Finally, let us deal with eduction, which is ‘the exploration of potentialities for change, for self- realization, for the construction of new totalities (for example, social ecosystems) and the like, rather than deduction or induction – the central motif of dialectical praxis’ (Harvey 1995: 10).
Praxis is totalisation, totalisation is praxis.
Dialectical analysis highlights the role of values in social processes, e.g. tourism policy and planning, and sees the constructed knowledge that results as discourses situated in a realm of power and interests. Values are not universal truths or abstractions but this does not mean that value choice is unimportant. Far from it. Dialectical reflection forces the researcher to confront the implicit and explicit nature of values in the devel- opment and reporting of academic research. Un- fortunately, a wander through the increasing number of tourism journals and books that weigh down the library shelves would suggest that such reflection, if it does exist, remains well hidden in the confines and strictures of academic writing
which has tended to reinforce the fact–value di- chotomy of Cartesian views of the world within which the researcher appears to lie outside of the world he or she studies. The relevance of much academic research in tourism could well be questioned – relevant to what and to whom? Re- sults tend to be produced and reproduced for the greater benefit of narrow industry and personal interests (e.g. promotion, greater status within the walls of academia) rather than actually seek- ing to improve the lot of the individuals who are most affected by the vagaries of tourism.
The act of tourism planning and research, as with the subject matter of such research, needs to be located within the continuous flows of pro- cesses, relationships and systems from which it is constituted and which it informs. Dialectical thinking, for this author at least, is a crucial com- ponent of tourism analysis which needs to be put at the forefront of tourism knowledge, rather than cast to the rear. The unfolding and becoming of one’s life is the search for possibilities. To para- phrase Harvey (1995): the search for such possi- bilities is embedded within, rather than articulated after, the research process, and it is to the discus- sion of some of these possibilities that this book now turns.
Summary
This chapter has outlined some of the key issues and concepts underlying the development of some of the argumentative and collaborative approaches that are part of the emerging framework of non- technocratic sustainable tourism planning. This chapter is also rich in metaphor: concepts such as a system, ideas of scale, standpoint and relation- ships are powerful metaphors that can be used to help describe the complexity of tourism planning.
As Morgan (1986: 331) noted, ‘The images or metaphors through which we read organizational situations help us describe the way organizations are, and offer clear ideas over the way they could be.’ However, it should also be noted that the con- cept of a tourism system can be analysed in more that a metaphorical fashion and can also actually be studied empirically in a rigorous mathematical
fashion, particularly with respect to spatial analy- sis (see Hall 2006a). The chapter has also argued that it is the notion of the public good or interest which lies at the core of sustainable tourism plan- ning. The next chapter will attempt to describe how the tourism planning system looks and pre- scribe how it might be improved in terms of the overriding vision of sustainability. Chapters 6 to 9 then look at the tourism planning system at vari- ous scales of operation and the interrelationships between those scales. Throughout all of these chapters the idea of relationship and the relational way in which we all ‘see’ tourism planning prob- lems will serve as an important thread in the search for more sustainable forms of tourism.
Questions
1. What is the significance of the concept of partial industrialisation for tourism planning?
2. How do issues of scale affect tourism plannng?
3. Why is argument such an important component of tourism planning and policy?
4. How might appreciative inquiry differ in its focus from other analytical methods?
Important websites and recommended reading
Websites
Journal of Planning Literature:
http://jpl.sagepub.com/
Journal of Planning Education and Research:
http://intl-jpe.sagepub.com/
Planning Theory (journal):
http://plt.sagepub.com/
Current Issues in Tourism:
http://www.multilingual-matters.net/cit/
Journal of Sustainable Tourism:
www.multilingual-matters.net/jost/
Tourism Geographies:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/
14616688.asp
Recommended reading
1. Majone, G. (1989)Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in the Policy Process,Yale University Press, New Haven.
A seminal work with respect to the realities of planning and policy analysis (also see his earlier Majone, G. (1980) ‘The uses of policy analysis’, in B.H. Raven (ed.), Policy Studies Annual Review,vol. 4, Sage, Beverley Hills, 161–80.
2. Fischer, F. and Forester, J. (1993) The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning,UCL Press, London.
A significant text with respect to the role of argument in planning
3. Hall, C.M. (2005) Tourism: Rethinking the Social Science of Mobility,Prentice Hall, Harlow.
First and last chapters in particular comment on issues of tourism theory and their formulation.
4. Hall, C.M. (2004) ‘Reflexivity and tourism research: situating myself and/with others’, in J. Phillimore and L. Goodson (eds)
Qualitative Research in Tourism: Ontologies, Epistemologies and Methodologies,
Routledge, London, 137–55.
