Progress in tourism planning and policy: A post-structural perspective on knowledge production

Abstract

h i g h l i g h t sProgress in tourism planning and policy is assessed using a post-structural approach. A thematic bibliographic analysis and a critical policy archaeology was used. We reveal the constitutive grid of forces that shape policy knowledge. Progress is shaped by problematization and social regularities. A paradox of policy problematization is uncovered. a b s t r a c tThis paper examines progress in tourism planning and policy knowledge and identifies gaps and future directions for research. The study employs a post-structuralist perspective presented in two analytical movements: a bibliographic study of tourism policy and planning publications in Scopus and Science Direct and thematic analysis, plus an archaeological excavation. This combined approach pays attention to the disruptions, silences and diversity of knowledge in tourism policy and planning. It highlights the way tourism planning and policy has been problematized and reveals the social regularities shaping the production of tourism planning and policy knowledge. Multi-disciplinary, mainstream subjects related to destination development and management dominate while critical analysis of economic and political structures, interests and values is lagging. The results point to an urgent need to progress tourism planning and policy towards greater visibility, legitimacy and importance in tourism studies through more critical engagement with tourism public policy and planning practice.

An Integrated Approach to “Sustainable Community-Based Tourism”

“…Her results indicate a knowledge-practice, gap, i.e., that the knowledge based on this topic in academia has not been diffused effectively to planners and managers. Dredge and Jamal [143] adopt a poststructuralist approach to their study of planning and policy studies in tourism. Their findings lead them to conclude that "mainstream subjects related to destination development and management dominate while critical analysis of economic and political structures, interests and values is lagging" and tourism planning and policy studies must progress "towards greater visibility, legitimacy and importance in tourism studies through more critical engagement with tourism public policy and planning practice".…”

“…Their argument for scaling up from the micro-local to the macro-global level bodes well for an integrated approach to SCBT, but the continued failure of tourism studies to tackle tendentious political and ideological issues related to tourism policy and planning is highly problematic and deserving of much closer scrutiny and efforts to engage in academic praxis in the face of a global neoliberalization of local-global environmental and social systems. Dredge and Jamal [143] reiterate this call for greater academic attention, especially in light of neoliberalist shifts from public administration to public management over the last few decades:…”

Assumptions for a Successful Implementation of the Concept of Sustainable Tourism Development: Example of Urban Destinations of the Republic of Croatia

“…Many authors argue that the underlying assumption for implementing sustainable tourism development is the adoption and implementation of strategic development documents (Page and Thorn, 1997;Weaver and Lawton, 1999;Manning and Dougherty, 2000;Liu, 2003;Choi and Sirakaya, 2006;Ruhanen, 2008;Wray, 2011;Gössling and Scott, 2012;Phillips and Moutinho, 2014;Dredge and Jamal, 2015). The operationalization of the sustainable tourism development concept depends on a defined plan within which sustainable development goals should be set to define the administrative structure and partners, determine the ac-Neki gradovi su prepoznali važnost planiranja razvoja turizma, poput grada Barcelone (Španjolska) koji je od 1990. do 2003. godine izradio i proveo četiri strategije razvoja turizma (d 'Angella, 2007).…”

Discontinuidades y limitaciones de los últimos planes turísticos de España en relación a la sostenibilidad ambiental del turismo de sol y playa

“…De esta manera se pretenden superar algunos de los vacíos todavía persistentes en la investigación sobre las políticas turísticas (Jenkins et al, 2014;Dredge y Jamal, 2015). En este ámbito han predominado tradicionalmente trabajos centrados en estudios de casos, líneas de tiempo, ejemplos de buenas prácticas (Jenkins et al, 2014) o guías de propuestas (Dredge y Jamal, 2015).…”

“…De esta manera se pretenden superar algunos de los vacíos todavía persistentes en la investigación sobre las políticas turísticas (Jenkins et al, 2014;Dredge y Jamal, 2015). En este ámbito han predominado tradicionalmente trabajos centrados en estudios de casos, líneas de tiempo, ejemplos de buenas prácticas (Jenkins et al, 2014) o guías de propuestas (Dredge y Jamal, 2015). Sin embargo, el Análisis de Políticas Públi-cas, como conjunto de herramientas de las ciencias sociales que permite estructurar la investigación sobre políticas que atañen a cuestiones complejas y transversales, como es el turismo, ha permitido incorporar nuevas preocupaciones y refinar los planteamientos de análisis.…”