Strategic Management for Tourism Communities

Bridging the Gaps

Peter E. Murphy, Ann E. Murphy

• Publisher: Channel View Publications
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9781873150832
• eBook ISBN: 9781845413224
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Tourism, with its wide-ranging impact, needs to be managed effectively – but how? This book advocates taking a business approach to tourism that encourages greater collaboration between stakeholders in the practical assessment of tourism options. The approach places key business management functions and stakeholders at the forefront of tourism initiatives. The business management functions of planning, organising, leadership and control are the filters through which tourism opportunities are viewed, while the stakeholder groups of customers, residents, industry and government set the agenda for appropriate tourism development.

Tourist destinations must engage in realistic assessments of their abilities to meet the needs and expectations of tourism stakeholders and then act on these assessments so their goals and objectives can be achieved. A new model for bridging stakeholder gaps is presented as a template for how communities can understand and make the most of their tourism resources. The Bridging Tourism Gaps Model is a practical tool to help destinations focus on the important factors in developing and maintaining tourism as a beneficial and vital part of their communities.

This book builds on the success of Tourism: A Community Approach and the subsequent tourism planning experiences of both authors to advance strategic planning in tourism.

Part 1

Prologue

Setting the Scene

Many communities are entering the global tourism market in a naive and dangerous manner. One danger is to misread the market and the community's true competitive position within that market, leading to disappointing development results and financial losses. Another danger occurs when communities are successful with their development plans, and become a recognised destination but fail to appreciate the changes that tourism can bring. These changes can result in a form of community that may not have been foreseen or even wanted by local residents. While much has been made of tourism problems, little has been written about practical and widely applicable techniques that communities can use to develop tourism offerings that meet the needs of both tourists and residents.

This book takes a business and community approach to assessing and offering guidance on strategic tourism management. This dual approach is based on assessing the economic feasibility of pursuing tourism options that further community goals and objectives. Tourism is a business that requires extensive planning, marketing and investment in products and services. At the same time tourism relies on the host communities in which it occurs. The attitudes of local people, the quality of the environment and the availability of desired products and services are all factors in whether tourism will be a success. Without a solid understanding of the business and community aspects of tourism, resources can be squandered on inappropriate tourism developments that fail to meet the expectations of either the host community or the tourists.

Background

‘Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, ’ is the message from researchers who warn of the negative impacts of tourism. In his book Devil's Bargains Rothman (1998) relates the disappointment experienced by many small and rural communities in the western reaches of the United States during the twentieth century. He notes that tourism often turned into a ‘devil's bargain’ for many of the regions and communities that embraced the industry as an economic boon. The tourism problems arose from the ‘ir-revocable changes’ that occurred in ‘unanticipated and uncontrollable ways’ (Rothman, 1998: 10). He notes that ‘community leaders make imperfect choices based on insufficient information without recognising the consequences… The economist's fallacious dream of rational choice based on perfect information collapses as unanticipated consequences overwhelm expectations in tourist communities’ (Rothman, 1998: 17). Like many before him Rothman finds tourism lacking, especially with regard to its promise of economic salvation, yet offers no solutions.

Tourism development ‘solutions’ in terms of practical advice derived from real world situations are what can help communities to decide what type of development works best for them. Tourism, like other resource industries, alters the landscape and social fabric of destination areas, while much of its development pace and direction are guided by broader global forces. Tourism, with its high visibility, is often seen as the primary cause of change rather than as one of many agents. However, the tourism industry is just a small part of larger global forces that are transforming the world's economic, environmental and societal relations. The combined impacts of the growth in the influence of international economic unions and multimedia organisations, changes in population patterns, environmental degradation, shifting political allegiances, terrorism and evolving cultural practices are all agents of profound global change.

As Brown (1998: 49) observes, ‘unless we are prepared to sit back and literally do nothing, we have to expect that everything we do will have some effect on the environment’. The ability to guide the development of tourism in a manner that meets communities’ needs is dependent upon understanding the factors intrinsically tied to this industry and then directing tourism development in a manner that promotes desired end-states, while mitigating less desirable impacts. Communities that are prepared to learn from the history and experiences of the tourism industry are better suited to adopt management plans that meet their needs.

