tourism plan also requires planning. A tourism plan usually emanates from a national or local
government unit's need to pursue a development objective. LGUs (provincial, city/municipal) have planning and
development offices that formulate land-use plans or comprehensive development plans. Due to a lack of resources
and capacity, many LGUs request technical assistance from other government agencies or individual experts. An
LGU allocates funds for the production of a local tourism plan. As mentioned, LGUs or agencies often contract the
services of consulting firms to produce a plan. In turn, these firms engage the services of individual experts to form
the planning team.
A tourism plan starts with a preliminary site assessment. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) Administrative Order (DAO) 2013-19 recommends this phase prior to full site assessment when planning for
ecotourism in protected areas. However, preliminary assessment may also be undertaken for most types of tourism
planning. The preliminary evaluation utilizes data from preexisting plans or by carrying out an ocular inspection or site
visit. The purpose of the initial review is to determine if a full-blown project is warranted. A preliminary assessment
could produce enough information to decide to proceed or not to proceed with tourism development. That way, an
LGU, for example, could save a lot of money and other resources. A succeeding chapter discusses this topic in
greater detail.
The full assessment comes after an initial evaluation. The complete evaluation is part of the first step in tourism
planning, which is the situation analysis. The planning team may carry out a comprehensive plan on behalf of an
LGU for practical reasons. An LGU could use the planning project to maximize fund utilization, update a previous
plan or provide supporting documents to apply for financial or technical assistance. A subsequent chapter is devoted
to the topic of full site assessment. Tourism planning is the same as other forms of planning. It involves the same
basic steps. These steps are listed as follows:
Step 1. Situation Analysis
Situation analysis is basically the analysis of an LGU's or the destination's current position in terms of its attributes
and the larger environment where it operates. It answers the question "Where are we now?" This step is also called
the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. SWOT analysis involves internal and
external assessments. The internal review identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the area under study. The
external assessment helps spot opportunities and threats in the macro-environment or factors that are
beyond the LGU or the site. The output of a SWOT analysis is the positioning of the destination to exploit its
strengths vis-à-vis the opportunities available and prevent damage by correcting weaknesses and adopting
measures to mitigate against environmental threats. A destination should determine its competitive advantage,
location, scenic vistas, festival, cuisine, animal or plant, or history. A destination could also convert perceived
weaknesses into assets. For example, they can position a destination that lacks commercial hotels or poor internet
connectivity as the perfect getaway.
In formulating a tourism plan, it is important to review past tourism plans and relevant legal documents. This is
essential to avoid duplication and to ensure consistency in the plan made. It is a requirement that a local tourism plan
should be consistent with national, regional, and provincial tourism development plans. Tourism planners pay
attention to comprehensive land use plans, physical framework plans, and statutory requirements. For example, the
NIPAS Act of 1992 prohibits the construction of heavy structures in a protected area. Furthermore, planners must
obtain permission from the Protected Area Management Board before conducting any activity in the protected area.
A good tourism plan should include a DRRM plan, a local climate change adaptation plan, and a gender and
development plan.
A situation analysis will yield an analysis of trends. By analyzing past and present data, planners will be able to
determine such movements. When planners fail to recognize critical trends promptly, the tourism sector may suffer
from massive disruptions. Tourism data is just one type of data that planners need to analyze. Tourist arrivals could
be seen from the data as rising, staying steady, or falling. Most destinations typically desire an unhampered increase
in arrivals in the future. However, the lockdown of Boracay in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 showed that
sometimes, it might be necessary to limit or even stop visitation levels in the interest of sustainability and public
safety. Another factor influencing the acceptable tourism volume is carrying capacity, particularly in protected areas,
such as the Puerto Underground River and Batanes.
Microenvironmental Factors
One part of the situation analysis involves an assessment of microenvironmental factors. Microenvironmental factors
refer to those that are internal to a planning unit, such as a tourist destination, an LGU, a country, and the like. An
analysis of these factors is also known as internal assessment. This is an important step in identifying the planning
unit's strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses may be in relation to geography, natural and
cultural resources, heritage, hazards, people, infrastructure, and other things that exist within that planning unit. A
strength is an attribute that can be harnessed to advance a planning unit's goals, while a weakness is something that
prevents it from advancing its goals. Thus, a destination, for example, needs to correct a weakness, like the lack of
roads or access to the tourist spots.
A destination's internal assessment should cover the following:
the place of tourism within the broader development plans;
review of laws and local ordinances;
training needs analysis;
tourism resources inventory and prioritization; and
current and ongoing tourism-related projects.
Broader plans include, but are not limited to, the National Development Plan, National Tourism Development Plan,
Regional Development Plan, Provincial Development Plan, Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Tourism Plan, and
Ecotourism Plan. Many LGUs do not have updated versions of these plans.
Laws and ordinances frame tourism development plans. For example, the Tourism Act of 2009 provides for the
mandatory accreditation of primary tourism enterprises by th DOT, but the power to issue business licenses is
retained by the LGUs following the Local Government Code of 1991. Thus, the institutional arrangements for a
tourism development plan should also be following these legal provisions. Architects and engineers must follow the
National Building Code and Disabled Persons Mobility Act to design tourism structures. The NIPAS (National
Integrated Protected Areas System) Act provides that development in protected areas should be of the low volume,
low impact kind. Moreover, any tourism planning activities to be carried out in PAs should have the Protected Area
Management Board's official permission.
