'Examining Bermuda: Tourism Planning Essay\r'

'The beautiful island of Bermuda is a ‘fish hook’ shape island located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 575 miles east of sexual union Carolina. Bermuda is considered by some(prenominal) to be a howling(prenominal) tourist close with turquoise waters and basic class accommodations and activities. Perhaps we never k virgin that Bermuda is actu all(prenominal)y be of over 100 islands. We might alike non have kn avouch that due to the Gulf Stream, Bermuda has the almost northerly coral reefs in the gentleman.\r\nBermuda techni heraldy is a British colony, but they have been self-governed since 1620. When we date the island of Bermuda from the standpoint of the touristry patience, we set up learn much from Bermuda’s succeederes as well as their attempts to revitalize their touristry industry. Hold on to your shorts as we examine touristry policy mean in a tip sand paradise. (www. bermuda touristry. com) In looking at Bermuda for the purposes of tourism policy supply we are initially reminded of how many an(prenominal) positive realities we can check over in the Bermuda tourism picture.\r\nNeedless to recount, tourism is obviously a major part of Bermuda’s thrift. Bermuda is an inte eternal resting lesson study in that they were considered the ideal model for a narrowly defined tourist destination, but in the early 1990s fell into less well-heeled cadences. Perhaps one could say that when it came to making money from the tourism commercialize, Bermuda became too ‘fat and happy’ for their feature long-term good. Michael V.\r\nConlin sheds more light on this phenomenon when he writes in his causal agent study on Bermuda tourism that â€Å" nonwithstanding the long-term success of its tourism industry, Bermuda go through a significant deterioration of its visitor figure buzz offning in the early 1990s that had a serious electrical shock on the country as a whole. ” (Conlin, p. 1). By studying ups and downs of the tourism economy in Bermuda and the unfolding of Bermuda’s tourism perpetration work, we can hopefully learn some lessons to alter us to practice more thriving and accountable tourism in the future.\r\nBermuda is considered a mature global tourist destination that usually is quite successful and stintingally prosperous. By the middle of 1992, however, â€Å"Bermuda’s tourism leaders had recognized that Bermuda’s tourism industry was not immune to the economic climate or, indeed, to the changes that were taking place in the global tourism marketplace. ” (Conlin, p. 13). genius of the changes that was taking place in the global tourism marketplace was that technological advances and increases in personal riches were strikingly boosting the tourism industry.\r\nIn light of the great global growth of the tourism industry, we should obviously see the require for more sophisticated training and direction in the this in dustry. In this light we can begin to see that tourism supplying in many cases needs to be an ongoing, flexible, and continually evolving do by. Perhaps this divine revelation was something that the Bermuda tourism board never sincerely grasped or believed until the 1990s. Once this revelation was understood, the Bermuda tourism authorities were in go under to take locomote to address the keep-sustaining issues and problems that were eroding their prosperity and market position.\r\nBy the time the year 1992 arrived, we could say that the Bermuda tourism board was take a shit to do some serious tourism cookery! When it heralds to tourism be after we can say that in that respect are believed to be two sides to the planning process as well as the need for a type of corporate planning model. Indeed, Conlin writes that â€Å"planning within the tourism industry takes place at some(prenominal) the micro take and the macro instruction level. ” (Conlin, p. 2) Macro lev el planning can be defined as dealing with the growth of tourist destinations as geographic, political, and affable units.\r\nIn terms of the island of Bermuda, we can learn that â€Å"many islands are particularly susceptible to the to the consequences of poor planning given their small size and the relatively great impact that tourism can have on their development. ” (Stonich, 1995). Conlin seeks for us to understand that â€Å"increasingly, the failure to plan leave behind not simply be a ornamental issue but a more radical economic, ecological, and social disturbance. ” (Conlin, p. 4). The micro level of tourism planning could be said to involve specific actions that operators sign up once they have honestly evaluated the realities of their mathematical product line activities.\r\nIn one sense, this is where a strategic planning and finis planning model are put into place. Conlin writes that ideally this model give be â€Å"based on the goal of matching an organization’s strengths with the market opportunities presented by a changing external environment. ” (Conlin, p. 3). In this model we will see such elements as a mission statement, stakeholder analysis, execution of instrument, and strategic control. We might say that macro level planning in the tourism industry is ultimately concerned with the growth and sustainability of a tourism destination.\r\nOn the whole, we can say that when it comes to successful tourism planning at the micro and macro level there is the need to â€Å"match product, price, location, and care expertise with the market and its expectations in a expression that will attract investment. Increasingly, this is done with the needs of the host community as a major focal point. ” (Conlin, p. 5). In this case, the host community is, of course, Bermuda, with its turquoise waters, pink sands, and tempting culinary delights. Let’s stay on to see how these concepts were applied speci fically to the case of Bermuda in the 1990s.