Planning & Design
[Sustainable Tourism Destination Planners] believe in planning and forecasting and developing plans that guide day-to-day action; rely on marketing research when making development decisions; focus on the wants and needs of visitors and tourists; and see marketing as a process in which promotion is just one step of several, ....(paraphrased from Shwarbrooke, 2002: The Development and Management of Visitor Attractions)
Community
Tourism Planning & Design offers planning services that help communities
achieve success in developing sustainable tourism.
It is the planner's job to design and facilitate community decision and plan making processes. As well a planner contributes information through technical research and analysis. The last part of the planner's job is synthesizing the accomplishments of client communities into written and graphic reports.
These are the core services that Community Tourism Planning & Design provides.
Technical Tools
- Key Informant Interviews
- Library, Internet, and Survey Research
- Census and Statistical Analysis
- Spatial Analysis with Geographical Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies
The services offered by Community Tourism Planning & Design generally follow a progression that starts with needs assessment and ends with actions.
Technical Services
- Tourism Supply Demand Consequence (SDC) Community Assessment
- Asset Inventory, Database Development, & Mapping
- Location Intelligent Market Research
- Ordinance Review
- Situational Analysis
Facilitation Services
- Systematic Planning Workshops
- Visions & Goals * Benchmarks & Indicators
- Partnerships
- Destination Area Design
- Action Planning
- Training Needs
Technical Services
Tourism Supply Demand Consequence (SDC) Community Assessment
Strategic community assessment is fundamental to “Getting the Ball Rolling.” A Tourism SDC Community Assessment provides community leaders with an understanding of their need to have or update a Tourism Development Plan.
Some communities have achieved saturation levels, while others have the potential for additional tourism development. For still others, tourism development might be an entirely inappropriate course of action unless it is approached with care. Every community needs to know where it stands and to plan from there.
A Tourism SDC Community Assessment quickly reveals the existing community situation in a concise and easy to interpret form. It provides a community with a strategic understanding of their current and potential capacity for tourism development, whether it is already at an appropriate level, if there is growth potential, if, for of reasons beyond the community's control, it is an inappropriate investment, or if the community is over saturated with tourism. It also quickly identifies data gaps.
In
one case, Michael applied the
Tourism SDC Community
Assessment approach to the Hopi Indian Reservation which is located in northeastern
Arizona. The assessment [Click on the Image] confirmed that while additional cultural tourism
development on the reservation would be appropriate, there is an underlying
need to be cautious and to protect the religious aspects of Hopi culture.
The
Tourism SDC Community Assessment tool was developed by the Cities and
Environment Unit at Dalhousie University in an extended case study project that
involved study of twenty communities in the Canadian Maritimes and in Brazil.
Asset Inventory, Database Development,
& Mapping
Communities create success by owning their process. It is important to involve everyone in the planning process. Knowing the natural, scenic, cultural, recreational and service assets of a community and surrounding region is the foundation of the supply side of tourism plan making. Michael trains community residents to collect much of the primary tourism supply data that will be used in making their tourism plan. Asset inventory is one area where everyone can be involved and have some fun doing the work.
Following asset inventory work completed by community members, Michael helps people map asset locations and evaluate each asset for its suitability of inclusion in a Sustainable Tourism Development program.
Location Intelligent Market Research
To paraphrase an old marketing axiom: “Your next visitor will be just like your last.”
If you know the geographic and demographic characteristics, trip behaviours, preferences, and attitudes of the most recent tourists in your community, which you can from primary visitor survey research data, you will be able to identify types of people who are not only current visitors, but also potential new ones with a fair degree of certainty. This is market segmentation and is the foundation of the demand side of tourism plan making.
By knowing what you have (supply) and what your are willing to share with visitors, and then knowing who your best potential visitors are (market segments), communities can tailor their Tourism Development Plans to deliver the attractions and services that match some or all of what tourists want. This process is known as Product/Market Matching.
Communities can also work to locate and attract new visitors. With today's technologies and information systems, it is possible to find geographic concentrations of potential new visitors (market segments) and develop promotional campaigns directed to their mailbox. This process is know as Target Marketing. With your materials in their hands, potential visitors can be influenced to make the choice to visit your community where and when 95% of travel choices are made: In the traveller’s home long before the trip even starts!
An
example of this approach is the
PSYTE® US Advantage neighbourhood segmentation system developed by
MapInfo® Corporation. Say your community
wants to attract people who have sufficient discretionary income to travel and
like to do family camping, you could focus a marketing campaign on the Exurban
Tide Cluster. As the map shows [Click on the
Image], these folks tend to be concentrated in the
northwest and east coast regions of the United States. The system provides
detailed demographic information for these people. With PSYTE®
software, the market researcher can find the zip codes for all the places
where these potential visitors live. There are 72 clusters defined in the
system. A similar system is available for
Canada.
Michael will review local ordinances and by-laws in order to establish harmony between tourism development planning and local official plans and regulatory control.
The Situational Analysis pulls together into a single presentation the many research threads undertaken in all the pervious work. A Situational Analysis is the stepping stone to planning.
It is the stepping stone from what exists to what will exist.
Facilitation Services
Most planning work, work that creates the future, is accomplished in public participation workshops and design charrettes. This has the effect of including a broad spectrum of views and ideas, providing consensus, and creating community ownership for whatever plan that emerges.
Michael designs and facilitates tourism focussed public workshops and design charrettes. The principles on which these workshops and charrettes are drawn from the seven step Systematic Planning Process model developed at the University of British Columbia. To paraphrase well known author Stephen R. Covey, Systematic Planning is a Seven Step Process that leads to Highly Effective Plans!
Visions & Goals * Benchmarks &
Indicators
Visions and goals found through consensus in public discussion establish the best strategic directions for a community. Appropriate benchmarks and indicators have to be identified, selected, and initialized so that the success of an adopted plan becomes measurable. Michael facilitates workshops to achieve these two necessary steps.
“No Man is an Island.” This is perhaps more true in tourism development than in any other kind of community or economic development work. Michael facilitates exploration of partnership opportunities that lead to appealing tourism experiences visitors.
“A picture speaks a thousand words.” It is important to be able to see the geographic relationships among regional attractions, attraction clusters, services, service centers, access routes, and gateways. Michael uses desktop mapping and graphics software to produce plan drawings that convey these spatial and land use concepts.
Words are important too, so Michael produces full reports documenting the strategy development process and its results.
Focussing on the Important Thing to do.
Who is going to do What Important
Thing? Where by When
with Who's money and What staff? Get it down on paper!
For most people, being an accomplished host or hostess is an acquired skill. Few are born with it. Michael helps people to identify hospitality skills training needs and locate sources of training. Community colleges are frequent providers of such training.
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