Personal comments on reflexivity and its implications in a tourism context.
5. Allmendinger, P. and Tewdwr-Jones, M.
(eds) (2002) Planning Futures: New Directions in Planning Theory,Taylor &
Francis, London.
Useful text with respect to providing an overview of planning theory.
6. Allison, G. and Zelikow, P. (1999) The Essence of Decision,2nd edn, Longman, Boston.
The second edition of one of the most influential books in policy analysis. The books studies the Cuban missile crisis from various perspectives and highlights how different frameworks can provide different
‘readings’ of events.
7. Farrell, B.H. and Twining-Ward, L. (2004)
‘Reconceptualizing tourism’, Annals of Tourism Research, 31(2): 274–95.
Useful overview of systems thinking in tourism, particularly with respect to the implications for adaptive management strategies.
8. Healey, P. (1997) Collaborative Planning:
Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies, Macmillan Press, Basingstoke.
Influential book with respect to the
‘communicative turn’ in planning.
9. Hall, D. and Brown, F. (2006) Tourism and Welfare: Ethics, Responsibility and
Sustained Well-Being,CABI, Wallingford.
Discusses some of the ethical and value issues in tourism.
10. Rydin, Y. (2007) ‘Re-examining the role of knowledge within planning theory’, Planning Theory,6(1): 52–68.
Discusses the implications of different knowledge claims for planning processes.
Chapter objectives
After reading this chapter you will:
• Have developed working definitions of vision, mission, goal, objective and target
• Appreciate some of the key issues with respect to connecting the different parts of strategic planning
• Understand the significance of identifying and involving stakeholders in the strategic planning process
• Understand the role of evaluation and monitoring in tourism planning.
Tourism planning is often highly complex, reflect- ing Peter Hall’s observation that planning ‘is merely an acute instance of the central problem of society’ (1992: 249). By this Hall meant that prob- lems in contemporary society have a habit of be- coming ‘interconnected’, in that what was initially seen as a problem in one sphere, say unemploy- ment, may then become connected to other policy and planning concerns such as the environment.
Such planning and policy ‘messes’ (Ackoff 1974) may also be well described as metaproblems.
Tourism planning often poses metaproblems.
Several reasons account for this. Most significant is the nature of tourism itself, difficult to define, diffuse through economy and society and, typi- cally, with no clear control agency. Instead, tourism tends to cut across agency boundaries.
Nevertheless, planning for tourism is still regarded as important because its effects are so substantial
and potentially long-standing. Indeed concern with making tourism, along with all develop- ment, sustainable has provided an even greater imperative for improved tourism planning.
As the previous chapter argued, systems ap- proaches to tourism may provide valuable op- portunities for the understanding of tourism and how it may be steered in one direction or another.
Such a systems approach to planning, particularly one that consciously sets out to identify and articulate different sets of value choices, bears strong parallels to developments that are occur- ring in public planning. According to Peter Hall, The old planning was concerned to set out the desired future end state in detail, in terms of land- use patterns on the ground; the new approach . . . concentrated instead on the objectives of the plan and on alternative ways of reaching them, all set out in writing rather than in detailed maps. (P. Hall 1992: 229)
In the new planning
the emphasis was on tracing the possible conse- quences of alternative policies, only then evaluating them against the objectives in order to choose a pre- ferred course of action; and, it should be empha- sized, this process would continually be repeated as the monitoring process threw up divergences be- tween the planner’s intentions and the actual state of the system. (P. Hall 1992: 229)
The current planning paradigm, which is heavily influenced by cybernetics and systems analysis, emphasises the pattern of goals, continuous in- formation, projection and simulation of alterna- tive futures, evaluation, choice and continuous monitoring. For example, many readers will be
5 The integrated and strategic tourism planning process:
dealing with interdependence
familiar with the following steps in the planning process identified by Anderson (1995):
1. identify issues and options;
2. state goals, objectives, priorities;
3. collect and interpret data;
4. prepare plans;
5. draft programmes for implementing the plan;
6. evaluate potential impacts of plans and implementing programmes;
7. review and adopt plans;
8. review and adopt plan-implementing programmes;
9. administer implementing programmes, monitor their impacts.
Similar models have been applied in terms of planning for tourism. For example, the state gov- ernment tourism agency in South Australia, Tourism South Australia, developed the most in- tegrated planning model for a government authority for tourism in Australia in the 1990s.
