Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(Baum and More 1966:5)
The starting point with respect to determining successful regional tourism development is
deciding in the first place what the objectives should be and how a community is going to
get there. Such a decision should not be made by the tourism industry alone As P.T.Long
and Nuckolls (1994) noted:
Pro-active, community-driven planning, that goes beyond developing and
promoting the static supply side of tourism, is essential for successful
development of a sustainable tourism industry. Furthermore, tourism
plans must be integrated into broader strategies for community, economic
and regional development and management. Communities that fail to
organise resources and strategically plan for tourism will likely be faced
with short term, haphazard development, resulting in long term, negative
economic, social and environmental impacts.
(P.T.Long and Nuckolls 1994:19)
An understanding of tourism policy processes therefore lies at the heart of broader goals
of rural and regional development. Yet, as Hall and Jenkins (1998) argued, the
formulation and implementation of rural tourism and recreation public policies present
several conundrums. Unrealistic expectations of tourism's potential are unfortunately
combined with ignorance or wilful neglect by decision-makers of the potentially adverse
economic, environmental and social consequences of tourist development that threaten to
curtail its benefits (Bachvarov 1999; Boyd 2000; Cater 2000; Bianchi 2002; Ribeiro and
Marques 2002; Turnock 2002). Yet, as Duffield and Long (1981:409) observed,
'Ironically, the very consequences of lack of development, the unspoilt character of the
landscape and distinctive local cultures, become positive resources as far as tourism is
concerned.' Government involvement in tourism development is therefore often quite
unsuccessful:
Management decisions for the allocation of related outdoor recreation
resources are seldom guided by strategic policy frameworks. Decisions
are typically made in a reactive manner in response to various pressures
from groups competing for the same resource or lobbying for different
management of a particular resource.… Even in Europe, where rural
tourism has been increasingly promoted over the last decade as an
important mechanism for regional economic development and European
integration, substantial problems have emerged with respect to policy
formulation and implementation.
(Hall and Jenkins 1998:28)
The reason for such failures lies in a lack of understanding of policy processes (Hall and
Jenkins 1995; J.Jenkins 2001; Michael 2001), while the goals of 'tourism development
are fairly clear at the regional level, little research has been conducted on the most
appropriate policy mix to achieve such objectives and there is often minimal monitoring
and evaluation of policy measures' (Hall and Jenkins 1998). Therefore, for each location
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