The Role Of Discussion Papers In Policy Planning Essay For Tourism Industry.

Policy Planning Cycle

Discuss about the Ecotourism Systems to Invigorate Responsible Tourism.

The policy planning cycle can be defined as a series of activities like evaluation of alternatives, identification of the solutions, design and management of the alternative opted, budgeting; and other functions that need to be carried out in order to develop efficient policies and plan for the new project (Bardach and Patashnik, 2015). In the tourism industry, policy planning is critical so as to develop, operate and manage tourism in a way that meets the long-term objectives of the concerned Government. The formulation of tourism policy follows a consultative approach through the involvement of the various stakeholders (The World Tourism Organization, 2018). Discussion papers are one such important consultation tool that aid in the overall assessment of the current scenario of tourism in a country, identification of the challenges and opportunities involved and setting up of the benchmarks for future growth. The report presents a glimpse of the use of the discussion papers in addressing of elements of a policy cycle. The two discussion papers that are considered are, “Transformation Planning of Ecotourism systems to Invigorate Responsible Tourism” and “Sustainable Tourism for Development”. The report comprises of evaluation and comparison of each of the discussion paper, followed by the conclusion that discussion papers play a crucial role in the consultation stage for policy formulations in the tourism industry.

The paper is formulated so as to critically analyse and develop the plans that would assist in the revitalization of the existing ecotourism practises in Korea and thereby solving the related problems (Choi, Doh, Park and Chon, 2017). The study has been conducted on the lines of the “systems thinking” approach that involved the study of the various variables, the methods of their operation and the resulting impact on the overall system. The paper classified the ecotourism systems into four types that are, low-infrastructure and resident-initiated, high-infrastructure and resident-initiated, high-infrastructure and government-initiated and low-infrastructure and government-initiated. In this paper, some key issues were identified that must be considered while planning for such a system like saturated tourism facility development, noise pollution due to tourism activities, lack of information, profit-centered development, and conflicts between residents and landowners within the protected areas defined as tourist places.

This paper is designed to introduce tourism as a catalyst for a positive change in the development process of a nation or economy. The main motive of this paper is to introduce the contribution of tourism in all the three dimensions of sustainable development of a nation that is, economic, social, and environmental along with all the objectives or goals of a sustainable development (The World Tourism Organization, 2017). This paper also introduces key issues while considering tourism as a catalyst for the sustainable development. These key issues identified or introduced in this paper are tourism’s susceptibility to market influences; over-dependence on tourism; issues of overcrowding; concerns over working conditions; emissions and pollution; and potential adverse effects on biodiversity, heritage, and communities.

Evaluation of Two Discussion Papers

The policy planning cycle is defined as a structure that brings together all the aspects of planning for a project into a unified and coherent process and is a well-known tool for tourism planning in the industry. This cycle includes different aspects to be completed while planning such as analyzing the requirement by introducing issues, exploring alternatives or options, evaluating each option, overall evaluation of the plan, implementation of the plan, and closure of the plan with a feedback from the users. This cycle can be described with the help of the below-given structure.

As the former paper is about the transformation of the tourism industry as ecotourism, it must be focused on the infrastructure evaluation of the local country to define the sustainability of tourism in its local country. In this process, the paper is well designed introducing the issue in the beginning and then defining a different system that describes the types of ecotourism in the industry. This shows providing options or alternative of ecotourism in the industry that can be implemented in the planning process. This is the second step of policy planning cycle to provide options or alternatives to mitigate the issue identified while planning for the sustainability of tourism. These alternatives are discussed to establish an understanding of individual alternative so that the planning expert can evaluate all the possible alternatives effectively. After providing a brief of all the alternatives paper discusses the methods of areas to implement the planning and research to understand the best requirement of the planning.

In a similar manner, the later paper also identifies the key issue of sustainable tourism planning followed by a critical analysis of different aspects and impact of tourism on all the three dimensions of sustainable development of a nation. Structure of the paper is following a well-defined policy planning cycle to understand the process of planning. In this paper, a well-designed planning of using tourism in the development of a nation is discussed.

In the first paper, one of the major objectives is the concern for industry’s stakeholders that are, managers, tourists, operators, and residents of the locality. All the stakeholders are considered significantly playing their individual role in planning for the transformation of the whole tourism industry into ecotourism system for the country. This paper defines the need of stakeholders for the development of an ethical and moral behavior at the workplace of the said industry. In addition to this, the paper defines the essentiality of stakeholders to protect the natural resources along with the promotion of recovery need for any damage if occurs.