Training needs analysis is a critical component at this phase of planning. Training needs could be in the form of
technical skills, business operations, and entrepreneurial skills. The Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority- (TESDA) and DOT-certified training centers could handle a variety of possible skills training. These include
customer service, Filipino brand of service, tour guiding, housekeeping, cookery, and the like. Tourism practitioners
can also earn certifications by passing an assessment exam by DOT-and TESDA-accredited tourism assessors.
Planners must not ignore ongoing projects to avoid redundancy. Projects are categorized by stage of completion and
impact for fund allocation.
Macro-environmental Factors Travel and To prioritiz internat price co environ The other half of the situation analysis
involves the assessment of macro- environmental factors. Macro-environmental factors refer to those that are
external to a planning unit, which was explained previously. As such, this is also known as external assessment. This
is an important step in identifying opportunities and threats. Circumstances or trends that occur in the
macro-environment that can be acted upon to advance a planning unit's goals are called an opportunity. On the other
hand, events or situations that prevent a planning unit from achieving its goals are a threat. The macro-environment
can be systematically analyzed using the acronym PESTLE. This acronym stands for political, economic, social,
technological, legal, and environmental events. The tourism planners' task is to sift through data to identify trends
relevant to tourism and the destination. The following table shows some developments that have affected the tourism
industry. Competitive analysis is also part of the macro-environmental assessment. A destination needs to evaluate
how it fares relative to other destinations. Destinations compete based on natural or cultural endowments,
uniqueness or rarity, location, climate, costs, and image. On a global scale, the World Travel and Tourism Council's
Competitiveness Index contains the following subindices: enabling environment, Travel and Tourism policy and
enabling conditions, infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources. Pillars constitute each of the subindices:
Enabling environment 0 0 0 0 business environment safety and security health and hygiene human resources and
labor market Information and Communication Technology Travel and Tourism policy and enabling conditions 0
prioritization of Travel and Tourism international openness 0 price competitiveness 0 environmental sustainability
Infrastructure air transport infrastructure 0 ground and port infrastructure 0 tourist service infrastructure Natural and
cultural resources natural resources 0 cultural resources and business travel Step 2. Setting Goals and Objectives
After knowing where we are, the next question to ask is, "Where do we want to be?" To answer this, we have to
define our goals and objectives. Goals and objectives refer to what a destination or an LGU wants to achieve after a
certain period of time. As you may have already learned, goals are more general and long-term in orientation. They
are qualitatively stated. Examples of goals are "to increase women participation in the tourism industry"; "to provide
sustainable livelihood opportunities to the population"; or "to become the leading agritourism destination in Eastern
Visayas." Planners break down goals into objectives, which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and
time-bound. Taking off from the first example of the goals above, we can state our objectives as follows: to increase
the proportion of locally hired staff by 5% from 2020 to 2025; to bring the proportion of locally sourced produce from
10% to 30% from 2025 to 2030; and to train af least 50 women participants in local souvenir making every year in the
next three years. Tourism development goals traditionally revolved around economic targets like managing arrivals,
revenue, incomes and taxes, employment, and livelihood generation. In recent years, tourism development plans
incorporate poverty alleviation, micro-business generation, gender and development, risk reduction, and climate
change response. Step 3. Formulating Strategies The third task is to formulate strategies. Strategies tell us how to go
from where we are to where we want to be. Planners state strategies in broad strokes. Tourism development
strategies will be explained in a separate chapter. Step 4. Determining an Action Plan Planners translate strategies
into tactics or action plans or implementation plans. The action plan provides a breakdown of programs, projects, and
activities. They specify who or what entity is responsible for the specific activities. The Department of Tourism
Guidebook for LGUs gives an example of an action plan. Some examples of specific projects under tourism are the
Tourism Road Infrastructure Program, a convergence program between the DOT and the Department of Public
Works and Highways (DPWH). It aims to make priority tourism sites accessible through the construction of roads to
such sites. It also benefits local communities and tends to reduce the incidence of insurgency in those areas. Another
is Accreditation on Wheels, a project that brings the DOT offices to tourism establishments that need to be accredited
by the DOT. Step 5. Monitoring and Evaluation The last step in tourism planning is monitoring and evaluation. This
stage should be an essential component of any tourism plan. The purpose of this step is to compare the results with
the stated goals and objectives. When there are deviations, LGUs and other government or private entities need to
adjust the implementation. Monitoring requires the use of benchmarks or milestones. These benchmarks are called
indicators, which may be environmental, economic, or social. The indicators used will depend on what aspects of the
plan are important to the LGU or the destination. For example, if employment generation is important, then an
important indicator to be monitored will be the number and types of jobs generated by the tourism sector for each
period. Other examples are the air/water pollution index, tourist receipts, or the number of indigenous peoples
engaged in tourism businesses. Monitoring will require the following information: success indicators; targets per
indicator; data sources for stated indicators; collection method; frequency of collection; and responsible entity. If the
inclusion of women in tourism development is a priority, the following indicators may be used: number of women
trained for livelihood; the proportion of women at the rank-and-file, supervisory, and management positions in
tourism; women engaged in productive employment or paid work; and women experiencing sexual harassment at
work. The planning process sometimes does not follow the aforementioned outlined steps. Sometimes a goal is
already predetermined by an agency that commissions a planning firm to flesh out the details. The process is also
iterative because, after the monitoring and evaluation, another planning cycle may commence, including refinements
in the targets and strategies.
