The Six Phases of Tourism Policy Planning

Discuss about the Discussion Paper on Promoting Investment.

Policy planning cycle refers to the set of activities such as setting up of the agenda, identification of the issues, evaluation of the possibilities available in the light of the objective set, adoption and the management of the alternative, and budgeting and review activities with regards to the development of a new project (US Fire Administration, 2017). Tourism industry follows the consultative or the participatory approach of policy formulation, by making use of the discussion papers and thereby involving all the concerned stakeholders (World Tourism Organization, 2018). The key principle behind the development of a tourism policy is to yield the maximum social and economic contribution from the tourism industry of a particular region and thereby contributing towards the long term and short-term objectives of growth and progress of the concerned Government. The report aims to evaluate the role of discussion papers in the policy formulation of the tourism industry. The report comprises of brief analysis and comparison of the two discussion papers namely, “Sustainable Tourism for Development” and “Discussion paper on Promoting investment in Tourism Industry of Nepal”

An effective tourism planning policy is formulated in six phases (World Tourism Organization, 2018). These are listed as follows.

Phase I- Preparation of an Issues Paper depending upon the region in consideration i.e. at regional, national, international level.

Phase II- Dissemination of the Issues Paper in order to achieve clear identification of the current and future aspirations of the range of the stakeholders.

Phase III- Formulation of a draft of the tourism policy.

Phase IV- Receiving feedbacks on the draft of the tourism policy.

Phase V- Incorporation of the relevant feedbacks and the formulation of the final policy.

Phase VI- Formulation of an action plan for the implementation of the policy and taking of the necessary steps for the successful implementation.

A continuous review and analysis of the policies in the light of the trends and changes in needs of the stakeholders must be done. The same must be incorporated as well, for the policy to be effective.

The working committee on tourism of Nepal prepared this paper for the Nepal Economic Summit, 2014, based on the theme “promoting reforms to establish Nepal as an investment destination” (Samriddhi Foundation, 2014). The paper aims to develop the tourism industry in Nepal.  The paper is divided into the two sections. While the section A focuses on the existing scenario of tourism in the country, the related challenges, policies and trends; the section B focuses on the opportunities in the tourism sector for Nepal and the ways and means to tap them in order to ensure its growth and development of the country in the coming years.

Discussion Papers in Tourism Policy Formulation

The paper examines the role of the Tourism in the overall development of the nation on lines of various economic, social and the environmental factors. The paper focuses on the five main elements namely, the sustainable economic growth, employment and poverty reduction, efficiently using the resources in order to protect the environment, paying attention to the cultural values and the heritage and lastly develop a mutual understanding on lines of peace and security. The main aim of the paper is to incorporate sustainability concept in the various operations of the tourism industry, in order to yield maximum benefit not just to the local communities, citizen and economy of a country; but it is a prime need of the twenty first century on the lines of globalization and good governance practices.

The first paper focuses on the tourism sector of Nepal. The paper recognises the fact that the tourism industry is one of the major contributing industries of Nepal which has helped in the development of the human resource capital, raising of foreign exchange for the country. The discussion paper highlighted the existing tourism scenario in Nepal with around record number of 800000 tourists in the year 2011 and 2012. The products offered by Nepal to the tourists are rafting, mountaineering and trekking, in addition to the two UNESCO world heritage sites.  The latter part of the discussion paper highlights the areas of improvement and the opportunities for the Nepal tourism industry on the lines of the Tourism Policy, 2008 and the Tourism Vision 2020. The focus has been put on the fact that the country still ranks among the least developed countries and therefore an inclusive approach to the tourism has been discussed, whereby the poverty-affected areas would be developed and included in the ambit of the tourist destinations and the tourist products. In addition to the above, opportunities have been identified in the form of the capitalization of the air travel revenue, simplification of the administrative processes, improvement of the marketing and promotions, and development of the tourist friendly infrastructure.

The second paper recognizes the potential of the tourism industry in the contribution towards the development of the economic, social and environmental facets of a nation and thereby enabling the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as laid down by the United Nations. Key areas have been identified for the improvements for each of the five elements identified. Some example of the key areas for improvement are reforms in the legal, institutional and political frameworks of the countries, facilitation of the FDI in tourism, investment in the development of the human skills, and the management of the risks and the crisis. In addition to the above, there are opportunities in development of the accessible infrastructure, consultation with the local communities, providing tax incentives for opting green practices, waste management, alignment of the culture and tourism at various levels, integration of tourism in security systems, ensuring timely and correct travel advisories and the use of the social media in promoting cultural diversity

Evaluation of Two Discussion Papers

The contrasting features of both the discussion papers have been described as follow. The first discussion paper is region centric while the second discussion paper is issue centric. As the first paper is region centric, the issues mainly focussed in the paper are that of the country Nepal only and it is narrow approach. Accordingly, the consultation is sought from the local representatives and the recommendations are made. The second discussion paper is formed on the lines of globalization and the sustainability as a global concept and therefore, a wide focus has been established. The five main elements as recognised by the second paper can be applied in the context of any country or region. The second paper also highlights the importance of governance, coordination between the agencies, partnerships, and engagement of the civil society, which are globally applicable concepts. While the recommendations made by the first paper are based on the economic and social structure of Nepal and are thus applicable only in that region.

The common thing between both the papers is the consideration of the various stakeholder needs and the overall impact of the policies have been analysed. Both the papers follow a comparative approach, which involves evaluation of the present scenarios and potential opportunities available. Recommendations are made in both the papers with the objective of bridging the gap between the achievements made and the future growth potential estimated.

Conclusion

From the discussion conducted in the previous parts, it can be concluded that the tourism has a critical role to play in the growth of an economy with regards to the social and environmental factors. Therefore, the tourism policies must be carefully crafted taking into account the challenges and aspirations of all the concerned stakeholders. A six phase approach has been prescribed by the World Tourism Organization for the formulation of the effective tourism policies. Also it has been suggested that the consultative approach is the right approach to the formulation of the tourism policies. Discussion papers are one such mode of obtaining consultation and feedback from the concerned stakeholders before the actual formulation of the policies. These papers enable the incorporation of the various ideas of the range of the participants like the representatives of the Government agencies, private sector, civil society organisations and even the general public. The report critically analyses the two discussion papers. The first discussion paper is Nepal centric and focuses on the present and potential issues with regard to the tourism industry and the related impact on the economy of the Nepal. The second papers is aimed at highlighting the importance of the sustainability in the tourism industry. Thus, it can be said that each discussion paper differs from the other depending upon the objectives and the region concerned. A contrast of the papers has been depicted to highlight the differences. Thus the crux of the report comes out be that discussion paper is an important tool of the policy planning cycle.

References

Samriddhi Foundation. (2014) Discussion Paper on Promoting Investment in Tourism Industry in Nepal. [Online] Available from: https://samriddhi.org/publications/discussion-paper-on-promoting-investment-in-tourism-industry-in-nepal/ [Accessed on 31/07/18].

The World Tourism Organization. (2017) Discussion paper on Sustainability Tourism for Development. [Online] Available from: https://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/iy2017_discussion_paper_executive_summary_en.pdf [Accessed on 31/07/18].

The World Tourism Organization. (2018) Policy Planning and Economic Development. [Online] Available from: https://cooperation.unwto.org/technical-product/tourism-policy [Accessed on 30/07/18].

US Fire Administration. (2017) The public policy development cycle. [online] Available from: https://www.usfa.fema.gov/training/coffee_break/053117.html [Accessed on 30/07/18].