Discussion Papers Overview

The critical article discusses the tourism issues of two discussion papers which are “The Economic Valuation of Climate Change Policies in Tourism: Impact of Joint Valuation, Emotions, and Information” (Discussion paper 1) and “Beyond whiteness: a comparative analysis of representations of Aboriginality in tourism destination images in New South Wales, Australia” (Discussion paper 2).The structure of the two chosen plans are examined in this article whether they are based on the policy planning cycle or not, the key points and the content of the articles are studied and the advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The latter part of the article reflects the evaluation and implementation of the policy planning cycle and discusses how it will improve the knowledge and skills of a tourism management student.

The first discussion paper is written by Carmelo J. León1 and Jorge E. Araña (2014). The key issues covered in this paper include carbon-neutral policy, climate change, tourist policy evaluation, joint evaluation, human behavior, public programs knowledge, and the willingness to pay (León and Araña 2016). The economic estimation of visitors of a “carbon neutral” destination policy in the shores of the Canary Islands, taking into considerations the impact of knowledge and emotions have been well studied in this article. The article is based on the survey of the guests of 25 hotels answering positively to the questionnaire.

The second discussion paper is written by Beverley Seiver & Amie Matthews (2016). The key issues covered in this paper include Indigenous tourism, destination image, tourist gaze, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism, whiteness and others. The level of Aboriginal peoples’ entry and input in the four new local NSW tourism destination pictures has been portrayed in this article. Taking the destination image for Lake Macquarie, with second highest aboriginal inhabited place in NSW, the article shows how the aboriginal culture has helped in promoting the tourism projects (Seiver and Matthews 2016).

The term ‘policy planning cycle’ is a set of means to analyse the formulation of public policies ( Edgell Sr 2016). The policy formulations are divided by the policy cycle in a series of stages. The policy makers relocate from one stage to another in an arranged manner (Dredge, D., 2015). A standard policy cycle includes Agenda setting (problem identification and prioritization), policy formulations (recognizing alternative solutions), decision making (selection of the favorable solution), policy implementation (identification of plans to execute the solution) and policy evaluation (the result of the policy implementation) (Vila, Darcy and González 2015).

When evaluating Discussion paper 1 against the general policy planning cycle there are a number of similarities and also a number of gaps too. The Agenda setting is clear in the article. Climate change is significant and its impacts pose threatening concerns for the tourist destinations because tourist industries entirely depend on the superiority of natural assets such as landscapes, beaches, climate, water and many others (León and Araña 2016). The process of policy formulation is also depicted clearly with other alternative policy programs. Decisions making part is done by the survey conducted on the tourists who have shown preference for the carbon- neutral policy. The policy implementation process part is a little vague and not that much clearly stated. The policy evaluation is elaborated with excellency.

Policy Planning Cycle Evaluation

While evaluating Discussion paper 2 against the general policy planning there are again some matches and some gaps evident. The Agenda setting is visible properly. Indigenous tourism is considered by the Australian people to be a component of countless value of the national tourism outline. The aboriginal culture makes Australia unique from other places (Seiver and Matthews 2016). The policy formulation part is quite missing but the other stages are addressed properly. The implementation of policy part is done with accuracy. The tourism marketing policy implemented with the elaboration of the aboriginal culture might bring prosperity in the tourism industry and help the aboriginal culture gain an elevated and highlighted position (Mowforth and Munt 2015).

The first discussion paper focuses primarily on the valuation of carbon-neutral tourism policies. The issue discussed in the article affects its shareholders the most such as the government, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and other agencies (Hua, Oliphant and Hu 2016). The stakeholders can be affected by the climate change in various ways (León and Araña 2016). The level of evaporation brought on by the rising temperature will subsequently cause a strong but unequal rainfall. It will consequently bring storms on beaches, damage in coastal areas, river bases and flood also as reported by the Water Research Foundation. It will reduce the snowfall and the ski season will be deprived from gaining profit (León and Araña 2016). The tourism industry is considered to be the greatest contributor in the emission of greenhouse gas (Lloyd et al. 2015). The consequence of the emission is global warming which is rising the temperature of the earth. Therefore, it can be seen that the entire process is cyclical (Ruhanen, Whitford and McLennan 2015). The stakeholders are getting victimized by the threat created by themselves. This particular article will help them understand the grassroots of the problem of climate change (Mason 2015).

The second discussion paper deals with the destination images of four local tourism destinations in New South Wales (NSW) Australia. Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia (ATBC) is the major stakeholder of aboriginal cultural tourism policies (Mahadevan 2018). The Australian government is also associated with them (Seiver and Matthews 2016). Tourism is a positive economic aspect and also a scope for cultural development. It has been found that Indigenous tourism leaves effect on the perception of individuals towards themselves (Seiver and Matthews 2016). The indigenous cultural products used as marketing tools for the promotion and development of tourist areas stake the authenticity of the culture a lot. These conducts may challenge the indigenous identity and affect a particular community (Higham et al. 2016). The loss in the aboriginal culture will subsequently push the stakeholders in danger because the entire tourism policy is based on the indigenous culture. The article is readable for the stakeholders to know more about aboriginal cultural policies and how can they be preserved for future.

