Tourism Planning Definition & Nature PDF

CHAPTER 1 DEFINITION OF TOURISM PLANNING: process for identifying the activities that enable a tourism enterprise or destination to realize its goals. One definition of planning that I like is "using the past to decide now what you want to do in the future," In this definition, we can see that the...

CHAPTER 1 DEFINITION OF TOURISM PLANNING: process for identifying the activities that enable a tourism enterprise or destination to realize its goals. One definition of planning that I like is "using the past to decide now what you want to do in the future," In this definition, we can see that the past, present, and future are interlinked. The past is a source of experiences, insights, and information. They provide wisdom that enables tourism managers or officers to make better judgments. The present is when you make decisions and create plans. The future is what all the planning is being done for. There are many unknowns about the future, but you can try to predict it by drawing on past and present knowledge, events, and trends. THE NATURE OF TOURISM PLANNING Mariem plans may vary in terms of scope and timeline. Tourism planning is a collaborative process. Tourism planning entails organizing the planning team where different experts are engaged. The number of people involved in the plan will depend on the scope of work and the area's size to be covered. The project could be as specific as tourist destination branding, or as comprehensive as a master plan. A tourism plan may cover an attraction, a tourist site, a tourist circuit, a tourism cluster, or a tourism development area. These plans could be made for a town or city, a province, a region, a country, or several countries. The DOT Tourism Guidebook for Local Government Units (2017, pages vii-viii) distinguishes these tourism areas: Tourism Sites (TSs) are the specific places that tourists come to see and experience. A TS may be an existing natural attraction, an area of natural scenic beauty, or a man-made attraction. It can also be an area for potential development or enhancement for tourism such as a greenfield site for a new resort. Tourism Development Clusters (TDCs) are areas that have a sufficient number and range of tourism sites with the capacity to meet long-term development possibilities; topographical features; contiguousness of landmasses; geographical size-large enough to contain an extensive range of potential tourism products/experiences; location of "gateway" centers and cities; location of significant brand/unique features and/ or "world-class" attraction; robust, sustainable environmental base; and access transport linkages/connectivity. Tourism Development Areas (TDAs) consist of at least one, but more usually several tourism sites. A TDA can either have considerable existing tourism activity or have the potential for significant tourism development. By virtue of a combination of attractions, facilities, and amenities that meet tourists' interests and needs, TDAs are not limited by geographical size, their boundaries correspond to administrative units-barangay, municipality, or province, depending on the size. Strategic Destination Areas (SDAs) are a group of priority TDAs that are adjacent to each other and are within their respective clusters. The criteria used to identify the SDAs are: a critical mass of attractions, facilities, and services in the area; capacity of the environment to sustain tourism development; capability of direct accessibility from key source markets: diversity of product offer in a way that can be promoted to different niche markets, thereby facilitating product/branding; area geographically large enough to allow different forms of tourist development to coexist, for example, including particular areas for nature tourism only while other areas for more intensive use; and, capable of being promoted as "stand- alone" destination in the market place. Plans may also vary in terms of the time horizon. In many literary works about planning, short-term may be from one to two years; medium-term will be for up to five years, and long-term for 10 years or more. Tourism development plans may be made to coincide with the term of local officials-which is in multiples of three years. For example, the plan could be for one to three years, six years, or nine years. In other industries, long-term planning may actually be for hundreds of years, say in high-stakes space exploration, energy, and car manufacturing. The scope and time horizons are usually correlated. The more comprehensive a plan is, the longer the time horizon as well. A plan must also be hierarchical. This means that a local tourism plan must be consistent with a larger plan, starting with the provincial tourism plan, regional tourism development plan, and national tourism development plan. There should be complementarity between the Tourism Development Plan (TDP), the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), the Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plan (PDPFP), the Comprehensive Land-Use Plan (CLUP), and the like. A master planning team consists of experts in land, use planning, human resource development, disaster risk reduction, architecture, product development, marketing, finance, community development, and environment among others. The project will include hazard analysis, Impact analysis, tourism resource assessment, product development plan, and transportation infrastructure plan. Other components include a marketing plan, gender, development plan, disaster reduction and risk management plan, financial and investment promotion plan, and institutional capacity development plan. Each of these component plans could already be major undertakings by themselves. National or local government agencies may hire a consulting firm to formulate the tourism plan. In many cases, the consulting firm will contract external experts to form the planning team. The firm will usually assign its staff to manage the project and provide technical support. The project management team will have a project manager and assistants. They take care of travel arrangements, logistics, and coordination with stakeholders to be consulted in the planning activities. Working closely with counterpart staff of local government units (LGUs), Department of Tourism (DOT), and other government offices, the support staff arrange the site visits, interviews or focus group discussions, and workshops. The funding may come from the Still, LGUs provide counterpart support not just with contact persons but also itinerary planning, acommodation, and travel expenses for the planning team. Depending on the plan's scope and area coverage, the cost of the planning project could run into millions or tens of millions of pesos. office, Tourism plarining is consultative. There are several stakeholders or groups of people who could be affected by tourism development. Stakeholders are an important source of local knowledge and provide a barometer of the community's sentiments about tourism development (whether in favor or against it). Stakeholders need to be consulted regarding their vision of what tourism could do for their communities. This method cultivates a sense of ownership. Ignoring one or more groups' concerns could mean resistance to the project and delays in the implementation. In the Samar Island Tourism Master Development Plan (2011-2016; and 2019-2029), the following stakeholders were identified for consultations: Local chief executives Tourism councils (multi-sectoral representatives) Tourism officers Local planning and development coordinators Sangguniang Bayan chairperson for tourism development Local agriculturist (for farm tourism) People's organizations Nongovernment organization in tourism Barangay captains of barangays with tourism attractions Academe DOT regional office DILG local government operations officer DENR local officer Philippine National Police Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) Council Transport sector Protected Area Management Board, if the area is in a protected area National Commission for Culture and the Arts National Commission for Indigenous Peoples TOURISM POLICY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT In a community setting like Mauban in Quezon Province, the tourism stakeholders and actors could be as specific as resort owners, transient homeowners, porters, boat operators, boatmen, tour guides, porters, T-shirt printers, souvenir sellers, handicraft makers, painters, choreographers, fire dancers, overseers, shell craft artisans, massage therapists, van operators, tricycle drivers, jeepney drivers, LGBTQIA+ organizations, senior citizens organizations, and so on. In practice, there is a core group that consistently supports tourism initiatives and whose opinions and advice are given more weight by the LGU and tourism planners. As mentioned, a tourism plan is specific in scope and territorial coverage. It could be one part of a comprehensive development plan, It could also be a stand- alone plan. It could be a master plan or a specialized plan, such as a marketing plan, recovery marketing plan, or crisis management plan. It could be national-, regional-, subregional-, provincial-, sub-provincial, city-/municipal-, or site-level plan in terms of territorial coverage. A tourism plan gets more detailed as one zooms from the national to a site plan. A city tourism plan indicates the type of tourism to be created and its location. However, a site plan will show detailed architectural designs. IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM PLANNING Tourism planning is fundamental to having a good tourism development program. By reflecting on past failures or successes, planners avoid costly errors. A plan also establishes timelines for meeting development targets. It helps us imagine scenarios and choose from alternative courses of action based on what we know and do not know. Planning is about making decisions based on available resources and opportunities. A tourism plan provides a legal basis for the approval of requests for infrastructure projects, technical and financial assistance by the government and private and nongovernment organizations. An industry as complex as tourism requires informed decision-making. The complexity of tourism planning arises from the diversity of resources, functions, agencies, stakeholders, and legal parameters. A good plan articulates priorities and describes the sequence of development to optimize time and resources. Particularly for low-income LGUs (e.g., fifth class municipality), having a well-crafted tourism plan enables them to allocate funds to projects with solid chances of generating good returns for the local constituencies. Haphazardly planned tourism development often results in environmental catastrophes, social displacement, and many other negative impacts that degrade the quality of life. A good plan helps identify measures to prevent and mitigate such effects even before they happen.  