Tourism Policy: Structure, Content, and Process - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 338

analytical . The essence of this model is that it is by nature structured, logical, and

somewhat mechanical. It emphasizes that strategy formulation should be a controlled, conscious
process of thought for which ultimate responsibility lies with the chief executive of cer of the entity
involved in strategy development. The outcome of this process is a simple, unique, and explicit ''best''
strategy for a given situation.
At the other end of the spectrum is what Mintzberg de nes as the crafting of strategy. Under this
conceptualization, crafting a strategy is a dynamic, evolving process in which strategies take form as a
result of learning over a period of time, as opposed to being formulated at a fixed point in time.
Mintzberg emphasizes that the crafting of strategy re ects an ongoing iterative process of thinking and
acting

positioning

and then thinking some more. One idea leads to another until a new pattern forms. As such,
strategies can form as well as be formulated. A strategy can emerge in response to an evolving
situation, or it can be brought about deliberately, through a process of formulation followed by
implementation. Crafting strategy requires dedication, experience, involvement with the material, the
personal touch, mastery of detail, a sense of harmony, and integration. 8
In brief, the process of

—

strategic visioning — or simply visioning — like the crafting of strategy, is seen

as a dynamic, interactive phenomenon. 9
After the visioning process is complete, the organization will take that information and come up
with a more speci c mission statement to also help guide the organization. A mission statement is a
short, formal, written statement of the purpose and aim of an organization or company. It has a more
immediate tone than the vision statement. The vision statement de nes what the organization aspires
to be while the mission statement de nes what the organization is. It provides the context within
which the organization

' s strategies are formulated.

Tourism Objectives and Constraints

Component three of a tourism policy consists of a statement of the objectives of the tourism
system. are de ned as operational statement(s) of the speci c results sought

by the tourism system within a given time frame. The objectives of the tourism system should
possess a number of important characteristics. First, because the objectives are formulated in light
of the tourism vision, their achievement should clearly contribute to the ful llment of this vision.
Second, in order that the objectives can be quali ed as operational, it is essential that managers are
able to measure the extent to which desired results have or have not been attained. This implies that
we must have some explicit means of quantifying appropriate performance standards. Third, we
must ensure that the measures selected with respect to each objective are indeed valid indicators of
the desired results; that is, they must measure what we truly want to achieve. Fourth, in the
common situation where the tourism system has multiple objectives, it is advisable to indicate an
order or priority among objectives. This indication of relative importance provides a basis for
decision making should different strategies or programs for achieving the objective be in con ict.
Fifth, the objectives must be related to a given time period as is directly stated in the above
de nition. Finally, the objectives that are stated must be reasonable. Although they should serve to
offer a real challenge, goals that are virtually impossible to attain quickly become a negative rather
than a positive source of motivation.
One further remark concerning the formal statement of objectives is in order. Objectives identify
those events or results that we wish to bring about. The word objective implies that the results are
positive entities, such as a certain number of visitors, but this is not necessarily so. In fact, the
managers of a tourism system may seek goals with respect to what they do not want to happen as a
consequence of their activities. Examples include the avoidance of environmental and cultural
pollution. These types of results could be stated as speci c objectives of the tourism system. While
very important, their essentially negative nature provides little incentive for management action. An
alternative and more satisfactory manner of dealing with effects that one wishes to avoid is to express
them in the form of

Tourism objectives

tourism constraints . A common approach to formally stating constraints on