9.1 Introduction
As you progress further up the career ladder within the travel and tourism industry, there will often be a need for you to be able to get to grips with tourism policy and strategy.
Admittedly, this is something that can be rather intimidating for some people. This is simply because of people failing to understand the reasons behind these policies or strategies and also what is generally included in them.
9.2 What We Mean by Tourism Policy and Strategy
First, we need to begin by providing you with a better explanation of what we mean when discussing tourism policy and strategy.
The basic explanation is that any business or industry that provides a product or a service to those that are travelling or classed as tourists will need to have goals and aims as to what they offer and what they hope to achieve within their business. To some, this may come across as being similar to a marketing plan and, to a certain extent that is certainly the case.
Tourism policy and strategy is when individuals, which often means management or owners, of a business bring together a plan of action as to what they are going to provide or do with their target market. This policy and strategy will have to include a variety of goals and targets that will become a central part of your approach to your industry sector, market, and even how you deal with your customers and clients.
There are several different aspects to planning and you should be aware of each type and how it affects you.
Objective.
The first part is the objective of the plan. What are you actually expecting to achieve? What are your aims related to tourism planning and why are you doing it in the first place? Every single plan needs to have a clear objective or else there is never going to be anything to aim for.
The policy.
After understanding the objective that is in your mind it is important for you to begin to work on the policy itself. This is effectively the guide that you will follow that will ultimately allow you to reach your objective. This policy will usually take the form of a series of statements and it will help individuals when it comes to the actual decision-making aspect that will help them to reach the objective that was set in part one.
The plan.
The final part of the policy is going to be the plan itself and clearly this is related to the steps that you are going to put into place that will help you to get to your end objective. This is the path that people will be expected to follow and, as you would expect, this part can be rather complicated and also use a number of resources.
For example
The plan may include graphs with statistics, maps, bullet points, text, and anything else that is able to get you to that all-important goal. It may incorporate a number of recommendations and it is then a clear case of every member of staff being aware of the plan so that it can be clearly implemented.
The plans and policies can of course vary a great deal.
The strategy.
The strategy section is rather self-explanatory, simply because this is going to be the part where you go into more detail when it comes to how you are going to get to your end goal.
The points in brief.
At the end of policy and plans it is always important that the key points that are being referred to be covered in brief as this will help you to keep track of where you are in the policy. Remember that there can often be a problem of these policies being filled with pointless words and information so this section will often be the key. This is the point where you can really determine how the policy is going to have an impact on your customers as well as making sure that you are delivering on the promises.
There are a number of different sections to this kind of policy but at the same time it is easy to understand why they are required in the first place.
A policy makes sure that everybody is aware of what is expected of them and how it is going to impact on the most important people of all - the tourists - as they should always form the central core part of any development.
9.3 Implementing Those Policies
When it comes to implementing the policies, then the role that you have in doing so will clearly depend on the role that you play within the industry as a whole.
Furthermore, the level at which you are working will also play a role, as will the pressures that will be on you to make sure that the goals are reached and the strategies are correctly followed.
It is important that the policies are followed to the letter as they are often the result of extensive research into the business itself as well as the market that it is aiming for.
So, how do you implement them?
Study the policy.
Before you can even think about putting things into place, you must be aware of what the policy is designed to do.
Is the policy designed to provide a better experience for the visitor? Is it very specific in its aims?
Is the policy more wide-ranging and therefore more complicated? How much of a difference is it going to make to your job?
How can you expect to implement the policy if you do not spend the time getting to know what is expected of you in the first place?
Study the steps.
Apart from understanding the policy itself, there is also the need for you to be able to understand the steps that you will be required to follow to be able to implement the policy. This is where there is a crossover between the policy and the actual planning that comes into play. It is also the point where there needs to be some kind of a discussion between you and your manager, if you are not in this position, so you can be sure that you are pointing in the correct direction.
Study the reaction of the customers.
Implementing the policy that has been put into place is one thing, but when you are dealing with tourism it is also very important that you are aware of the reaction that the policy has had with the customers themselves. Remember, just because a policy has been created it does not automatically mean that it is the correct thing because it is only those individuals that are there on the ground and dealing with people on a day-to-day basis that are able to actually decide if the policy is the correct thing for the destination or attraction.
Communicate with other staff.
We will go into details with the role that you end up playing in the policy or strategy with the next part of this module, but at this point it is enough to say that it is also very important that you communicate with other staff when you are dealing with the implementation of any policy or tourist strategy. Getting more than one perspective will serve you better as feedback can be very one-sided. Talk to staff about the policy that has been put into place and even get feedback before the policy is effectively set in stone as this will increase the chances of the new approach actually being the correct one for the attraction.
When it comes to implementing a policy it should always be the case that things are set in stone and laid out in a clear and concise manner for you to then go ahead and take the correct action.
However, as we have stressed at several points, there is a very real need for you to keep track of the impact that it is having so you can ensure you are doing the most important thing, which is keeping those tourists happy.
9.4 The Role You Play in the Policy or Strategy
To show how you are involved in implementing the strategy or policy, we can look at two examples of different jobs and what you would be expected to do in those very situations.
The tourist attraction.
If we use a tourist attraction (the size is not important) as an example then we can perhaps suggest a scenario.A tourist attraction has a policy of becoming more child and family friendly. The policy and strategy calls for more interaction with families and creating more events and points of interest that are aimed at children of a certain age.
