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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