Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
organisations have tried to extend the benefits of tourism to all areas of the
country. In 2013 VisitBritian launched a new Britain Tourism strategy with
the aim of attracting 40 million international visitors a year, spending £31.3
billion by 2020 (VisitBritian, 2013b). At a national level, the objectives of the
Thailand national growth policies have been to foster growth throughout
the country by selectively designating key development areas (Pearce, 1989).
The country of Indonesia has a national tourism plan as well as regional
tourism plans. Regional designation can also be guided by environmental
factors such as the need to protect a fragile area from tourism development.
Regional tourism plans contain some of the same overriding concepts as
national tourism plans as well as containing distinctive elements. Themes,
which are carried from national level plans to regional level plans, include:
•
concerns for the impact of tourism upon regional economies and employ-
ment patterns;
•
development of infrastructure, including transport systems, to assist in
the circulation of visitors within the regions, as well as provision of
public utilities such as power and water supplies, both of which are fre-
quently organised at regional levels;
•
further spatial structuring in which tourism localities within regions are
identified;
•
regional-level marketing and promotion, especially where the region pro-
cesses a particular identity and/or set of tourism products (Williams,
1998: 133).
Three distinctive aspects, which are often included in regional plans, are
a greater concern over environmental impacts, more detailed consideration
of the type and location of visitor attractions along with supporting services
such as accommodation and greater recognition of visitor management strat-
egies. Management strategies at the regional level encompass strategic place-
ment of key attractions, designation of tourist routes and regional zoning to
either concentrate or disperse visitors (Williams, 1998). One strategy for
regional development has been the construction or expansion of regional
airports. In Europe, where there has been a rise in low-cost air carriers using
regional-level airports as they are less costly than major airports, there has
been a corresponding increase in tourism income. China has seen rapid
expansion in the number of airports. In the 12th Five-Year Plan period from
2011-2015, 56 new airports are to be built, 16 relocated and 91 expanded
(eTN, 2013). Kasarda and Lindsay (2011) argue that in the future the 'aero-
tropolis' will be the focus of the way we will live, which is a combination
of a giant airport, planned city, shipping facility and business hub. Within
the EU, regional designation has also become linked to protecting specific
names through geographic indication, which is linked to intellectual prop-
erty rights. Geographic indication is used as a sign to identify a product as
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