Having a tourism plan has become mandatory with the Seal of Good Local Governance Act in 2019. LGUs must have their Tourism, Culture, and Arts (TCA) program to qualify for SGLG. Besides having a tourism plan, there has come a need to appoint or designiste a full-time tourism officer to oversee the LGU's TCA program, The SGLG bestows prestige and financial rewards, which the LGU could use for development projects PLANNING VERSUS DEVELOPMENT Planning and development are closely intertwined. A lousy plan will lead to impaired development. The quality of a plan depends on the quality of data (accuracy and timeliness) and the development paradigm adopted. Inaccurate or stale data will cause wrong projections. A booster, mass tourism orientation often results in severe environmental, social, and even economic costs. A good plan will have a well. chosen and complete set of development components, while a flawed plan will have a poorly chosen or incomplete set of development components. Planning is primarily an intellectual exercise and should include details of tourism development. It is something you do in the present for the future. Development is the process of putting together the components to convert a raw natural, cultural, or historical resource into a tourism destination. The development could also mean reviving, restoring, or enhancing an already existing tourism destination. The components of tourism development are often called the A's of tourism: accessibility, accommodation, activities, amenities, ability, administration, awareness, and attitudes. Accessibility involves infrastructure and transportation. Infrastructure could be airports, seaports, roads, bridges, and terminals. Transportation modes could be land, water, and air, depending on the development area's geography and size. One goal when planning for accessibility is not only providing a gateway (entry and exit point) to and from the destination but also internal connectivity. Convenient transportation interconnections create seamless connectivity. For example, an airport that connects directly to the rail or bus lines via a dedicated train line or is located just a few steps outside the airport's arrival gates, with the trains or buses going directly to the traveler's final destination. STEPS IN TOURISM PLANNING The immediate output of tourism planning is a written plan. A plan is sometimes called a roadmap. Roadmaps should always be written on paper so that they can provide consistent information for guidance. Concerned parties will be able to grasp a written plan more quickly. Producing a tourism plan also requires planning. A tourism plan usually emanates from a national or local govemment unit's need to pursue a development objective. LGUs (provincial, city/municipal) have planning and development offices that formulate land-use plans or comprehensive development plans. Due to a lack of resources and capacity, many LGUs request technical assistance from other government agencies or individual experts. An LGU allocates funds for the production of a local tourism plan. As mentioned, LGUs or agencies often contract the services of consulting firms to produce a plan. In turn, these firms engage the services of individual experts to form the planning team. A tourism plan starts with a preliminary site assessment. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order (DAO) 2013-19 recommends this phase prior to full site assessment when planning for ecotourism in protected areas. However, preliminary assessment may also be undertaken for most types of tourism planning. The preliminary evaluation utilizes data from preexisting plans or by carrying out an ocular inspection or site visit. The purpose of the initial review is to determine if a full-blown project is warranted. A preliminary assessment could produce enough information to decide to proceed or not to proceed with tourism development. That way, an LGU, for example, could save a lot of money and other resources. A succeeding chapter discusses this topic in greater detail. The full assessment comes after an initial evaluation. The complete evaluation is part of the first step in tourism planning, which is the situation analysis. The planning team may carry out a comprehensive plan on behalf of an LGU for practical reasons. An LGU could use the planning project to maximize fund utilization, update a previous plan or provide supporting documents to apply for financial or technical assistance. A subsequent chapter is devoted to the topic of full site assessment. Tourism planning is the same as other forms of planning. It involves the same basic steps. These steps are listed as follows: Step 1. Situation Analysis Situation analysis is basically the analysis of an LGU's or the destination's current position in terms of its attributes and the larger environment where it operates. It answers the question "Where are we now?" This step is also called the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. SWOT analysis involves internal and external assessments. The internal review identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the area under study. The external assessment helps spot opportunities and threats in the macro-environment or factors that are beyond the LGU or the site. The output of a SWOT analysis is the positioning of the Destination to exploit its strengths vis-à-vis the opportunities available and prevent damage by correcting weaknesses and adopting measures to mitigate against environmental threats. A destination should determine its competitive advantage, location, scenic vistas, festival, cuisine, animal or plant, or history. A destination could also convert perceived weaknesses into assets. For example, they can position a destination that lacks commercial hotels or poor internet connectivity as the perfect getaway In formulating a tourism plan, it is important to review past tourism plans and relevant legal documents. This is essential to avoid duplication and to ensure consistency in the plan made. It is a requirement that a local tourism plan should be consistent with national, regional, and provincial tourism development plans. Tourism planners pay attention to comprehensive land use plans, physical framework plans, and statutory requirements. For example, the NIPAS Act of 1992 prohibits the construction of heavy structures in a protected area. Furthermore, planners must obtain permission from the Protected Area Management Board before conducting any activity in the protected area. A good tourism plan should include a DRRM plan, a local climate change adaptation plan, and a gender and development plan. A situation analysis will yield an analysis of trends. By analyzing past and present data, planners will be able to determine such movements. When planners fail to recognize critical trends promptly, the tourism sector may suffer from massive disruptions Tourism data is just one type of data that planners need to analyze. Tourist arrivals could be seen from the data as rising, staying steady, or falling. Most destinations typically desire an unhampered increase in arrivals in the future. However, the lockdown of Boracay in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 showed that sometimes, it might be necessary to limit or even stop visitation levels in the interest of sustainability and public safety. Another factor influencing the acceptable tourism volume is carrying capacity, particularly in protected areas, such as the Puerto Underground River and Batanes. Microenvironmental Factors One part of the situation analysis involves an assessment of microenvironmental factors. Microenvironmental factors refer to those that are internal to a planning unit. such as a tourist destination, an LGU, a country, and the like. An analysis of these factors is also known as intemal assessment. This is an important step in identifying the planning unit's strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses may be in relation to geography, natural and cultural resources, heritage, hazards, people, infrastructure, and other things that exist within that planning unit. A strength is an attribute that can be hamessed to advance a planning unit's goals, while a weakness is something that prevents it from advancing its goals. Thus, a destination, for example, needs to correct a weakness, like the lack of roads or access to the tourist spots. A destination's intemal assessment should cover the following: the place of tourism within the broader development plans: review of laws and local ordinances: training needs analysis: tourism resources inventory and prioritization; and current and ongoing tourism-related projects. Broader plans include, but are not limited to, the National Development Plan, National Tourism Development Plan, Regional Development Plan, Provincial Development Plan, Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Tourism Plan, and Ecotourism Plan. Many LGUs do not have updated versions of these plans. Laws and ordinances frame tourism development plans. For example, the Tourism Act of 2009 provides for the mandatory accreditation of primary tourism enterprises by th DOT, but the power to issue business licenses is retained by the LGUs following the Local Government Code of 1991. Thus, the institutional arrangements for a tourism development plan should also be following these legal provisions. Architects and engineers must follow the National Building Code and Disabled Persons Mobility Act to design tourism structures. The NIPAS (National Integrated Protected Areas System) Act provides that development in protected areas should be of the low volume, low impact kind. Moreover, any tourism planning activities to be carried out in PAs should have the Protected Area Management Board's official permission. Training needs analysis is a critical component at this phase of planning. Training needs, could be in the form of technical skills, business operations, and entrepreneurial skills. