STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING OF TOURISM DESTINATIONS

This course is designed to help destinations to achieve their full potential

while meeting a range of economic, environmental and social objectives.

            As tourism activity in Asia continues to grow at a fast rate so do the expectation of tourists for high quality service and environments. Many destinations operate within highly competitive environments where customers have a wide range of choices even within a country or a region. The challenge is for destinations to develop a service culture, physical environment and a set of

products that can satisfy not only first-time visitors but attract repeat visitors. Destinations refer to the place where the tourists spend their time while they are on vacation. There are a wide range of geographical scales of destinations from small communitie s to a region of a country to an entire city. Working at the destination scale in an integrated manner is crucial since this is where the entire visitor experience is delivered. Most of the interactions and impacts of tourism activity occur at the

destination level making it the ideal unit for tourism and visitor planning and management.

          Due to the obstacles of ensuring a quality destination experience many communities are missing significant opportunities to create productive employment for the residents and realize opportunities for poverty reduction due to the ineffective planning and management. While there are no magic panaceas for destination management there has evolved a good understanding of the key components of the destination management process. Destination management requires a strong commitment and collaboration amongst the major stakeholders, a good understanding of the market potential of the destination for both domestic as well as international tourism, working with both the public and private sectors in providing a high level of visitor care and attention and constantly updating the product and attractions in order to meet changing consumer preferences and

requirements.

 Target Participants

This course is suitable for:

+ Mid-level management staff of public tourism organizations

+ Tourism planners

+ Tourism site managers (public and private)

+ Lecturers and instructors of academic institutions

+ Researcher and consultant of research institutions and consultancy organizations

+ NGOs involve in tourism development projects