On the whole tourism has been a successful growth industry since the end of World War II and holds much promise for the future. The key to successful and sustainable tourism development is to engage in this activity with as much careful analysis and planning as possible. Due diligence is also required in terms of monitoring industry progress and making appropriate adjustments to ensure that it is managed in a manner that meets stakeholder requirements.

Tourism Expectations

So much has been expected of tourism that it has often fallen short of the mark. Part of the problem has been its exaggerated role as an economic and social panacea with associated unrealistic expectations in many communities. Community enthusiasm or desperation can override economic realities when considering an area's tourism potential. Business issues relating to tourism supply and demand, accessibility and financing options all need to be considered in combination with community needs and available resources.

Another factor is that tourism is a more complex industry than many appreciate, since it crosses the traditional divisions of primary through to quaternary industries. Tourism's natural attractions can be equated with other primary industries in that they all are dependant on natural resources. Tourism's resort development and associated infrastructure are developed along the manufacturing lines of secondary industries. As a major service industry, tourism depends on varied customer segments each with their specific experience expectations. Tourism's global scale and need for detailed destination and travel information has resulted in its gaining a prominent place on the Internet and in other quaternary information businesses.

Part of the problem in developing realistic tourism expectations has been the limited focus of past research. Tourism researchers have restricted themselves in the main to engaging in critical analysis of the industry and its impacts rather than taking the next progressive step to prescriptive recommendations. In this regard the comments of Buck (1977) and Brown (1998) are very germane. Buck, an anthropologist, was critical of fellow social scientists for simply criticising the industry's efforts to represent culture rather than showing it how to produce more authentic and educational experiences. Brown, the past editor of Tourism Management, rightly states that, ‘the proponents of alternative tourism have been better at highlighting the negative side of tourism than at providing cures’ (Brown, 1998: 100).

Purpose

The purpose of this book is to provide strategic management guidance from a wide range of researchers and practitioners to assist communities in meeting their tourism expectations. Source material is drawn from the fields of social science, planning, business studies and environmental management. The book should be viewed as a sequel to Peter Murphy's book, Tourism: A Community Approach. That first book, which was published in 1985, has been described by some as a seminal work (Wheeler, 1994). This book builds on the multi-dimensional aspects promoted in the first book, while providing more of a business-oriented framework. It also builds on the community involvement principles that were presented in the first book. Collaborative decision-making processes are presented as an integral and practical way to ensure that stakeholders guide and evaluate the tourism plans and strategies to ensure their goals and objectives as well as those of the larger community are met. This new focus reflects the experiences of the authors since the original book was published. We believe that communities are better positioned to take the prescribed ‘community approach’ to tourism if they allow their actions to be guided by key business management principles and adopt a strategic management focus.

Professor Peter Murphy has over 25 years’ experience as a tourism researcher, professor and consultant. He has served on several tourism boards, including Tourism Victoria in BC, Canada and Bendigo Tourism in Victoria, Australia, and been involved in a range of practical tourism studies, most notably the Visitor Surveys conducted via Tourism Victoria from 1989 to 1997. Professor Murphy has received many distinguished awards including the following: Association of American Geographers; Roy Wolfe Award for contributions to Tourism Research (1992); elected to the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (1995); and granted the Rino and Diana Grollo Endowed Chair on Tourism and Hospitality at La Trobe University (1997) in Melbourne.

In 1990, Professor Peter Murphy transferred from his long-standing association with Geography to a Faculty of Business to continue his research and teaching in tourism management. There he found many business principles and techniques relevant to resident and social science aspirations for community participation in tourism. As a result of his increased work with business entrepreneurs and tourism organisations he has found a willingness by these groups to work with the broader community, to achieve the type of community and quality of life that can be enjoyed by all.

