"Exploring the Dynamics of Tourism Planning"

ABSTRACT      

                 Planning is an essential managerial process that involves anticipating future scenarios and identifying different courses of action. It includes establishing business objectives and devising strategies to accomplish them. Planning gives direction and clarity to organizational activities, helping management navigate through complex, dynamic, and constantly evolving environments. It spans all levels of the organization—senior, middle, and supervisory—and encompasses each division, department, or unit. Every organization, irrespective of its size or industry, must engage in planning to effectively pursue its objectives, especially crucial in the tourism sector where achieving targets is of utmost importance.

KEY WORDS

• Planning - |Preparation
• Uncertainly-Doubt
• Monitor-Check
• Enhanced-Improved
• Perception-Aware
• Managerial
• Equilibrium

OBJECTIVES

• Gain insights into the concept of planning and its significance within the tourism industry.
• Acquire knowledge on effectively implementing planning strategies in tourism.
• Explore the essential steps involved in the planning process for tourism development.

INTRODUCTION

              Planning is a systematic process that revolves around determining future courses of action. When considering planning, it naturally prompts questions such as what actions need to be taken, how to execute them, when to initiate them, and why they are necessary. These inquiries—what, how, when, and why—comprise integral components of the planning process across various facets. Additionally, planning serves as a control technique within the broader framework known as the control cycle. This cycle includes directing the implementation of plans and evaluating the outcomes achieved.

Planning also implies:

• Making choices from the diverse available
• Opportunities and a time limit for achieving the goals.

IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING

• Planning not a natural activity
• The Problem of Timing
• Environmental Change
• Improve perception of environment
• Uncertainly and ambiguities
• Contribution to success
• Additional management control
• Brings attention to objectivity’s
• Establish priorities
• Technique to implement routine decisions
• Integrate organization changes
• Develop mutual Expectation

Planning is the primary function of management. It is an intellectual process and it concerned with future activity planning emphasizes on efficiency and consistency of operations, therefore it minimizes cost. Planning facilities control because it enables managers to check the accomplishments of their subordinates by measuring against the goals. Lack of proper planning can lead to disorder and chaos. Inadequate or defective planning has been the basic cause of failure of many organizations.

TOURISM PLANNING

                 Tourism planning becomes necessary whenever deliberate decision-making is needed to select from a limited range of options in order to achieve specific objectives, particularly when these options are interchangeable. Essentially, planning aims to distribute scarce resources among various competing priorities to maximize productivity, income, and employment, while fostering balanced growth across different sectors.

In the field of Tourism, the need for planned development is of paramount importance. Many countries in the world especially the developing countries have latterly realized the importance of tourismand the benefits which it brings out. The planning methods for national economic development which have been largely utilized since the end of the World War II did not always cover tourism development as a particular field. The increasing significance of tourism as a source of income, employment generation regional development and as a major factor in the balance of payments for many countries has been attracting Increasing attention on the parts of many governments as well as others with an interest in economic development. Thus, tourism development became more and more a particular field of research in the economic planning undertaken by many countries concrete effort by a central authority for developing any sector to achieve the present goals, is known as planning. So this sector of Tourism also should be planned properly to reach the necessary goals. Many of the developing countries have recently realized the need for tourist planning. The United Nations conference on International Travel and tourism held in Rome in 1963 emphasized tourism Planning. It has recommended that the governments of the developing countries should accord high priority.

STEPS IN TOURISM PLANNING

           Hotels, Airlines, Travel Agencies being a part of service industry one should attempt to understand the requirement and expectations of their customers. Success of actual planning would do a large extent depend upon realistic diagnosis of the problem. Koontz and O’Donnell have laid doom the following steps in planning.

• Define Objective

The first-step involved in planning is determining the organizational objective. Objectives are nothing but the target goal or mission which should be clearly defined. Objective should be short and attainable.

• Collect Information

After setting the objective, collect the information regarding the same to attain the objective. Information will include internal and external. Internal Information will be regarding the locations of the company, company policy, money availability, trained staff etc., and external Information will include government policy, economy of the country social attitudes towards your business, in flattery trend, wage policy of the government and so on.

• Analyze the Information collected

Analyze the information collected on the basis of its effectiveness efficiency and economy.

