ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the tools and approaches which the public sector uses to evaluate the best route to control and develop tourism at a destination level. The nature of the tourist as a consumer has received considerable attention in the analysis of tourism impacts and of the need for planning to control and manage it. One consequence of tourism planning and management is the need to integrate tourist needs and satisfaction to understand how tourism can achieve a sustainable future and sustainable experiences for visitors. Tourism is viewed as a key element of Zanzibar’s poverty reduction plan, since 10 per cent of the island’s youth are unemployed. The rapid pace of tourism growth and development, the nature of tourism itself and the corresponding absence of single agency responsibility for tourism related development has often meant that public sector responses to the impacts of tourism on destinations has often been ad hoc, rather than predetermined strategies oriented towards development objectives.