Overall the discussion paper 1 is better written than discussion paper 2 because it follows the policy planning cycle stages given in the Dredge and Jenkins (2012) more explicitly than the second one. All the stages are discussed well including Agenda setting, Policy formulation and evaluation. The article also investigates the impact of emotions and information to better understand the policy process. The paper is structured in this manner: after the general introduction of the topic and the issues related to this the article further presents a brief literature review covering topics interrelated to this issue. After that it portrays the data collection method and the other field works and surveys. The next section presents a simple model of the tourists’ decision making process and economic evaluation of the policy .The second last section talks about the results and the last section concludes with a summary of the main implications (León and Araña 2016).

Valuation of Carbon-neutral Tourism Policies

The selected discussion paper 2 is also much informative and follows the policy planning cycle stages given in the Dredge and Jenkins (2012) but to a lesser extent. The article discusses that Indigenous cultural tourism policies contribute significantly in uplifting the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community and improves their lifestyles and socio-economic positions. The paper presents the findings through a comparative study of the various destination images of the local tourism destinations in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The Lake Macquarie in NSW, a Local Government Area (LGA) has a large number aboriginal communities and a remarkable tourism industry. The paper particularly explore the level of promotion the aboriginal people, their culture, language, stories, appearance contribute in. The article then demonstrates the tourism profile of Lake Macquarie, their aboriginal tourism products helping in the marketing of tourism industry and attracting more people to invest in such policies (Seiver and Matthews 2016). There is also a comparative description of media applied to encourage tourism in the Blue Mountains, Brewarrina and Shoalhaven which also uncovered the destination images positively fused with the aboriginal culture and history. The article lacks any pictures, diagrams or graphs to support the statements. The structure is comparatively unclear and more focused on the benefits of the policy itself, not giving in-depth description of the decision making, policy formulation, evaluation and implementation.

Reflection

In the concluding lines it can be said that the article compares and criticizes two chosen discussion papers related to the tourism policies and their implementation in the tourism industry. The article uses the policy planning cycle as a base to compare and contrast the two articles on certain strictures. I realized that policy planning cycle gives a good shape for writing Discussion papers. The chosen discussion paper 2 did not adhere to this structure properly and this created difficulty in reading and understanding the contents though almost all the stages were mentioned on a whole. Both of the articles have their own strengths and weaknesses, their own policy advantages and disadvantages. Both of the papers have presented proper solutions to the agenda. However, there was a lack of integrity in the second paper. The study of policy planning cycle has enabled me to get a better insight into tourism planning ambience and developed my skills to write my own discussion paper.

References

Dredge, D. and Jenkins, J., 2012. Australian national tourism policy: Influences of reflexive and political modernisation. Tourism Planning & Development, 9(3), pp.231-251.

Dredge, D., 2015. Short-term versus long-term approaches to the development of tourism-related policies. Haxton, P.(2015),“A Review of Effective Policies for Tourism Growth”, OECD Tourism Papers, 1.

Edgell Sr, D.L., 2016. Managing sustainable tourism: A legacy for the future. Routledge.

Higham, J., Cohen, S.A., Cavaliere, C.T., Reis, A. and Finkler, W., 2016. Climate change, tourist air travel and radical emissions reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production, 111, pp.336-347.

Hua, Y., Oliphant, M. and Hu, E.J., 2016. Development of renewable energy in Australia and China: A comparison of policies and status. Renewable Energy, 85, pp.1044-1051.

León, C.J. and Araña, J.E., 2016. The economic valuation of climate change policies in tourism: impact of joint valuation, emotions, and information. Journal of Travel Research, 55(3), pp.283-298.

Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Tofa, M., Rowland, C., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr, M., Ganambarr, B. and Maymuru, D., 2015. Transforming Tourists and” Culturalising Commerce”: Indigenous Tourism at Bawaka in Northern Australia. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 6(4), p.6.

Mahadevan, R., 2018. Examining domestic and international visits in Australia’s Aboriginal tourism. Tourism Economics, 24(1), pp.127-134.

Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.

Mowforth, M. and Munt, I., 2015. Tourism and sustainability: Development, globalisation and new tourism in the third world. Routledge.

Ruhanen, L., Whitford, M. and McLennan, C.L., 2015. Indigenous tourism in Australia: Time for a reality check. Tourism Management, 48, pp.73-83.

Seiver, B. and Matthews, A., 2016. Beyond whiteness: a comparative analysis of representations of Aboriginality in tourism destination images in New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 24(8-9), pp.1298-1314.

Vila, T.D., Darcy, S. and González, E.A., 2015. Competing for the disability tourism market–a comparative exploration of the factors of accessible tourism competitiveness in Spain and Australia. Tourism Management, 47, pp.261-272.