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority- (TESDA) and DOT-certified training centers could handle a variety of possible skills training. These include customer service, Filipino brand of service, tour guiding, housekeeping, cookery, and the like. Tourism practitioners can also earn certifications by passing an assessment exam by DOT-and TESDA-accredited tourism assessors. Planners must not ignore ongoing projects to avoid redundancy. Projects are categorized by stage of completion and impact for fund allocation. Travel and Tourism policy and enabling conditions 0 prioritization of Travel and Tourism international openness price competitiveness 0 environmental sustainability Infrastructure air transport infrastructure 0 ground and port infrastructure 0 tourist service infrastructure Natural and cultural resources natural resources cultural resources and business travel Step 2. Setting Goals and Objectives After knowing where we are, the next question to ask is, "Where do we want to be?" To answer this, we have to define our goals and objectives. Goals and objectives refer to what a destination or an LGU wants to achieve after a certain period of time. As you may have already learned, goals are more general and long-term in orientation. They are qualitatively stated. Examples of goals are "to increase women participation in the tourism industry": "to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities to the population"; or "to become the leading agritourism destination in Eastern Visayas." Planners break down goals into objectives, which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Taking off from the first example of the goals above, we can state our objectives as follows: to increase the proportion of locally hired staff by 5% from 2020 to 2025; to bring the proportion of locally sourced produce from 10% to 30% from 2025 to 2030; and to train at least 50 women participants in local souvenir making every year in the next three years. Tourism development goals traditionally revolved around economic targets like managing arrivals, revenue, incomes and taxes, employment, and livelihood generation. In recent years, tourism development plans incorporate poverty alleviation, micro-business generation, gender and development, risk reduction, and climate change response. Step 3. Formulating Strategies The third task is to formulate strategies. Strategies tell us how to go from where we are to where we want to be. Planners state strategies in broad strokes. Tourism development strategies will be explained in a separate chapter. Step 4. Determining an Action Plan Planners translate strategies into tactics or action plans or implementation plans. The action plan provides a breakdown of programs, projects, and activities. They specify who or what entity is responsible for the specific activities. The Department of Tourism Guidebook for LGUs gives an example of an action plan. Some examples of specific projects under tourism are the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program, a convergence program between the DOT and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). It aims to make priority tourism sites accessible through the construction of roads to such sites. It also benefits local communities and tends to reduce the incidence of insurgency in those areas. Another is Accreditation on Wheels, a project that brings the DOT offices to tourism establishments that need to be accredited by the DOT. Step 5. Monitoring and Evaluation The last step in tourism planning is monitoring and evaluation. This stage should be an essential component of any tourism plan. The purpose of this step is to compare the results with the stated goals and objectives. When there are deviations, LGUs and other government or private entities need to adjust the implementation. Monitoring requires the use of benchmarks or milestones. These benchmarks are called indicators, which may be environmental, economic, or social. The indicators used will depend on what aspects of the plan are important to the LGU or the destination. For example, if employment generation is important, then an important indicator to be monitored will be the number and types of jobs generated by the tourism sector for each period. Other examples are the air/water pollution index, tourist receipts, or the number of indigenous peoples engaged in tourism businesses. Monitoring will require the following information: success indicators; targets per indicator; data sources for stated indicators; collection method; frequency of collection; and responsible entity. 12 TOURISM POLICY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT If the inclusion of women in tourism development is a priority, the following Indicators may be used: number of women trained for livelihood; the proportion of women at the rank-and-file, supervisory, and management positions in tourism: women engaged in productive employment or paid work; and women experiencing sexual harassment at work. The planning process sometimes does not follow the aforementioned outlined steps. Sometimes a goal is already predetermined by an agency that commissions a planning firm to flesh out the details. The process is also iterative because, after the monitoring and evaluation, another planning cycle may commence, including refinements in the targets and strategies. CHAPTER 2 PRELIMINARY SITE ASSESSMENT AND ITS IMPORTANCE Before carrying out a full-blown assessment, it is critical to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the study area. Although the preliminary site evaluation (PSE) contained in DENR DAO 2013- 19 was designed for protected areas, PSE can be applied to other tourism sites. PSE can help provide a picture of how ready the place is for tourism. A place's general tourism readiness could be gauged by classifying its attractions/sites as being existing, emerging, or potential. An existing attraction/site is one where supply and demand for tourism are already established. An emerging tourist attraction/ site is one where the supply and demand are still in the inception or development stage. A potential attraction/site is basically a greenfield or an area without tourism structures and visitors but which has outstanding aesthetic appeal. By performing the pre-assessment, the LGU or tourism developer will quickly determine the potential of tourism development and how soon it could commence. If the planners find severe hurdles in the proliminary stage, they may advise the LGU or developer not to proceed to a full assessment. Thus, a preliminary assessment could save an LGU from investing huge sums of money into nonviable tourism projects. Below are some factors that need to be identified in the preliminary site assessment. MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS IN THE PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT Hazards and Security Issues One red flag is the presence of serious hazards in the area under study, Good sources for this information are the LGU's CLUP which usually contains a section on identified hazards and susceptibility to such hazards, Disaster Response and Recovery Management Plan (DRRM) plan, and Local Climate Change Adaptation Plan (LCCAP). Hazards can be natural or man-made. Extreme weather conditions or geological phenomena may bring about natural hazards. They include the threats of typhoons, storm surges, flooding, erosions, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and extreme heat, which could spark wildfires. Planners may evaluate these hazards in terms of their frequency, severity, and extent of affected areas. Man- made hazards include insurgency, terrorism, serious crimes, and infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Newspapers and the military and police provide information about these security problems. Control and Ownership of the Land DOT et al. (2017) identify land ownership as among the salient factors that need to be assessed in tourism planning. The DOT et al. (2017) favor government- owned lands over private lands. This is because an LGU will have a free hand in developing tourism in a government-owned area but not in privately owned land. The government cannot fund projects in privately owned land, protected areas, indigenous people's ancestral domains, or those under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. There is a need to secure permission from the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) in a protected area. Authorization from the indigenous peoples (IP) community chieftains and the National Commission for IP (NCIP) will need to be confirmed if it is an ancestral domain. The process could be difficult but not impossible. There are examples of protected areas managed by a private firm and where the firm operates resorts. The government is not allowed to use public funds on private property. For example, if a resort owner asks the LGU to improve the private road leading to their resort, he/she will be denied. However, if he/she donates to the LGU the land where the road is located, the LGU can already finance it. Contested lands or those with more than one claimant will also be a headache to the developer if not resolved early on. Stakeholder Support for Tourism Development One of the pillars of sustainable tourism development is the inclusion of tourism stakeholders in decision-making. In the broadest sense, they refer to people affected by tourism development, which essentially means everyone. Therefore, to the greatest extent possible, all stakeholder groups must help formulate tourism plans and share the benefits and even costs of developing them. Representatives of government agencies, tourism officers, development officers, the academe, the religious sector, nongovernmental organizations, people's organizations, and private sectors should be able to attend workshops and consultative meetings. Micro-entrepreneurs, local transport operators (jeepney, tricycle, habal-habal), PWDs, senior citizens, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and indigenous peoples constitute the vulnerable groups that should also have a hand in tourism planning. These groups are excellent sources of information and data in their respective spheres of responsibility (baseline data, best practices, existing protocols and projects, and insights). Getting more groups involved in tourism development projects creates a sense of ownership for the plan and, consequently, smoother adoption by the LGU and the implementation. The perceptions and attitudes of stakeholder groups are essential for tourism to gain attraction and take off. Educating them about the value of tourism will help ease resistance to tourism development. Including them in the decision-making process, opening opportunities for livelihood, employment, and businesses on a fair set of guidelines, and ensuring that the noneconomic benefits such as improved infrastructure and public services will help create a positive tourism mindset development. Political support for tourism is vital since the local chief executives and councils set the legislative agenda. Tourism that the political leaders champion usually gains momentum faster than tourism that does not enjoy such support. A mayor and local council that advocates tourism will pass legislation, create the relevant tourism office. and allocate funding more speedily. Many local politicians understand the value of successful tourism programs to their political careers. An indicator of political support for tourism is the presence of updated tourism plans and ordinances. Significant Attractions in the Area Attractions can be natural or cultural. Planners can assess them in terms of their uniqueness and natural beauty, the level of their preservation, and appeal to the senses. The rarer and more difficult it is to imitate them, the better. That is why places in the Philippines with a cool climate, beaches with pink sand, and areas with unique flora and fauna have strong drawing power. In the case of heritage attractions, the older they are, the more significant they usually are as well. Their age is just one consideration, their