Your role within the tourist attraction may very well be to make sure that those points of interest are put into place, maintained, and that other staff are well versed in the way in which they approach families and how they perhaps explain things. This may require additional training on their part, or new technology may even have to be brought in to make sure that the policy can be implemented correctly.
Now, if you are at the grassroots, so to speak, then your role will be making sure that families and children are well catered for and that they get access to the things that are discussed in the policy. If you are in a supervisory role, then you focus not only on that aspect, but also making sure that those individuals that are dealing with the customers are doing so in the correct way.
The travel company.
We can now look at another type of example from a completely different part of the industry: the travel company. The policies that may be put into place for this kind of business will of course be different to those of a tourist attraction and this, in turn, does mean that there has to be a different approach.
In this example, the policy may be to focus on selling more direct flights that get the customer to their destination faster than before but without it increasing the price. In order to implement this policy there would be a need for you to have a better understanding of the options available and also improve your skills of locating the correct flights.
In addition, you have to change your approach when it comes to ascertaining what it is that the customer is looking for, as the entire aim of this is to improve the quality of the service that they are going to receive.
If you are in a supervisory role, then it would be your job to make sure that the policy is being correctly implemented by checking that the staff are indeed searching for the correct flights, asking the correct questions, understand the software, and are generally able to provide the service that they are being asked to provide.
As you can see there are two different approaches and yet they both have the same root in that you want to provide the best service or product possible and in accordance with the aims and intentions of the policy in question.
However, there is one other area that is just as important as the actual way in which the policy, or policies, are eventually put into place and that is understanding their aims and also being able to check how things are progressing.
9.5 Understanding the Aims and Recording Progress
Finally, one thing that is often overlooked by those individuals that are involved in actually implementing the policies and strategies is not only understanding the aims, but also monitoring the progress.
It can often be the case that some strategies or policies will have to be tweaked to get to those end goals and the only way in which this can be achieved is if you understand what your targets are going to be and know how well things are going.
First, the aims.
They should be clearly stated at the outset.
The first thing to mention is that the aims should be clearly stated right at the very beginning of the policy or else nobody will understand the direction that they should be heading in. If this is not made clear then it is up to you to ask for some clarification simply because of the impact it has on your ability to effectively follow orders. No clear aims mean a poorly written policy and it may call the entire process into question.
A strategy should be included to help you reach those aims.
Even though this is moving over into tourism planning to a certain extent, there has to be some kind of strategy in place that then allows you put the policy into action. If there is no strategy, then how can you expect to understand the aims? If you are unsure of the strategy then it is time to deal with those above you in the company to get some answers, or else the customers will be the ones that are going to suffer.
There should be some kind of time limit.
Whenever there is a policy that is being implemented, there should be some kind of time limit included simply because it applies the correct type of pressure for the correct actions to be taken. This helps to keep people on the same page and, as a result, the customers and tourists are going to be given the kind of service that the policy has set in place.
However, as we said at the beginning of this section there is also a very real need for you to go ahead and record the progress. After all, what is the point in you trying to improve some part of the tourist attraction or destination if you are unable to see if the correct type of progress is being made?
So, how do you do that?
A checklist.
The first thing is to have a checklist in place and this should have been included in the policy when it was being created in the first place. A checklist is something that you can constantly refer to in order to see how you are progressing, and of course the items that appear on the list will vary according to your position. Those individuals at the bottom level and dealing with the tourists are going to have a certain set of rules. Those at the managerial or supervisory level will have different rules, although you do need to have an increased level of knowledge to get to that position.
Customer feedback.
Customers, and by this we mean tourists, of course, will always be the best people to check a policy against. Are they happy with the changes that have been forced upon the attraction? Has it improved their experience? What are the turnover figures like? Has it affected your marketing?
There are so many questions and even if you are not directly involved in the marketing or figures part, the very fact that you are dealing with customers does mean that you will have some idea as to how happy they are with the situation. Be aware of this as it does play a role in the future of the business.
The ease with which you can do your job.
A change in policy will also often lead to a slight change in how you do your job and that is something that you need to be aware of. Does it affect the way in which you deal with the tourists? Is there too much paperwork created as a result of the policy change? Has the service or product been improved as a result or has it got worse? Are you struggling to do your job? Is it easier? As you can see the way in which tourism policy affects your job is going to be very apparent and it does require some honesty on your part, and to reply to your superiors in an attempt to make sure that the policy can be changed if required.
Checking the progress of policy and how it has improved, or made things worse, is going to be important simply because of the way in which it has an impact on the most important part of the entire business, the tourists.
Any policy should make things better for tourists, no matter the type of business you are working in. There should be no blanket acceptance of a policy, especially when it is clear that things are not going as planned. However, as we will see in the next module there is more to tourism planning and development than you perhaps realise.
MODULE SUMMARY
In this module we have focused on the idea of tourism policies and strategies and how they are created and implemented. Furthermore, we have looked at the roles that you may have to play in their implementation and how to then record their progress and whether or not they are actually doing what they were designed for.
Tourism policies and strategies do not have to be as complicated as you perhaps thought. In actual fact, as long as you take the time to examine the aims then you will be able to correctly identify what it is that is required from you to reach those targets. By doing this, you will then find it easier to progress in your career.
In the next module we will look at the idea of tourism planning and development.
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