• Select the best course of actions

After analyzing the information in terms of objective feasibility and its consequences, select the best course of action.

• Determine Policies Procedures, Programs Strategies, budget

After selecting the best solutions, decide the policies, Procedures, programs, strategies and budget for the same.

TYPES OF PLANS

Planning is a vast area as all managers plan to achieve the stated goals of an organization. Within that every unit or department has its own plans and so on. Generally, Plans can be two types.1) Strategic Plans 2) Operational or Technical Plans.

STRATEGIC PLANS

Strategic

           Plans are devised to meet the organizational goals, whereas operation plans are devised to implement the strategic plans. In any organizations growth it is imperative that operational plans reflect the strategize plans. For example the various regional managers of the Department of Tourism make promotional plans for their regions, but the guiding factor for them and the principles mentioned in the strategic plan designed by the department of Tourism, However it must be remembered here that strategic plans have a long span of time compared to operational plans. For example, as tour operator you may have a strategic plan to cater to and 100 groups of tourists in a five-year time. Strategic plans decide the aims and policies of the organization. Accordingly, the programs and methods for their fulfillment are also detailed. Though, such strategic planning may not predict your future but surely a strategic plan enables you meet future contingencies; corrections; take timely decisions and avoid deviations.

OPERATIONAL PLANNING

Operational planning determines the task to be accomplished determines responsibility allocates resources and sets measurements for every task.

• The government of the developing countries should accord high priority to projects concerning the development of tourism in their respective countries.
• The government of the developing countries should consider the possibility of selecting the assistance of the U.N.SPECIAL Fund for Regional and sub regional Surveys of existing and potential tourist resources and for the preparation by expert of tourist traffic estimates and forecasts, with a view to the establishment of short term and long term for the development of tourist facilities and plan:.

The group of Experts suggested that since the flow of tourist is increasing new places to visit are to be developed to the extent permitted by the economic resources of the country. The existing tourist facilities such as mountaineering winter sports, fishing, hunting, beaches, spas, national parks, game sanctuaries, national monuments site and shrines, folk traditions, customs, pilgrimage, festivals and sporting events etc., should be developed ad protected. Along with this special care should be taken to protects the culture, tradition, art and folk lore of the indigenous peoples. In order to have a clear cut idea about the existing and future potential tourist attractions the country should conduct a survey to make a planning for further development within the available means. A carefully drawn out planning is a prerequisite for the success of any programmed. While preparing tourism planning the government agency in charge of planning should consider the following issues:

• It should decide on the rate of growth of tourism sector faster growth or slower, gradual and selective sectional growth.
• Find the importance of tourism sector in the national development and find ways of fitting it in the national, regional and local development programs.
• Decided on the respective role given to the public and private sector.
• Determine the role of domestic and foreign capital and decide the extent to which the foreign capital is to be used in case domestic capital in scarce.
• Decide the need for special treatment of the tourist industry based on its peculiar nature.
• Determine the need to develop tourism as an industry either as a long term continuous development activity or as a short term programmed just to make up the deficit in the balance of payment position of the country.

These issues were addressed during a seminar held at Estuarial by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The discussion highlighted that tourism, involving the movement of people rather than goods, is inherently subjective. Consequently, tourism development is significantly influenced by political and social pressures, psychological attitudes, and trends in fashion. Thus, this industry must be adaptable to align with prevailing conditions in the country, which are often non-economic in nature. Tourism carries implications across cultural, social, aesthetic, and political dimensions. Given the limited resources in developing countries, careful planning is crucial to effectively manage these unique characteristics of tourism.

CONCLUSION

           Tourism, due to its unique characteristics, contributes significantly to a country's development and should be integrated into various sectors directly or indirectly linked to it. However, it cannot thrive in isolation and must align with the broader economic development programs of the country. Therefore, coordination between tourism planning and overall economic planning is essential, ensuring concerted efforts across all relevant sectors. Effective tourism planning should also consider the social and cultural dimensions of development, given its focus on human interaction. Successful implementation hinges on aligning tourism policies with overarching developmental strategies.

In the process of planning, it is essential to recognize tourism as a multifaceted product. The primary goal of tourism development planning is to manage the demand and supply of tourism in a way that maintains equilibrium within the broader economic framework of the country. This consideration holds particular significance in the context of developing nations.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

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