quality of preservation is also paramount. The better preserved they are, the easier it will be to develop and enhance them to turn them into viable tourism sites. The living heritage city of Vigan is probably one of the most well- preserved of such type of attraction. Appeal to the senses means that the site is not only aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. Other features can satisfy the other senses- hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Think of the singing birds, the cool breeze, the scent of wildflowers, and perhaps some fruits that can be picked and eaten on the spot. In other words, this is about the vibe or whole atmosphere of the place. Planners must also evaluate the resources relative to the rest of the local economy and its competitors or neighboring towns and cities. An LGU must be wise enough to prioritize other industries to generate better outcomes for their constituents if their tourism resources are pretty ordinary. When the tourism resources are not that special, an LGU may choose to utilize tourism to support other more viable industries in the area concerned. Accessibility Another point to be considered is accessibility. This factor has something to do with the infrastructure that will enable visitors to reach the attractions. The DOT recommends that sites be no farther than two hours from a gateway, such as a seaport or an airport, and not more than thirty minutes from the town center or service center. The service center is the most urbanized town in the province, usually the capital. Infrastructure includes expressways, roads, bridges, and railways. Other aspects of accessibility are their frequency, scheduled trips, and alternative modes by land, sea, or air. For instance, having to contract a fisher to bring them to an island instead of simply boarding commercial boats could discourage potential tourists from visiting a site. Most travelers will not even consider going to a beautiful waterfall if boulders are blocking the path leading to it. Information about accessibility may be ascertained by doing an ocular inspection or consulting local authorities and residents. Good sources of information about transportation infrastructure are CLUPs and PDPFPS. Sensitivity of the Site to Tourism Impacts built-up area. However, it Another consideration is the potential impact tourism can create on the site. This factor may not be so critical if the site is in a brownfield or a the site is in a greenfield, the development will need to be controlled strictly to prevent adverse environmental impacts. There are classifications of protected areas where cover mangrove forests, coral reefs, water bodies, and habitats of endangered animals. The carrying capacities in these areas are much smaller; the authorites animals. The cavities to prevent environmental degradation. Planners may find where such ECAs are in the LGU's CLUP. CHAPTER 3 TOURISM SITE EVALUATION CRITERIA Planners must know the category of the tourism site being evaluated. A site may be existing, emerging. or potential. An existing site is one which many tourists are already visiting and where infrastructure, utilities, and facilities are present but may be enhanced. An emerging area is being visited by some people and has some basic infrastructure, utilities, and facilities. Potential sites have raw resources and virtually zero visitation. The evaluator must indicate the site's location (barangay, LGU). The Tourism Site Evaluation Matrix (TSEM) (DOT et al., 2017) looks at seven criteria for evaluating a tourism site. These are (1) uniqueness and natural beauty; (2) historical or cultural value; (3) accessibility; (4) availability and quality of essential utilities: (5) availability and quality of on-site facilities; (6) ownership of the property; and (7) quality of surroundings. These criteria were the ones suggested by the DOT, but the tourism stakeholders in an LGU may determine their own set of criteria based on what they think is important. There are questions that must be addressed under each criterion, listed below are the following: 1. Uniqueness and Natural Beauty ✔ How rare is it? ✓ Does it appeal to the senses? How well-preserved is it? Does the DOT recognize the attraction? Is the attraction being promoted by the DOT on its website and other media? 2. Historical or Cultural Value ✓ Is the built heritage at least 50 years old? ✓ What festivals are celebrated down the site? Are there culinary experiences available at the site? ✔ Does the site have a museum? 3. Accessibility ✓ Is the place accessible all year? ✓ Is there a regular transport service? ✓ How far is it from the service center? ✔ How far is it from the town center? 4. Basic Utilities Is there a clean water supply for drinking? For cleaning toilets? Is electricity available 24/7? ✓ Is the communication accessible (internet, telephone, cell phone)? How strong is the cellphone signal? ✓ Does the site have adequate drainage and sewerage system to protect it from flooding and prevent water pollution? 5. On-Site Facilities ✓ Does the site have well-maintained and safe restrooms? Does the site have an accommodation facility for overnight guests? Are there restaurants, kiosks, and other food and beverages services ✓ Does the site have sports and other recreational facilities such as basketball/tennis/volleyball court, game room, kayak, and the like? Are there enough directional and information signs leading to the si and on-site? 6. Ownership of Property 29 D a D Is it government-owned? ✔ Is it privately owned, under CARP or CARPable, an ancestral doman or claimed by two or more individuals or families? 7. Quality of Surroundings Within 5 km Off the Site Is it a landfill/dumpsite, mining site, or informal settlement? ✔ Is there a beautiful vista? ✓ Are there support services? SCORING, RANKING, AND PRIORITIZATION The aggregate score for a site is the average score of the seven maijp components. Each of the seven components' scores is the average score of the subcomponents. Based on the table above, the destination is quite ordinary as indicated by its score of 2.79 out of 5. It means that in general, the sites are not very exciting, with four out of the five sites having average scores below 3 and only one above 3 but below 4. In terms of the components, the destination as a whole is very weak in terms of utility facilities and historical/cultural value. These attributes obtained scores between 1.7 and 1.75. On the other hand, the destination is relatively strong in terms of ownership, accessibility, uniqueness, and natural beauty as shown by scores ranging from 3.47 to 4.2. The scores may be automatically generated in Excel format once you have written the formula for each column. Given this information, the LGU may prioritize budget allocation for the strengths to enhance them and then go for the items which are its weak points. CATEGORIES OF TOURISM SITES The DOT categorizes tourism sites as existing, emerging, and potential. Oris way to describe them is that existing tourism sites have both the tourism supply and demand as being in the developed stage. However, the LGU may enhance the infrastructure, utilities, and facilities. An emerging destination is where the demand and tourism supply components are se rudimentary. Finally, a potential tourism site may become successful if the tourism components are provided. Only a handful of people visit the site. FULL ASSESSMENT FOR ECOTOURISM SITES IN PROTECTED AREAS The DOT's TSEM applies to most tourism sites. However, DENR's set of criteria used for ecotourism sites in protected areas is more comprehensive. They involve (1) natural resources and features: (2) cultural resources; (3) protected area management; (4) visitor patterns, activities, and infrastructure; (5) tourism plans and policies; (6) communities: (7) partnerships; (8) marketing and promotions; and (9) opportunities and threats. For each criterion, specific data or information is sought Visit T Natural resources and features Flagship species Inventory of these resources Endangered species Scenic attractions Critical areas needing protection Cultural resources Historical, archaeological, or cultural sites Cultural or historical events in the area Cultural or historical events in the surrounding areas Traditional knowledge and practices Other agencies involved in the area Indigenous peoples Permit for ecotourism development Protected area management Zoning categories in the protected area Presence of a protected area management plan? Presence of adequate staffing in the protected area management office Threats Visitor impacts Research activities Monitoring activities by the PA staff Visitor patterns, activities, and infrastructure Visitor attractions Accessibility Visitor activities Available visitor statistics and gender disaggregation Entrance and user fees Presence of and conditions of facilities and infrastructure Information, education, and communication (IEC) and interpretation programs Availability of guides Tourism plans and policies A chapter on ecotourism in the PA Management Plan Existing tourism plans Plans of the LGUS Communities Presence of communities in the protected area and adjacent to it Community economic activities Community involvement in tourism activities Presence of businesses in the area and adjacent to it Partnerships Multi-sectoral partnerships Kind of agreements Partnerships with the tourism sector Successful partnerships Marketing and promotions Marketing efforts of the protected area management Need for more promotions Promotion activities are done by the LGU, NGO, or government agencies IEC materials Opportunities and threats New opportunities to enhance ecotourism Threats to promoting ecotourism METHODS FOR PRIMARY DATA GATHERING IN A FULL SITE ASSESSMENT To fill in the gaps or missing information from past documents, planners need to conduct primary data gathering. Primary data gathering techniques include fieldwork, key informant interviews, survey, and consultative meetings and workshops Consultations with local stakeholders enable the planners to validate or refute information taken from previous reports. For example, the participants can state whether the site chosen for development in a prior master plan is indeed ready or not; or they could object to estimates for carrying capacities indicated in previous reports or made by the current consultants. CHAPTER 4 THE LAW AND ITS PURPOSE Our laws emanate from several sources, such as the Constitution, treaties, and conventions where the Philippines is a signatory to-Acts of Congress (Republic Acts), Presidential Decrees (done during the Martial Law era), and Executive Orders. Memorandum Circular from the national agencies, local ordinances (by the provincial and municipal governments), customary laws, and religious sources such as the Quran, Sunnagh, ljma, and Qiyas the Muslim Law or Shariah are other sources. In the context of tourism, the definition of "law" can be deduced from what is stated in the RA 9593, also known as the Tourism Act of 