The significance accorded to national-level planning of tourism may vary quite markedly between destinations but is typically conceptual in character and normally seeks to define primary goals for tourism development and identify policies and broad strategies for their implementation. Within this framework, however, several more specific emphases may emerge and, in particular, we should note a common concern in national tourism plans with economic issues. This reflects the perceived capacity of international tourism to affect positively a country’s balance of payments account and to create employment.
Consequently, a growing number of nations, especially in the developing world, have positioned tourism centrally within their national economic development plans.
National Plan RegionalPlan 1 RegionalPlan 3
RegionalPlan 2 Local Plan1
Local PlanN
NATIONAL REGIONAL LOCAL
BroadLongLargeLow SpecificShortSmallHighExtensive
GEOGRAPHIC SCALE PLANHIERARCHYOBJECTIVESTIME SCALE
PLAN AREA
PLAN DETAIL
IMPLEMENTATION Figure7.3Modelplanninghierarchy
A second common role for national tourism plans is the designation of tourism develop-ment regions (see, e.g., Alipour (1996) and Tosun and Jenkins (1996) on the case of Turkey).
This may be done for any of several reasons: to help structure programmes for the redistribution of wealth and to narrow interregional disparities; to create employment in areas where unemployment is an issue; or to channel tourism development into zones that possess appropriate attractions and infrastructure and are therefore considered suitable for tourism. As well as reflecting economic concerns, regional designation may also be guided by environmental factors, in particular a need to protect fragile regions from potentially adverse effects of tourism development.
National-level tourism planning is also often directed towards strategic marketing. This is especially prominent amongst developed destinations that possess the expertise and the resources to form and promote a distinctive set of national tourism products. For example, the strategic planning of British tourism development at the national level is largely absent and the primary role of national agencies such as the British Tourism Authority (BTA) is the marketing of British destinations to domestic and, especially, foreign travellers.
These economic and marketing roles of national level plans are reflected across the globe.
Table 7.2 summarises findings from a study by Baum (1994) of national tourism policies in some forty-nine countries worldwide and places in rank order the eight most important determinants shaping national-level tourism planning in those countries. This study emphasises the economic and marketing functions already mentioned, but Table 7.2 also draws attention to national issues that occur more selectively. For example, some national tourism plans reflect needs to improve and develop infrastructure, especially transport;
others include provision for educational and employment training schemes; whilst a smaller number recognise the potential for tourism to forge international linkages and to maintain positive images of a country within the international community.
However, the approaches to delivering the objectives set out in Table 7.2 vary considerably between nations. Some destinations have adhered to quite rigid programmes of national tourism master plans of the kind adopted in countries such as Indonesia and Tunisia (Gant and Smith, 1992; Pearce, 1994), whilst others, such as the UK, prefer a more low-key, flexible approach of policy guidance. The physical planning of tourism in England and Wales is only loosely shaped by government by means of Planning Policy Guidance (PPGs). These documents, which are effectively memoranda to local government planning departments, set out key issues to be addressed and preferred pathways for development, but allow considerable leeway for local interpretation of the guidance.
Institutional contexts of national tourism planning are also variable. In the study of national tourism planning referred to in Table 7.2 (Baum, 1994), only half of the countries surveyed had established a government department with sole responsibility for national tourism planning and nearly 15 per cent apparently had no governmental-level interests in
Table 7.2 Main determinants of national tourism plans and policies in forty-nine countries (in rank order)
• To generate foreign revenue and assist balance of payments
• To provide employment
• To improve regional and local economies
• To create awareness of the destination/country
• To support environmental conservation
• To contribute to and guide infrastructure development
• To promote international contact and goodwill
Source: Baum (1994)
the sector at all. Elsewhere, tourism was accorded only secondary interest and this is often reflected in the movement (or division) of tourism planning briefs between government departments through time. In the United Kingdom in the fifteen years between 1983 and 1998, tourism development was first the responsibility of the Department of Trade and Industry, then the Department of Employment and finally the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (which was originally called the Department of National Heritage). This rather uncertain status reflects the secondary position that tourism holds in many national planning frameworks and is a weakness that, in the longer term, may well need to be addressed.
To illustrate a current approach to tourism planning at the national level, Case Study 7.1 describes the planning of tourism in one emerging destination – Morocco.
CASE STUDY 7.1
National-level tourism planning in Morocco
The kingdom of Morocco, which lies on the north-west Atlantic coast of Africa, embodies many of the planning challenges of an emerging destination area. Although Morocco is separated by less than 10 miles of sea from Europe and its near-neighbour Spain (see Figure 7.4), its geographic and cultural positioning as a Muslim state on the continent of Africa had limited tourism development prior to 2001. Although the country is now recognised as possessing significant tourism assets that include:
• a high-quality, undeveloped coastline;
• a rich cultural heritage that blends Roman, Moorish, French and Arab influences and includes seven World Heritage Sites;
• important ecological areas;
• foreign visitor levels in 2001 stood at only 2.2 million. Most of these visitors were drawn to the main beach resort of Agadir and the inland city of Marrakech.
Somewhat unusually, the first Moroccan tourism development plan – titled ‘Vision 2010’
– is a personal initiative of the king, Mohammed VI. However, the approach adopted is essentially a partnership – enshrined in a framework agreement – between the Moroccan government and the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM). The framework agreement makes explicit the intention of the government to position tourism as a national economic priority and to harness the potential for tourism expansion to stimulate economic development, attract inward investment, create jobs and increase the level of foreign earnings. In the process it is anticipated that local problems of unemployment, poverty and a lack of educational attainment will all be ameliorated.
To achieve these broad goals, some ambitious planning targets have been set:
• Levels of foreign visiting are to be increased to 7 million annually by 2010.
• 600,000 new jobs are to be created to support the tourism sector.
• 80,000 new hotel rooms are to be constructed, which will increase bedspaces from 70,000 in 2001 to 230,000 by 2010.
• Six major coastal resort areas are to be developed.
• Existing resorts, especially Agadir and Tangier, are to be refurbished.
• Cultural tourism to heritage sites such as Fes, Meknes, Marrakech and the Roman site at Volubilis is to be encouraged.
To enable these targets to be achieved, government and private sector investment is being channelled towards infrastructure improvement – especially the further development of several regional airports and a programme of new road construction; new promotional work by the Moroccan Tourist Board; and new tourism training programmes for Moroccans seeking employment in tourism. Plans to increase the number of incoming flights from Europe and associated deregulation through the adoption of an ‘open-skies’ policy (signed in December 2005) is also an essential part of the plan.
However, the key element in ‘Vision 2010’ is the creation of new coastal resorts, known as the ‘Plan Azur’. These resorts are envisaged as up-market destinations, designed to raise the market profile of Morocco and attract high-spending tourists from Europe and north America to the luxury hotels, condominiums, golf courses and leisure complexes that form the basis to each development. The locations of the Plan Azur resorts (of which one is on the Mediterranean coast and the remainder on the Atlantic coast) are shown in Figure 7.4.
These sites have been consciously selected to achieve a better balance of economic development across the country as a whole and divert growth away from the traditional economic heartland in the area between Casablanca and Rabat, the Moroccan capital. Each
W E S T E R N S A H A R A
A L G E R I A SPAIN
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Resor t developments Major urban centre Airpor t
Main road
Por t Lixus
Mazagan
Mogador Essaouira
Plage Blanche Taghazout
Agadir
Rabat Tangier
Marrakech
Mediterrania-Saidia M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a
A t l a n t i c O c e a n
Figure 7.4 Planned resort development in Morocco
continued