An investigation into a community based approach to tourism planning

Tourism in Australia and specifically in Queensland is one of the fastest growing industry sectors. This rapid growth during the 1980's brought benefits and costs to the host communities, particularly where development was imposed on these communities with little opportunity for their input to the planning process. Over the past decade, tourist planning and development in Queensland has been significantly influenced by the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation supported through a network of Regional Tourist Associations (RT As). An analysis of the tourism planning literature suggests growing support for community input to the planning process. However, there is little documented evidence of the application of this community based approach. This study investigates a question central to this issue: How can RTAs inco rporate a more community based approach to their preparation of regional tourism plans ? Four propositions were developed to address this research question: Proposition 1. Given that community based tourism planning is new or different to other approaches to tourism planning, the priority planning issues generated through community groups will not reflect the main issues raised in the planning literature (section 2.1 .5). Proposition 2. Given that RTAs are grass roots tourism organisations, the tourism planning priorities of local community groups will be reflected in the RTA's annual plan(section 2.3). Proposition 3. Given that Queensland has RTAs to co-ordinate tourism planning within their region, RTAs can assume similar planning priorities exist across all the communities they represent (section 2.3). Proposition 4. Nominal Group Technique (NGT) will be perceived by community groups as an acceptable method for generating community input to tourism planning (section 2.4.1 ). The results of this research indicate that local communities, using this 'bottom up' planning approach, are capable of generating planning priorities which reflect pertinent issues addressed in the more predominantly 'top down' planning approaches. At the same time, the very 'localised' focus of these issues has both strengths and limitations for future tourism planning. Support for the use of the Nominal Group Technique as a planning process was also measured and found to exist. Given the mixed messages presently coming from the Queensland Government in relation to its support for community based planning, this research makes an important contribution to the issue of regional tourism. Host communities, RTAs, local and State Government will have to work together to develop effective planning strategies for the future development of tourism in Queensland