A truly legitimate and practical discussion on sustainable tourism must take place in and with the communities that are being influenced by tourist industry development. It must create accountability of the tourism industry to locally-defined development visions.

(The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), 1999: Sustainable Tourism: A Local Authority Perspective)
 

• Why Should a Community Make a Tourism Plan?
• What is a Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan?
• How is What You Do Different from What Other Tourism Consultants Do?
• What are the Benefits of Your Approach to Tourism Planning?
• How Do We Get Started?

Why Should a Community Make a Tourism Plan?

Quite frankly, the reason communities need to make tourism plans is because:

Tourism Happens IN Communities

Unlike most economic activities where resources are harvested, goods and services are manufactured and products are shipped out to consumers, tourists travel to the attractions and hospitality services that make up tourism destinations!

They COME to your community.

Large or small, near or far, willing or unwilling, like it or not, tourism happens IN communities everywhere. It happens whenever an outsider comes to buy gas, shop, eat, spend the night—whatever. They come, they stay awhile, they interact with community residents, they look around, check out the attractions, maybe they spend some money—maybe not, they always use the toilet, and in the end, they leave.

Given that tourism happens IN communities, the Real Question then becomes:

 Do communities want tourism to happen TO them or FOR them?

If tourism is just to happen TO a community, and that is the community's choice to make, then don’t do anything.

If the choice is for tourism to happen FOR the community, then you need to plan. It's that simple.

Each summer in Wakefield, Québec, an unincorporated community of a thousand people, an old-time steam train brings three to four hundred people (528 maximum) to the village everyday. Passengers board the train, at a regular fare of $39 CAN per person in Gatineau (Hull), 30 km to the south and slowly wind their way along the scenic Gatineau River to Wakefield.

They detrain on arrival and spend several hours in the village. Survey research shows that on average each passenger spends $4 for a total direct expenditure impact of about $1,400 per day or a total of $200,000 for the entire 140 day season. This is a small amount of money, only slightly more than 10%, compared to the $1.9 million that the train generates in annual gross revenues from its operator.

Steam Train tourism is happening IN Wakefield. There is no doubt about that, but is it really benefiting Wakefield? Does it cost (happen TO) the community more than it happens FOR the community? Increasing the local population by 50% for several hours every day for nearly 40% of the year has serious implications and could cause a significant drain on Wakefield's resources and attitudes.

Wakefield residents have no tourism plan at present. They would surely benefit from a full community exploration of the train and other tourism issues that face them. They might choose to make a plan that would lead to enhancing the benefits derived from all the tourism that is happening  IN their community right now.

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail
(Traditional Wisdom)

What is a Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan?

A Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan focusses on tourism and the tourists who come to a community. It sets out the attraction strategies (cultural, nature, adventure, industrial, other?) that will be adopted and developed by the community. It defines access routes, modes, and gateways. It indicates clustering and partnership opportunities. It describes how the community will manage the influx of visitors. It shows which areas of the community that will be shared with tourists and those which will not. It considers the fundamental questions of the cost of tourism to the community and how the community will capture potential benefits.

A Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan is a public document or presentation generally consisting of maps, drawings, policy statements and action programs. It is the result of research and public process. A Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan should document all the public choices made by residents about future tourism development of their community. Those choices should be based on information gathered through research and public discussion.

The public process that results in a Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan looks at BOTH tourism Demand and Supply Questions. These include:

 - Demand Questions

• Who do we want to have come to our community?
• Where are these people located, where do they live now?
• How many of them are there?
• How can we contact them?

 - Supply Questions

• What will be the sources of project initiative and investment (public, private, voluntary sectors or a combination)?
• How will we allocate land use and activity clustering?
• What will be our attraction development emphasis (cultural, natural, recreational, event, other?)?
• How will we guarantee quality hospitality service (accommodation, food and beverage, clean public toilets)?
• Can we provide adequate infrastructure (roads, water supply, waste water)?
• Can we provide emergency and public services (police, medical) to visitors?
• Is there adequate information and signage (informational and interpretive, orienting, and directional or way-finding)?

Including answers to questions like the ones above and to the many others that will arise during a public planning process, will increase the likelihood that the resulting tourism destination plan will be sustainable one.

How is What You Do Different from What Other Tourism Consultants Do?

By working community residents to develop community-based sustainable tourism destination plans, Michael complements the work of other tourism consultants. Most tourism consultants are Management Consultants who focus on individual tourism operators and their business and marketing plans — that is, they focus on "product" development.

Michael's work on the other hand, seeks to establish the vision of acceptable and sustainable tourism development among community residents based on market research. Visioning and market research take place "up stream" of business development and marketing.

What are the Benefits of Your Approach to Community Tourism Planning?

• An informed leadership for tourism development
• New and increased employment opportunities
• An enhanced local economy
• An enhanced community tax base
• Local acceptance and support for tourism
• Recognition and conservation of local cultural and natural resource values
• Increased visitor satisfaction
• Repeat business through network-relationship marketing

The Approach Leads to Action!

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How Do We Get Started?

There are several ways we can begin. One is to complete the brief tourism assessment Survey and e-mail it to me. That will give me an idea of the current state of tourism development in your community and common basis for further discussion.

Or you can simply Contact me and we can talk about you situation.

Tourism District, Juneau, Alaska

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