Tourism South Australia (1991: 28) noted that traditional approaches to tourism planning, as outlined in Chapter 3, were ‘limited because they ignore research and evaluation of tourism de- mand (market needs and expectations) and tourism supply (resource utilisation consistent
with demand preferences and environmental sus- tainability)’. Therefore, in order to provide the unique, satisfying tourism experiences that differ- entiate products and destinations in the market- place, create long-term appeal and sustain the resource base on which tourism products and destinations are based, they argued that tourism planning must integrate market- and resource- driven processes. The elements of such a ‘syner- gistic’ tourism planning process that is vision and goal oriented, integrative, market driven, resource driven, consultative and systematic is detailed in Table 5.1.
A planning process for regional and local tourism that utilises a synergistic and integrated approach to tourism planning, and is based on the South Australian and other regional tourism plan- ning experiences, is illustrated in Figure 5.1 and Table 5.2. Such a process may not be applicable in all situations; instead the succession of stages indicate ‘the investigative logic that is required for proper tourism planning’ (Tourism South Australia 1990: 28). The key elements identified in Figure 5.1 should be utilised in such a way as to ensure that the planning process is systematic, pinpoints the needs, values and interests of the various stakeholders in the tourism planning and
Table 5.1 Elements of a synergistic tourism planning approach
Vision oriented Clear recognition of tourism’s role in achieving broad community goals
Objective oriented Clear recognition of the need for measurable objectives that allow monitoring and evaluation
Integrative Including tourism planning issues in the mainstream of planning for the economy, society, conservation, parks, heritage, land use and infrastructure
Market driven Planning for development that meets the needs of visitors and so will trade successfully in a competitive marketplace
Resource driven Developing assets that build on the destination’s inherent strengths while protecting and enhancing the attributes and experiences provided by tourism resources
Consultative With meaningful community and stakeholder input to determine what is acceptable to the local population
Systematic Drawing on, or undertaking research to provide conceptual or predictive support for tourism planning. In particular, drawing on the experience of other tourism destinations by appropriate benchmarking
Sources: Tourism South Australia (1991); Hall et al. (1997); Hall (2005a); Dredge and Jenkins (2007).
Scenarios
Assessment and review of outcomes DECISION TO UNDERTAKE A
REGIONAL PLANNING PROCESS
Vision setting
Goal setting
Internal review Focus on plan elements and process to ensure that there is
appropriate ‘fit’ between all components to ensure that
objectives are feasible Potentiality analysis
Infrastructure and resourcing assessment Market and stakeholder
analysis
Detailed economic, social and environmental
assessment
Implementation
Revision and production of plan Revise appropriate ‘fit’ as
necessary
Consultation on draft plan
Figure 5.1 A regional planning process for tourism
development process, and incorporates an under- standing of the market and the tourism resource base.
Nevertheless it should be pointed out that a good process and series of outcomes from one perspective may not be regarded as such from an- other. For example, in the case of South Aus- tralia, while the model was well respected by environmental and community interests, particu- larly for the manner in which it sought to inte- grate sustainability issues into the planning
process, its effectiveness was limited by develop- ments at other levels of governance. A change of government in South Australia meant that the goals of Tourism South Australia shifted to con- centrate on tourism promotion so as to encour- age greater visitor numbers. In this new policy setting long-term sustainable planning goals be- came secondary to short-term increases in the number of tourists (Hall 2007a).
Such a situation is not unusual with respect to tourism planning (Dredge and Jenkins 2007).