Stakeholder Involvement

In the second paper, discussion of transformation relies on the role of stakeholders to help the system in planning the contribution of tourism in developing the country in terms of all three dimension of the sustainability development. The paper discusses the role of stakeholders in providing evidence for the research and their involvement in providing a feedback for the enhancement of system to fulfill all the objectives for which whole planning is made. Also includes their role in the tourism industry to describe the characteristics of industry useful in helping the sustainable development of the country. This paper also aware the stakeholders to understand the benefits of tourism in the overall development of the country in all the dimensions of sustainable development.

Both papers use stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable development regardless of the objective of paper that for which development is considered. In the context of the first paper, it has been analyzed that the involvement of stakeholder in the ecotourism is necessary for the invigoration of responsible tourism, as they cooperate roles of supply and demand in ecotourism. They put efforts in decreasing the negative impact of tourism. The second paper elaborates that the involvement of stakeholder in sustainable tourism for development can enhance the interactions between host and guests. Stakeholders facilitate developing employment and promoting community pride.

As per the discussion in the previous parts, for me both the papers encompass an effective structure that is able to insight the role of tourism in the development of the country.

I think the structure of the first paper refers to a functional structure encompassing supply and demand factors that influence one another. On the other hand, the structure of the second paper is made for the purpose of developing building insulation and replacing equipment. For me the quality of the first paper is valuable as it entails ecosystem conservation areas, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, wetlands conversational areas, migratory birds’ sanctuaries. I think an ecotourism system is considered as a sort of tourism system that develops complex mutual relationships among the aspects that influence wildlife environment and the reinstatement of local areas within an ecotourism purpose.

When I compare the effectiveness of both papers, first paper expresses that people should increase the awareness regarding the transformation planning of ecotourism systems to invigorate responsible tourism and second paper shows its effectiveness by elaborating the investment in human capital and skills development, training and capacity creating for youth as well as women, developing accessible infrastructure and offering tax incentives for green practices.

Key Issues in Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism

From the contrast of both papers, I think aims and objectives of both the papers are different. The aim of the first paper is to encourage the manager to willingly preserve the natural environment by education and understanding regardless of the tourism infrastructure growth. On the other hand, the second paper aims to utilize the latest technologies, off-setting schemes, and operation competences to decrease the emission of pollutants. It has been found that the strategic approach could engage declining the standard reserve and occurrence of trips, despite the fact that growing the length of stays and move in modes of transport.

According to me both the article are different in terms of their structure as well as presenting the issues these are defining. I think while analysing an article its structure is key element to describe the content effectively. While reading the articles I get to know that structure of an article plays an important role. Key issues defined in both the article made met to understand that while presenting an issue it must be according to the article structure and most importantly it must be clear in an effective way for which structure if an article can help a lot.

Conclusion

As per the analysis carried out in the above parts, it can be concluded that tourism plays a remarkable role in the overall development and growth of a country. Hence, formulation of the tourism policies and plans are vital for a nation. Discussion papers play a critical role as part of the planning policy cycle and are helpful in identification and addressing various issues in the development stage itself. The report considered two different papers on tourism development concerning different issues. While the first paper aims to revamp the ecotourism practices in Korea through the systems study, the second paper studies the role of the tourism in the development of the economic, social and environmental facets of a nation. One of the major similarities found in both the papers was the involvement of the stakeholders. As depicted in the first paper, various stakeholders play essential roles in the development of the significant tourism policies. The fact has been asserted by the second paper, as it states that the individual roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders lead to overall growth of a nation. A brief contrast has also been conducted among the two papers, so as to highlight the fact that discussion papers differ from each other depending upon the aims and objectives of the each. Thus, it can be said that discussion papers serve as an important tool for the purpose of consultation in order to form the policies in the tourism industry.

References

Bardach, E., and Patashnik, E. M. (2015). A practical guide for policy analysis: The eightfold path to more effective problem solving. US: CQ press.

Choi, Y. E., Doh, M., Park, S., and Chon, J. (2017) Transformation Planning of Ecotourism Systems to Invigorate Responsible Tourism. Sustainability, 9, pp. 1-24.

Policy NL (2018) The Policy Cycle. [Online] Available from: https://www.policynl.ca/policydevelopment/policycycle.html [Accessed on 19/07/18].

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 19/07/18].

The World Tourism Organization. (2018). Policy Planning and Economic Development. [Online] Available from: https://cooperation.unwto.org/technical-product/tourism-policy [Accessed on 24/07/18].