2009. According to RA 9593, a "law" is an instrument that describes the policy direction for tourism development. These principles will provide guidelines for developing tourism. EXAMPLES OF LAWS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT Because tourism is multidimensional and requires a whole government approach, numerous laws have implications for tourism planning and development Among these are: Laws that Explain the Rationale and Objectives of Tourism Development Presidential Decree No. 189 of 1973-created the Department of Tourism and the Philippine Tourism Authority. The decree states the policy of the State "to make the puriapine Jouy's positive instrument toward accelerated national development... and through which the Filipinos themselves may learn more about the natural beauty, history, and culture of their country and thus develop greater pride in and commitment to the nation." Tourism Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 9593) - reorganized the Department of Tourism, and its attached agencies added new agencies to the DOT family, requires accreditation for quality assurance of primary tourism enterprises, and promoted the establishment of Tourism Enterprise Zones among other things. Laws that Regulate the Standards of Tourism Facilities National Building Code-covers policies, plans, standards, and guidelines on building design, construction, use occupancy, and maintenance. Accessibility Law of 1982 (Batas Pambansa Bilang 344) - requires public and private buildings and establishments to provide sidewalks, ramps, railings, and the like to enable access by persons with disabilities. Sanitation Code - sets the standards for sanitation for all buildings. Fire Code - sets standards for fire prevention, such as specifications for fire exits and fire extinguishers. Laws that Protect the Interest of Vulnerable Groups Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 (RA No. 9262) - prohibits sexual violence against women and children, including prostituting them. Anti Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 (RA No. 7877) bans all forms of sexual harassment in employment, education, or training environments. Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 (RA No. 0208) prohibits people's exploitation for prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude, or debt bondage. Thus, the adoption of minors, tours, and contract marriages for such purposes is prohibited. Magna Carta of Women (RA No. 9710) reaffirms women's rights in all sectors to participate in policy formulation, planning, organization, implementation, management, monitoring, and evaluation of all programs, projects, and services. This law guarantees the civil, political, and economic rights of women in the marginalized sectors, particularly their right to food security, titling of the land, localized, accessible, secure and affordable housing, employment, livelihood, credit, capital and technology. skills training and scholarships, and representation and participation in policy-making among others. Tourism plans are now required to have a gender and development component as a result of this law. Women in Development and Nation Building Act (RA No. 7192) prescribes government agencies to assess the impact of their programs or projects on integrating women in the development process and how active participation of women in the management of such programs or projects were insured. The law also requires collecting sex-disaggregated data and including such data in its program or project paper, proposal, or strategy. Indigenous People Rights Act of 1997 (RA No. 8371)-protects the rights of IPs to their ancestral domains, self-governance, and fundamental human rights, protects them from exploitation and discrimination, and promotes their rights to control activities entry of migrants into their territory. Ancestral domains include traditional lands and water bodies, including sacred places and traditional hunting and fishing grounds. Concerning these areas, IPs have the right to own and develop lands and natural resources and benefit and share profits from the natural regions' allocation and utilization. They can also negotiate the terms and conditions for exploring natural resources in the sites to ensure ecological, environmental protection, and conservation measures. IPs have a right to an informed and intelligent participation in any project that will affect their ancestral domains. Their rights include staying in their land except when relocation is necessary and regulating entry of migrants into the domains. As a tourism student, you will need to request a permit to conduct a study in an IP territory from the National Commission for Indigenous People. Tourism developers will also need to represent indigenous culture in their tourism products authentically and accurately. Magna Carta for Disabled Persons of 1992 (RA No. 7277) promotes the attainment of a barrier-free environment that will enable disabled persons to have access in public and private buildings and establishments and such other places mentioned in Batas Pambansa Bilang 344. It also "allocates funds for the provision of architectural facilities or structural features for disabled persons in government buildings and facilities." In keeping with this law, accommodation and other buildings must have dedicated rooms, ramps, elevators, toilets, parking spaces, and other facilities for PWDS. Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003 (RA No. 7432, as Act of 2010 (RA N Expanded Senior Citizened by Expanded Senior Cof the Phillipines when No 9257) and further anande and privileges of citizens option from the value-ades least 60 years old. These include 20% discount and exemption t least 60 years odic Tres, and other medical products and services, 20 discount on discount restaurants, lodging establishments, Denters, and theaters; discount for funeral and burial services; and minimum of 5 discount on water and electric bills, and certain grocery items. They are entitled to express lanes in commercial and government establishments, designated seats in trains, and senior citizen parking slots. Governance Laws Local Government Code of 1992 (RA No. 7160) - devolved the control and responsibility of delivering essential services to the hands of local government units (LGUs), (province, cities, and towns) from the central government agencies (national and regional offices), including the promotion of tourism, provision of tourism facilities and regulation of tourism businesses. This law requires LGUs, where tourism is a significant industry, to have full-time tourism officers. The law also allows cities and municipalities to reclassify agricultural lands into nonagricultural land uses within their respective jurisdictions, subject to prescribed conditions. Seal of Good Local Governance Act of 2019 (RA No. 11292) - institutionalizes the giving of the award which provides incentives, honor, and recognition to LGUs that can pass all seven governance areas, namely: Financial Administration; Disaster Preparedness; Social Protection; Peace and Order; Business Friendliness and Competitiveness; Environmental Protection; and Tourism Culture and the Arts. Procurement Law or RA No. 9184 applies to the procurement of infrastructure projects, goods, and consulting services, regardless of the source of funds, by govemment departments, offices, and agencies, including government-owned and/or controlled corporations and local government units. The law provides the necessary procedures for such procurement, such as competitive bidding, and the use of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement Services (PhilGEPS), among others. Laws that Promote Tourism-Related Investments Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016 (RA No. 10816) aims to maximize the benefits from the complementation of agriculture and tourism by [providing] "the policy and enabling environment for the encouragement, development, and promotion of farm tourism in the country." Granting Incentives to Foreign Investment in Tourist-Related Projects and Tourist Establishments of 1986 (EO 63) gives Special Investor's Resident Visa (SIRV) to foreigners investing US$50,000 in a tourist-related project for as long as the investment exists. Omnibus Investments Code of 1987 (EO 226)-grants fiscal incentives to tourism and other investments that contribute to economic development. Executive Order 129-A, s. of 1987-mandates the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to approve or disapprove the conversion, restructuring, or readjustment of agricultural lands into nonagricultural uses. Environmental Laws Climate Change Act of 2009 (RA No. 9729)-mainstreams climate change, including disaster risk reduction, into government formulation of programs and projects, plans and strategies, and policies to build resilience to climate-induced disasters. National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992 (RA No. 7586) established regulations for areas of "outstanding...sites and biologically critical public lands that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, biogeographic zones and related ecosystems...and protects these PAs from destructive human exploitation." Protected areas fall under the following categories: (1) strict nature reserve; (2) natural park; (3) natural monument; (4) wildlife sanctuary: (5) protected land seascapes and seascapes; (6) resource reserve; (7) natural biotic areas; and (8) other categories established by the law of international agreements. Under this law, tourism may be allowed only in protected landscapes and seascapes. Environmental Impact Assessment System of 1978 (PD No. 1586) - requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIA) which is "the process of predicting the likely environmental consequences of implementing a project or undertaking and designing appropriate preventive, mitigating and enhancement measures," an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for environmentally critical projects (ECPs) in environmentally critical areas (ECAs). A golf course is an example of a tourism project that needs to be carefully assessed for its potential negative impact. National parks, watershed reserves, wildlife preserves, sanctuaries, aesthetically valuable areas with potential tourist spots, habitats of endangered species of wildlife, and places with unique historical, archaeological, or scientific interests are ECAS. Coral Resources Conservation and Protection Decree of 1977 (PD No. 1219) - prohibits the gathering, harvesting, collecting, or exporting of ordinary coral without the DENA secretary's approval. National Caves and Cave Resources Management and Protection Act of 2 to conserve, protect, and manage caves and cave n (RA No. 9072) - aims to conserve, Di, tourism, and prohibits destroying or harming the spelecthem animals or resour explict or altering the free movement plants that depend on caves, and the gathering, possessing, and of cave resources without permission from the authorities. Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001 (RA No. 9147) prohibits introducing Exotic Wildlife species into the country without die DEN or authorized representative. Exotic species shallo Introduced in protected and critical habitats. clearance fro The Clean Water Act of 2004 (RA No. 9275) - prohibits discharging, deposit The Clean Water Acton into the water bodies, which could pollute water body's natural flow and discharge, letting any material that could groundwater. contaminele Clean Air Act of 1999 (RA No. 8749) - prevents air pollution by prohibiting t registration of motor vehicles that do not pass emission tests, smoking inside a publ building or an enclosed public place, and burning solid wastes. The Act also regula the release and emission of radioactive substances, organic pollutants. It prohibit using ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gas emissions following the U Framework-Convention on Climate Change and other international agreements Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001(RA No. 9003) - prohibits and imposes fines and community services on people who litter, throw, or dump was in public places. The law covers the generation, segregation, collection, reuse recycling, composting, transporting, and disposal of solid waste; and prohibits us non-environmentally acceptable packagings, such as plastics and styrofoam. Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (RA No. 10121) - aims to develop, promote, and implement a comprehensive National Disast Risk Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP) to strengthen the capacity the national government and the LGUs to build disaster resilience of communities and enhancing disaster preparedness and response capabilities at all levels, ant to mainstream disaster risk reduction and climate change in policy formulation socioeconomic development planning, budgeting, and governance among others Tourism plans now incorporate a section on the DRRM plan. COVID-19 Response. Beginning in March 2020, the Philippine Governmen reactivated the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, or IATF for short, to formulate guidelines to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The IATF MEID was created through Executive Order 168 issued then President Benigno Aquino III in 2014. One policy created by the IATF was the issuance of different categories of community quarantines or lockdowns to respond to the risk classification of the different regions, provinces, cities, or towns. In the tourism sector, the DOT came up with health protocol requirements and practices for tourism accommodation establishments to be granted a "certificate of authority to operate." To obtain the CAO, DOT-accredited accommodation establishments (AEs) need to submit a "Letter of Intent to Operate" to the relevant DOT Regional Office, while non-DOT-accredited AEs will first need to apply for accreditation. The purpose of the CAO is to ensure that AEs are compliant with the health protocols required by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) for the safety of guests and tourists (IATF-EID reiterates..., 2020). Other Laws Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (Executive Order 168 series of 2014) activated in March 2020 by President Rodrigo Duterte to devise a National Action Plan (NAP) to stem the transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19. One of the impacts of the policies crafted by the IATF was the Department of Tourism requiring the adoption of standard health and safety protocols for the operation of accommodation establishments to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health and spur economic recovery (Memorandum Circular No. 2020-002). THE TOURISM ACT OF 2009 AND ITS MAJOR PROVISIONS According to the Tourism Act of 2009, also known as RA No. 9593, tourism development aims to achieve several objectives. Among these are the following: To promote tourism awareness, preserve the country's diverse cultures and heritage, and instill a sense of history and a culture of tourism among the youth and the populace; To encourage competition in the tourism industry and maximize consumer choice; To facilitate planning in public and private sectors; To ensure a balanced and healthful ecology for the people; To ensure full enjoyment of the benefits of tourism by everyone, including indigenous communities; To promote the development of progressive transportation policies as they relate to tourism; To promote the convention industry; To alleviate poverty and promote balanced rural-urban development; To ensure accessible and affordable destinations throughout the country: To maintain international standards of excellence in all tourism facilities and services: To promote tourism investments; and To ensure a sustainable funding mechanism for tourism policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities. Principles of Tourism Development in the Philippines. The Tourism Act of 2009 specifies the principles that will govern the development of tourism in the Philippines. Some of these are the following: Nationalism Preferential treatment of Filipino nationals Protection of women and children Inclusiveness Research-based planning Responsible tourism Multisectoral participation by civil society and the private sector Continuous capacity-building of local government units Balanced rural and urban development Global competitiveness The Tourism Act of 2009 contains the following provisions: mandatory accreditation for primary tourism enterprises; the requirement for local govemment units where tourism is a significant industry to have a permanent tourism officer, promotion of tourism investments through the grant of incentives in tourism enterprise zones;renaming of existing attached agencies; and attachment of additional agencies. The DOT defines accreditation as "a certification issued by the DOT to a tourism enterprise that officially recognizes [the latter) as having complied with the minimum standards for the operation of tourism facilities and services, (Tourism Act, 2009). It is mandatory for primary tourism enterprises and voluntary for secondary tourism enterprises. Primary tourism enterprises cover travel and tour services, land, sea, and air transport services exclusively for tourist use, accommodation establishments, convention and exhibition organizers, tourism estate management services, and the like. Secondary tourism enterprises cover health and wellness services, restaurants, spas, tourism trainers, and the like. For this category of enterprises, accreditation is voluntary. According to the Tourism Act, every province, city, or municipality, in which tourism is a significant industry must have a permanent position for a tourism officer (TO). The TO must have a bachelor's degree and five years of tourism industry experience A Tourism Enterprise Zone (TEZ) is an area with a contiguous territory of at least five hectares in size; it has historical and cultural significance, environmental beauty. The TEZ includes existing or potential integrated leisure facilities that have, or may have, strategic access through transportation infrastructure and good connection with existing utility infrastructure systems. The TEZ must be strategically located to catalyze the socioeconomic development of neighboring communities. A TEZ may be a greenfield or a brownfield tourism zone. A Greenfield Tourism Zone refers to a new or pioneer product, while a Brownfield Tourism Zone is an area with existing infrastructure or development. The law provides for the granting of fiscal and non- fiscal incentives to qualified investors in a TEZ. Fiscal incentives include income tax holiday for six years, extendable to a maximum of six more years, 100% exemption of taxes and customs duties on imported capital investment and equipment, and Social Responsibility Incentive of Tax deduction not exceeding 50% of the cost of environmental protection or cultural heritage preservation activities, sustainable livelihood programs for local communities, and the like. Non-fiscal incentives available for TEZ-located enterprises include the option to employ foreign nationals subject to conditions, Special Investor's Resident Visa to a foreign national who shall invest at least USD 200,000, and the right to remit earnings from foreign investment.. TEZ incentives are evaluated based on their ecological, economic, financial, cultural, sustainability, community, and stakeholder considerations. The Tourism Act reorganized and renamed the Philippine Tourism Authority into the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA). The TIEZA is responsible for designating, regulating, supervising TEZs, and tourism infrastructure projects in the country. The Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation (PCVC) was reorganized as the Tourism Promotions Board. Within the DOT, the Bureaus for Domestic and International Tourism Promotions, and the Office of Tourism Information of the Department, were absorbed into the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB). The TPB is responsible for marketing and promoting the Philippines within and outside the country as a major global tourism destination, specifically as a convention destination, catering to large-scale events, international fairs and conventions, congresses, sports competitions, and expositions. The following are the attached agencies to the DOT: 1. Tourism Promotions Board 2. Tourism infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority 3. Duty-Free Philippines Corporations 4. Intramuros Administration 5. National Parks Development Committee 6. Nayong Pilipino Foundation 7. Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) 8. Phillippine Commission on Sports Scuba Diving (PCSSD) The PRA and the PCSSD were added as attached agencies to the DOT only in 2009. The other six have been attached agencies of the department since 1973 LOCAL PLANS According to the DOT, the local tourism development plan (TDP) should be linked to mandated local plans. Tourism planners should first consult these mandated local plans to avoid wasting time on repeating research whose data or information are already contained in these plans and ensure that the TDP emanates from the more extensive plans. The TDP should be placed within the framework of the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP). The CDP, in turn, should be aligned with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) of the LGU. In other words, The TDP is the most granular of all these plans, and good tourism planning could be best achieved when the planner has updated CDP, CLUP, and Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plan. Arranged by level of granularity, from most minor to the largest, the description of the plans are given below: The CDP is an action plan covering the social, economic, infrastructure, environmental, and institutional sectors. It is not focused on tourism alone. It is supposed to guide the formulation of tourism development goals. The CDP is supposed to be designed for six years (DILG, n.d.). It is the responsibility of the Local Development Council. The council is composed of government, private, nongovernment sectors, and people's organizations (DILG, n.d.). The CLUP is supposed to cover nine years. It identifies areas where development can and cannot be located and directs public and private investments accordingly A CLUP contains thematic maps: hazard map, general land-use map, infrastructure map, institutional map, and tourism map. A hazard map shows areas prone to landslides, flooding, and erosion. A general land-use map exhibits built-up areas, forest areas, and the like. The infrastructure map depicts the major and minor road networks, electricity lines, and other utility lines. The institutional map shows schools, municipal and barangay halls, cemeteries, and other buildings. The tourism map indicates existing and potential tourism sites. It is a basic requirement to look at this document first to avoid conflicting land uses, such as tourism and quarrying. For example, flood- or storm surge-prone areas must be avoided. Land use is categorized into forestland, agricultural land, built-up areas, mining and quarrying, water, and tourism. Forestlands include production forest or orchard, protection forest, watershed, and NIPAS and non-NIPAS areas. Only restricted or regulated tourism development can be allowed within forestland, subject to the control of the DENR, specifically the Biodiversity Management Bureau. Tourism in agricultural areas with the potential for being placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is not advisable. Tourism and mining or quarrying areas are incompatible land uses, as mentioned. Infrastructure and support services for tourism are in the built-up area. The tourist zone is where tourism development is encouraged. The tourist zone contains attractions, parks, and accommodation facilities. Water includes creeks, rivers, tributaries, waterfalls, and lakes in the LGU. In places close to water bodies, it is mandatory to monitor and mitigate pollution and the adverse impact of tourism development. Producing the CLUP is the responsibility of the Sangguniang Bayan, Panlungsod, and Panlalawigan (municipal, city, and provincial councils), respectively. The PPDFP contains the physical framework plan and development plan of the province. It includes the province's long-term vision, goals, strategies, and implementation plan. It discusses the province's investment programming, budgeting. and implementation. Linking the TDP to the PDFP should be done initially to determine whether the province already has developed a tourism circuit. Planners must consider the role of municipalities and cities in the tourism circuit in formulating the TDP TOURISM POLICY AND ITS INSTRUMENTS Tourism policy consists of guidelines used to achieve a goal or make decisions. A simple definition of policy is what an organization does or does not do. For example, rules may exist to guide the development of a tourist area. The LGU's decision to implement them strictly, leniently, or not at all is the policy of that LGU. The government crafts policies to achieve specific objectives. For example, the Philippine government's policy prohibiting mass tourism in protected areas preserves the environment and sustainable development. Tourism development is being pursued as policy because the National Economic Development Authority considens the tourism industry as having the potential to spur Inclusive growth. Policies can be pursued with the use of a combination of tools or programs. also known as policy instruments. The following instruments are meant to achieve sustainable tourism (Environmental Justice, Organizations Liabilities and Trade 2012): Tourist environmental tax Different levels of environmental tax can be imposed depending on demand, Charging higher taxes during the peak season can discourage visitation during that period and, thus, lessen the environment's pressure. Environmental fees may be collected to provide a steady stream of funds for a resort island's environmental cleanup, like Boracay. User fees One version of this is entrance fees to protected areas. Accreditation The government can bestow higher scores in accreditation to organizations that incorporate water and energy-saving devices. Eco-labels These can be applied to almost any product or service offered to tourists that satisfy specific environmental criteria (accommodation facilities, tour operators, beaches, restaurants, marinas, or tourist destinations). Quota Limiting visitor numbers in a destination includes closure of specific places, like environmentally fragile areas, at certain times, establishing a maximum number of accommodation units, determining a maximum number of persons allowed at a particular tourist attraction, area, or a whole country. These instruments prevent overcrowding and consequently natural resource degradation. This quota is based on estimated carrying capacity. Puerto Princesa Underground River and Boracay impose such carrying capacity limits. Zoning Zoning regulation regulates or prohibits construction activities in sensitive environments to maintain those areas' natural beauty and environmental health. Architectural guidelines These guidelines can cover siting (where to build in an area), building height restriction (not taller than the trees in the area), maximum footprint (e.g., only 20% should be covered by buildings), materials, rooflines, use of endemic species for landscaping, and several others. CHAPTER 5 TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLATFORMS The prevailing tourism platform at the time determines the goals of tourism development. Jafari (2001) identified these as (1) advocacy platform, (2) cautionary platform, (3) adapting platform, and (4) knowledge-based platform. The advocacy platform sees tourism as a good thing and highlights tourism's positive economic impacts. People who adhere to this orientation consider tourism as an instrument for modernization. This orientation leads to mass tourism which is when not managed well, can have severely damaging effects on the environment and society. Arguably, this platform framed the formulation of the first Tourism Master Plan (1991-2010), whereby strategies such as the deregulation of the airline industry, construction of international gateways, human resource development, and grant of fiscal incentives to boost tourism volume and foreign exchange, even though the plan espoused sustainable development as an objective. The cautionary platform is somewhat the opposite of the advocacy platform as it sees tourism as bringing about economic, environmental, and social costs. Examples of such impacts are dependericy on tourism, pollution, and prostitution. Within this platform, government and planners would tend to disregard tourism as a development option. Adaptancy platform takes off from the cautionary platform and suggests alternative approaches to tourism. These alternative approaches would emphasize the conservation of nature and community control. Ecotourism is an example for the former and community-based tourism for the latter. Finally, a knowledge-based platform looks at tourism from a neutral standpoint. Tourism is not necessarily good or bad, and the nature of the impacts does not depend on the size of tourism. Depending on the quality of management, mass tourism could be sustainable, and small-scale tourism could also be harmful. This platform requires solid research to evaluate tourism's best form for destinations under various conditions and peculiar characteristics. At any rate, several approaches to tourism have evolved over the years. They include accessible tourism (for persons with a disability), pro-poor tourism (to alleviate poverty), farm tourism, aboriginal tourism, culinary tourism, and many others. Governments advocated sustainable development principles in the United Nations document Our Common Future (UNWCED, 1987), Sustainable tourism supports the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000-2015) and currently the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2016-2030). THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS The eight MDGs (World Bank, n.d.) were: 1. eradicate extreme poverty and hunger: 2. achieve universal primary education; 3. promote gender equality and empower women; 4. reduce child mortality; 5. improve maternal health; 6. combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, 7. ensure environmental sustainability; and 8. develop a global partnership for the development THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS Based on the United Nations' SDGs, development should lead to the attainment of the following goals: 1. Ending extreme poverty by providing access to economic resources, basic resources, ownership, and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology, and financial services. NO POVERTY 2. Ending hunger by ensuring that all people have access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round, doubling agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, and securing equal access to land, and other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets, and nonfarm employment among others. ZERO HUNGER 3. Promoting good health and wellness by reducing death rates from babies and children and diseases, promoting mental health, preventing and treating substance abuse, halving deaths and injuries from road accidents, and providing universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services and universal health coverage. GOOD HEALTH & WELL-BEING 4. Providing quality primary and secondary education, early childhood development, care, preprimary education, technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university; ensuring equal access to education and training for vulnerable groups. QUALITY EDUCATION 5. Promoting gender equality by ending discrimination and violence against women and girls, eliminating child, and forced marriages and female genital mutilation, recognizing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work. ensuring women's full and effective participation and equal leadership opportunities, and so on. sanitation and hygiene. GENDER EQUALITY 6. Providing clean water and adequate and equitable for all by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater, ending open defecation, and so on. CLEAN WATER & SANITATION 7. Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, clean, and modern energy services by increasing the share of renewable energy, doubling improvement in energy efficiency, facilitating access to clean energy research and technology, and so on. AFFORDABLE & CLEAN ENERGY 8. Providing decent work and making economic growth inclusive. Sustaining per capita economic growth, achieving higher productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, promoting development-oriented policies, encouraging the formalization and growth of MSMEs through access to financial services, and improving resource. DECENT WORK & ECONOMIC GROWTH 9. Developing resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive industrialization, and increasing the proportion of scientific research and development workers per one. INDUSTRY, INNOVATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE 10. Reducing inequality by increasing the share of income of the bottom 40% of the population, empowerment, and inclusion of all, ensuring equal opportunity, reducing inequalities of outcome, and eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices. REDUCED INEQUALITIES 11. Providing access to sustainable cities and communities by ensuring access for all to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services, green spaces, and transport systems safeguarding heritage, improving climate and disaster resilience, and reducing negative environmental impacts. SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES 12. Promoting responsible consumption and production through efficient use of natural resources, halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains, and sound management of chemicals and wastes throughout their life cycle and significantly decreasing their release to air, water and soil to minimize adverse impacts on human health and the environment, through prevention, reduction, recycling, reuse, and so on. RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION 13. Strengthening climate resilience and adaptive capacity by integrating climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning. Moreover, improving education, raising awareness, building human and institutional capacity on climate change management, and implementing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change can help achieve this goal. CLIMATE ACTION 14. Preventing and reducing marine pollution of all kinds by managing and protecting marine and coastal ecosystems, minimizing and addressing ocean acidification, effectively regulating ending illegal and destructive fishing practices to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, conserving and least 10% of coastal and marine areas, and so on. LIFE BELOW WATER 15. Ensuring the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services. Halting deforestation, restoring degraded forests and substantially increasing afforestation and reforestation globally, combatting desertification, and restoring degraded land and soil will help accomplish this goal. LIFE ON LAND 16. Reducing all forms of violence, human trafficking, financial crimes, and illicit arms flows, combatting organized crime, reducing corruption and bribery in all forms, developing effective, accountable, and transparent Institutions. Furthermore, ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making, providing legal identity for all, including birth registration, and protecting fundamental freedoms are components of this goal. PEACE, JUSTICE & STRONG INSTITUTIONS 17. Strengthening domestic resource mobilization, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection, implementing the developed countries' official development assistance commitments, and for ODA providers to set a target of 0.20% of ODA/GNI to least developed countries, mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries, and to help developing countries attain long-term debt sustainability through coordinated debt financing, debt relief, and debt restructuring. PARTNERSHIP OF THE GOALS The SDGs emphasize the principle of inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups. These are groups of people who are victims of human rights violations and discrimination (Icelandic Human Rights Center, n.d.). These groups are at greater risk of suffering from natural disasters, wars, recessions, and pandemics. Vulnerable groups include: 1. Women 2. Children 3. Elderly persons 4. Informal settlers (squatters) 5. Informal workers (jeepney drivers, sidewalk vendors) 6. Persons with disability 7. LGBTQIA+ 8. Iridigenous peoples 9. Persons who have AIDS and other diseases 10. Migrants 11. Refugees 12. Internally displaced persons 13. Stateless persons 14. Religious minorities THE GOALS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES The Section 2 of the Tourism Act of 2009 states the goals of tourism development in the Philippines. According to the document, the State regards tourism as an "indispensable element of the national economy, making it an industry of national interest and importance." Tourism [will be developed) to spur "socioeconomic growth and cultural affirmation to generate investment, foreign exchange and employment, and...to mold an enhanced sense of national pride for all Filipinos." The Tourism Act essentially supported tourism development goals, first formalized in the Tourism Master Plan of 1991 to 2010. The objectives were to optimize tourism's economic contribution, enhance and contribute to local social cohesion and cultural preservation, develop environmentally sustainable tourism, and diversify destinations, attractions, and markets. The successor National Tourism Development Plan (2011-2016) was to "develop an environmentally and socially responsible tourism industry that delivers more widely distributed income and employment opportunities." The 2016-2022 NTDP amplified the goal to "develop a globally competitive, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible tourism industry that promotes inclusive growth. The country will achieve this goal through employment generation and equitable distribution of income, thereby contributing to building a foundation for a high-trust society." The latter phrase makes it aligned with the goal set in the Philippine Development Plan of the same timeframe. The government considers tourism to be one of the industries that would support the achievement of the 2030 SDGs (Philippine Development Plan, 2017-2022, NEDA). The government envisioned tourism to contribute to attaining President Rodrigo Duterte's 0+10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda. The government specified ecotourism, cultural tourism, and agritourism as the types of tourism that would foster inclusive growth. STRATEGIES TO ATTAIN THE SDGS IN THE TOURISM SECTOR The UN World Tourism Organization identifies several ways by which tourism could contribute to the attainment of the SDGs, either directly or indirectly. Tourism helps to end poverty because it represents more than 10% of the world's gross domestic product. The sector could promote decent jobs, meaning jobs that provide fair income, security and social protection, and better prospects for personal development and social integration. Tourism companies have the potential to provide decent employment also to women, youth, and disadvantaged groups. Tourism can help end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by stimulating agricultural productivity through the production, use, and sale of local products and additional income from agritourism. Tourism companies and government agencies can ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all by implementing appropriate health and safety plans, especially in times of pandermics like COVID-19, and preventing accidents or health problems among tourists and employees. Tourism companies can ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning by carrying out training programs, community development projects, and awareness-raising campaigns about responsible tourism. Tourism can promote gender equality by employing a large number of female employees and entrepreneurs. Tourism can empower women by providing decent employment and conducting community training programs. Tourism helps ensure sustainable water and sanitation management by implementing efficient water resource management, preventing water pollution through technology, and providing access to water for tourism and residents. Tourism can be a vehicle to promote access to affordable, clean, and modern energy. The tourism industry can commit to developing energy efficiency measures and increasing renewable energy use in their operations while decreasing fossil fuel consumption. Tourism can help build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable Industrialization, and foster innovation. The tourism industry can invest in facilities, infrastructures, and information and communication technologies that allow universal access and use, especially PWDs and other disadvantaged groups. These strategies can also improve the technological capability of towns and cities, turning them into smart destinations. Tourism can help reduce inequality within and among countries. The tourism industry can contribute to urban renewal and rural development by reducing regional imbalances and local development. Tourism can help make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by promoting green and resilient infrastructure, transportation, green areas, and safe public spaces. Tourism can transform cities through urban renewal, improving connectivity, and developing local services and recreational facilities. By stimulating technological innovation, tourism can advance the smart city concept. Tourism can help ensure sustainable consumption and production by efficiently using natural resources, managing food and waste sustainably, and carefully selecting products and suppliers. Tourism companies can implement reuse and recycling measures, sustainable sourcing from their supply chain, include sustainability information in their corporate reporting, and promote local culture and products. Tourism, especially the transport and hotel sectors, can help fight climate change by reducing energy consumption, promoting renewable energy, and creating alliances to combat climate change. Tourism can help safeguard the oceans, coastal or insular areas by implementing integrated management of coastal zones to conserve and preserve marine ecosystems, prevent and reduce marine pollution, and sustainably use marine resources. Tourism helps protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt the reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. Educating tourists about the environment to help local communities manage their visits and obtain the most significant possible benefit to their ecosystems, biodiversity, and wildlife will help achieve this goal. Tourism can promote peaceful and inclusive societies by protecting their fundamental rights and fighting against corruption. This way, it can foster tolerance and understanding between cultures provide local community livelihood while preventing violence and conflicts Companies of the sector should involve local people by providing decent work and making joint decisions on using local resources, introducing transparency measures to fight corruption, and protecting everyone's human rights. The creation of partnerships between the different actors of the planet is essential to achieving the SDGs. Due to its inter-sectoral nature, tourism should foster collaboration among international, national, regional, and local stakeholders.