ABSTRACT
It is necessary to start with a definition. The term ‘tourism planning’, often seen in literature, has not been frequently defined. Even though Gunn (1988) and C. M. Hall (2000a) have defined planning, and Inskeep (1991) has listed eight elements of tourism planning, these authors did not define the term explicitly in their books on tourism planning. In the limited number of works that include a definition, tourism planning has been defined in various ways. Some definitions have a predominantly economic focus and refer to tourism planning as the provision of guidance for the use of tourism assets and the development of tourism in a marketable way (e.g. Lickorish and Jenkins, 1997). Some have emphasized the scope of tourism planning, such as the definition of Evans (2000, p. 308) which was modified from that of Page (1995), as ‘a process considering social, economic and environmental issues in a spatial context in terms of development, conservation and land use.’ Sometimes tourism planning has been defined from mixed perspectives. For example, Wahab and Pigram (1997, p. 279) indicated that the term referred to a process that leads development to be ‘adaptive to the needs of the tourists, responsive to the needs of local communities, and socio-economically, culturally and environmentally sound.’ Timothy (1999, p. 371) defined it in a way that is more suitable for application to destination areas and their residents: ‘Tourism planning is viewed as a way of maximizing the benefits of tourism to an area and mitigating problems that might occur as a result of development.’ However, Wall (1996, p. 41) has suggested that planning is a political process that ‘empowers some and disadvantages others,’ and that maximizing benefits and minimizing costs cannot happen at the same time. Timothy’s definition is somewhat ambiguous on this point. In this paper, the definitions of Murphy (1985) and Getz (1987) have been combined so that tourism planning is regarded as being concerned with anticipating and regulating changes in the tourism system and integrating it with broader-scale development. It is a process which seeks to optimize the potential contribution of tourism to human welfare and environmental quality.