Table 5.2Steps and outcomes in a regional planning process for tourism StepOutcomes 1 Decision to undertake a regional planning process Usually undertaken as an answer to negative community responses to rapid Clear statement with respect to planning process and its tourism development or some other crisis or, more rarely, a proactive decision as intended outcomes the result of an awareness of changes in the tourism business environment Identification of legislative, regulatory and institutional basis for regional planning process 2 Vision Setting Provides a broad vision of what the region wants to be with respect to tourism Draft statement of vision and its role in the region. This will usually be revised through the consultation process 3 Goal Setting Within the tourism, economic, social and environmental philosophies and policies Clear statement of purpose of government, establish what is to be achieved by the process Develop draft objectives 4 Potentiality analysis Examine broad tourism market trendsStatement of tourism’s potential and priority in the region and in community development Analyse area’s tourism assets, strengths and weaknesses Undertake competitor analysis and benchmarking Determine community and regional goals Determine the existing and potential role of tourism in the area’s economy, especially with respect to accessibility issues and travel times to destination 5 Market and stakeholder analysis Analyse the tourism market – trends, market segments, characteristics and needs, Target markets identified growth potential with respect to demographic, economic and accessibility changeStatement of market positioning Identify fit between market forces and the area’s assets, resources and Major product strengths, gaps and opportunities identified stakeholders Determine market position
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Table 5.2(continued) StepOutcomes Identify stakeholder interest and commitment Identify major product strengths and gaps 6 Scenarios Identify preliminary ‘primary values’Draft statement of desired future role and character of tourism in the area Identify alternative future tourism scenarios and their economic, social and Draft statement of objectives and strategies and revised environmental implications for the regionstatement of vision and goals Select preferred scenario(s) Identify constraints to achieving preferred scenario(s) Establish tourism objectives and strategies At this stage preliminary consultation can be done if resources allow to identify at an early stage preferences for desired futures 7 Detailed assessment of economic, social and environmental sustainability Identify and evaluate natural and built tourism resourcesRevise objectives and strategies Specify potential development opportunities consistent with positioningHigh visitor level tourism areas or precincts identified specifying appropriate types and scales of development Analyse environmental and landscape valuesRevisit development principles and planning specifications Identify conflicts and constraints to tourism developmentMajor development opportunities and performance criteria specified Identify linkages and relationships to other regional industries and tourism’s Where tourism may have a negative effect on other sectors effect on theseand businesses the total effect on the region must be assessed in case tourism development results in a net loss 8 Detailed assessment of infrastructure and resource support Identify and detail infrastructure required to support investment and provide for Prioritised programme of infrastructure works and visitor and local needs, including transport infrastructureidentification of funding mechanisms and sources Identify and detail infrastructure required to manage visitors’ impactWhere funding is taken from existing budgets the opportunity costs of resource reallocation must be assessed Identify and describe opportunities for the interpretation of features of visitor interest Identify funding and resources required for plan
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Table 5.2(continued) Step Outcomes 9 Internal review Focus on plan elements and process to ensure that there is appropriate ‘fit’ Decision to proceed to public release of draft plan for between all components so to ensure that objectives are feasibleconsultation or revise process or elements if plan is not regarded as feasible 10 Consultation on draft plan Consult with key organisations, stakeholders and the communityConcise document outlining stages 1 to 9 Consult with other levels of government to ensure acceptability of planOutline monitoring and evaluation process on plan Consult with other agencies to ensure tourism plan is integrated with other Amendment to existing policies, plans and regulations policies and planning statementsoutlined as appropriate 11 Revision and production of planRevised, final version of plan is produced and made available via a variety of mechanisms 12 Implementation Devise implementation mechanisms – programmes of work, organisational Implementation strategy responsibilities and timelines, funding as well as further information meetings on plan where required. In some cases the development of an implementation network may be appropriate Undertake/identify required changes to existing legislation, regulation Periodic reports on implementation and recommendations for and policiesplan amendments Ensure that monitoring, evaluation and appropriate benchmarking is undertaken and that stakeholders agree on both what is being measured and how results will be interpreted 13 Assessment and review of outcomes A review and assessment is undertaken of the results of monitoring, evaluation A formal progress report is provided to stakeholders and and benchmarking against the objectives that were set and other objectives and decision makers benchmarks as appropriate Review implementation proceduresDecisions are made with respect to the need to further revise plan or other elements associated with its successful implementation, i.e. resourcing, indicator selection Sources:Tourism South Australia (1991); Hall et al. (1997); Hall (2005a, 2007); Dredge and Jenkins (2007).
Indeed, within the public sphere it may even be the norm as governments, policies and institu- tional arrangements for tourism are constantly changing. Yet such a situation also provides a valuable lesson for understanding tourism plan- ning, as it illustrates:
• the multiscale nature of planning, in other words what occurs at one level may not be compatible with another. Furthermore, changes in policy will filter through the various levels of the planning system;
• the implications of different sets of values affecting policy settings and planning processes;
• that planning models and tools do not operate in isolation from the people who develop and implement them. You can have the best planning model in the world.
However, unless you have the capacity to operate it, which may involve arguing your case to politicians and those to whom you are responsible, it is of little practical value, although it may still provide a stimulus for change elsewhere. Winning policy arguments, like sustainability itself, may take time.
As Cullingsworth (1997: 25) observed, ‘Plan- ning is a process of formulating goals and agree- ing the manner in which these are to be met. It is a process by which agreement is reached on the ways in which problems are to be debated and re- solved.’ This chapter will examine various aspects of the planning process and key issues that arise in trying to make planning and plans happen. The focus upon the processes of planning and land-use policy, rather than a concern with policy outcomes, might be viewed as irrelevant or even obsessional.
However, it is important since the outcomes of policy are, in large part, a consequence of how that policy is framed, organised and implemented. (Evans 1997: 5–6)