In addition to representing an extension of academic thought, this book benefits from the views and experiences of an additional author – Ann Murphy, AICP. During Ann's career as a professional planner, she has worked for public and private firms in Canada, the US and Australia. Most of her tourism planning work has been conducted in British Columbia, Canada and the Florida Keys, in the United States. While working in the Florida Keys she initiated and oversaw the first ever Keys-wide survey of resident attitudes towards tourism. She is currently working on a PhD in Law at the University of Melbourne that explores ways in which Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques can be used to create solutions for community land use planning issues. She is committed to finding ways in which communities can survive and prosper as social units while engaging in a range of commercial endeavours, such as tourism, that enable them to meet their goals and objectives.

In this book, tourism is viewed from a business perspective and within that framework advocates a community development and strategic management approach. To achieve this objective it examines the multidimensional nature of tourism and its significant economic, social and environmental impacts, while emphasising certain features over others. These features start from the premise that tourism is a business, and to properly understand a community's tourism prospects, impacts and responsibilities the whole activity must be analysed in a business context. To do this we will examine how broad business principles can be, and in some cases have been, applied to the development and management of tourism. The ways that modern business science overlaps with the social science's interest in tourism and its development issues will be demonstrated in the process.

To make the best of the situation where more communities are becoming involved with tourism, either willingly or unwillingly, requires a particular type of tourism development and planning. With respect to the emerging tourism community, it reflects a strong sense of belonging together and wanting to preserve and enhance the home territory. Such feelings are synonymous with smaller sized communities and could be equated with localised destination areas. The tourism within these communities is likely to include a combination of international tourists, domestic tourists and excursionists. Ideally an area's tourism industry is a mixture of direct, indirect and induced businesses, with the actual combination determined by the size, resources and aspirations of the host community and its travel markets.

Hence this book defines strategic tourism management at the community level as follows:

Tourism activity that engages local community interests in a meaningful partnership with the tourism industry to construct a destination product that is appropriate from a local business, societal and environmental perspective.

This definition recognises that if a community is to become a successful destination within the competitive global marketplace it needs to enter a business partnership with the industry. Therefore each party brings to the table their own assets and priorities to see if there is a mutual and sustainable business opportunity. If it is felt that such an opportunity exists then the community and local industry could proceed together along established business lines muted with societal and environmental awareness and obligations. Community tourism is moving toward the positions of mutually beneficial partnerships and balanced tourism development. The outlook for these positions is shown to be promising in emerging research and practices. However, these sources also reveal that it will take a great deal of understanding, resources and cooperative efforts to build and sustain robust community tourism initiatives. To assist in this process the book starts with an assessment of present-day community tourism analysis and its relationship to general business management principles.

The primary audience for this book is serious students of tourism strategic planning. This would include senior undergraduate and postgraduate students taking topics related to strategic tourism management and community tourism. It is anticipated that professionals working in tourism planning, government agencies and community activists will also find this book a useful reference tool for understanding and managing tourism impacts.

Structure

Part 1

The opening part of the book sets the scene for the later more prescriptive emphasis found in subsequent sections. The Prologue introduces the concept of community tourism and the need to develop and adhere to prescriptive management strategies to realise its potential. Chapter 1 examines key definitions and theories used in community tourism and illustrates their relevance to developing broad-based tourism development. The second chapter of this part, Chapter 2, outlines the four basic functions of business management and their relevance to the study and development of strategic tourism management in host communities.

Part 2

The second part is structured around the four functions of business management: planning, organising, leadership and controlling. Chapter 3 examines the need for planning and how communities can benefit from adopting a business and community approach to developing mutual goals and objectives for their development aspirations. Such a process will encourage community residents to come together and express their particular interests and should provide an early indication as to whether local tourism development can be a part of such objectives. Chapter 4 describes how business sets about organising its resources to produce its product and suggests similar techniques are needed in strategic tourism planning. Strategic community tourism will need to consider organising multiple interests, resources and factions to deliver products that are acceptable to markets and residents alike.

Chapter 5 examines ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1: Prologue
• Part 2: Key Business Management Functions in Tourism
• Part 3: Tourism Community Stateholders
• Part 4: A New Paradigm
• Epilogue
• Appendix: Strategic Tourism Planning Resources
• Bibliography
• Index