\r\nWe have already begun to see that â€Å"as Bermuda’s tourism industry moved into the 1990’s, it was characterized by a sense of complacency, a reluctance to innovate, a decreasing level of service quality, and a deteriorating tangible plant. ” (Conlin, p. ). At this point the tourism planning mission needed to make some changes to move Bermuda from cosmos stagnated and losing market share to a place of revivification and wisdom for the future. In 1992 they created the charge on fighting which was to examine the status of tourism and international business on the island.\r\nThe commission was to explore rising areas for economic stimulus. Conlin writes that â€Å"the mandate of the commission reflected a broad concern closely national economic well-being in a rapidly changing international marketplace. ” (Conlin, p. 15). The Commission on Competitiveness had representatives from the tourism industry, from the public sector, from educational fields, and from international business firms. â€Å"To achieve a uplifted level of community involvement, the Tourism preparation committal created 16 task forces under the leadership of bountiful local stakeholders.\r\nAt any given time, this organize resulted in approximately 120 persons being actively involved in the process of examination. It was truly a community activity. ” (Conlin, p. 16). Some of the important findings of the Tourism Planning delegation include understanding the following conclusions: Bermuda is a model for developing tourism as a basis for a prosperous economy. Its past success should provide confidence that Bermuda tourism can improve in the future. The economy and quality of support in Bermuda are dep closureent upon tourism.\r\nChanges in world tourism, including new products, choices, and competition, will dictate many of the circumstances to which Bermuda will have to adapt. The cruise ship visitor cannot switch over the stay over visitor for economic impact on the island. Bermuda’s tourism product is price compared with some of its competitors, and it does not satisfy the price-value expectations of visitors. Bermuda essential adopt the need for fundamental change. It cannot dictate the terms of world tourism.\r\nThis will require significant investment of resources and effort. at that place are no simple, single, or quick fixes for amend the tourism industry in Bermuda. Conlin,1995). When we assess the actions interpreted by the Commission on Competitiveness we can see that their work was arguably thorough, with many worthy conclusions and recommendations. We should not be surprised that the actual implementation of these recommendations was dim in process. Conlin writes that â€Å"the process of adoption was slow and involved trade-offs between competition interests. ” (Conlin, p. 17).\r\nIn this smear we can see that when it came to revitalizing the economic conditions in Bermuda there existed â€Å"an underlying theme of a call to a greater degree of public participation. (Haywood, 1988,p. 105). In this vein, we can also learn about what has come to be called ‘community inclusive tourism planning’. Involving the community in tourism policy planning often has positive consequences for policies being adopted and at long last successfully implemented. Including the community results in an increase in communication between the policy makers and the public, but this new relationship also carries with it the responsibility to carry on this communication and deal with the outcomes of policies and strategies.\r\nWith growing concern about the environmental and social impacts of tourism, planning also has croak more integrated (Gravel, 1979) and has matured to the point where it must consider the impact of tourism development on a number of fronts, not just site-specific economic sectors. (Conlin, p. 6). In this decade , all of us have begin familiar with the going green movements, so it should not surprise us to hear that there is a call for more inclusive policy planning in the tourism industry.\r\nAs we near the end of our brief look at the unfolding of tourism policy planning in Bermuda, we can also learn about the destination life calendar method theory of tourism development. According to Conlin, â€Å"the product life cycle continues to play an important role in marketing management, including applications to the hospitality industry. ” (Conlin, p. 5). The idea of adapting one’s approach to changing situations brought on by the stages of the product life cycle, when applied to tourist destinations, is called the destination life cycle theory. (Conlin, p. 5).\r\nA. M. Morrison described the life cycle as: The product Life Cycle idea suggests all hospitality and tourism services pass through four predictable stages: (1) introduction, (2) growth, (3) maturity, (4) decline. dis covereting approaches need to be modified with each stage. Avoiding a decline is the primaeval to long-term survival. Atlantic City, New Jersey is a great example of a travel destination that went through one life cycle (from a fashionable to a rather seedy seaboard resort) and then got a completely new let on life as an exciting turn destination. Morrison, 1989).\r\nWe see that through the efforts of the Tourism Planning Committee the island of Bermuda had the opportunity to revitalize and reposition itself to have its own ‘new lease on life. We learned that even out though a tourist destination whitethorn be considered to be mature, ideal, beautiful, and economically prosperous, there may and almost certainly will be the need to address declining and/or changing market position and then take wise and strategic steps to rejuvenate itself.\r\nWe also hopefully learned that tourism planning should be community-based, especially in a place such as Bermuda where the populat ion is considered to be a major part of the tourism product. Mark Twain once wrote of Bermuda â€Å"the deep quietude and motionless of the country sink into one’s dead body and bones and give the conscience a rest…” For anyone going to Bermuda, we wish you all the best in your activities and in your personal encounter with the deep peace and quiet of the island.\r\n'