Tourism planning and planning theory: Historical roots and contemporary alignment

The timelines of planning theory and the approaches to tourism planning are compared from the early twentieth century to the present. The researchers address two specific questions; what are the links between these two timelines and what are the contributions to tourism planning knowledge? Unlike general planning theory, a distinctive business and profitability ethos influenced foundation tourism approaches until the impacts of the sector prompted attention to the need for more stakeholder communication and attention to sustainability concerns. Now, communication based planning and sustainability imperatives tend to co-exist in both domains with strong roles for stakeholder involvement and compartmentalized plans in tourism. Disciplinary contributions from geography and politics are more marked in general planning theory, while business and marketing orientations infuse the tourism perspectives. Tourism planning knowledge is usefully contextualized and advanced by considering generic planning theory, but remains very substantially influenced by tourism industry issues and shocks