TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES

MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT

April 27, 2019

The Tourism guidebook for Local Government Unit is a convergence work

of different national government agencies and donor programs aimed to
create a tool for LGUs to come up with solutions in responding to the
challenges and opportunities of tourism. The guidebook is meant to enhance
the capability of LGUs to “monitor, administer tourism activities, and enforce
tourism laws, rules and regulations in their respective jurisdiction” (DOT,
DILG, DENR, DAP, 2017).
The guidebook provides simplified (tourism) concepts, methods, step-
by-step processes and worksheets that will help the LGUs in formulating their
local tourism development plans (TDP). It also includes examples and
supplemental readings on various tourism concepts and tourism planning.
The planning steps suggested in the guidebook include, site evaluation,
problem identification and problem analysis, goals and objectives setting,
scenario building, strategy formulation, action formulation and monitoring and
evaluation strategy. The guidebook simply defines destinations either as a
province, or as a city/municipality. LGUs are after all divided or grouped by
political or administrative divisions such as barangays, cities or municipalities,
congressional districts or regions (The Local Government Code of the
Philippines (Republic Act No. 7160)). But it also considered that it is more
beneficial to plan, promote and market a whole province as a destination
rather than as an individual city or municipality.

Is the tourism guidebook a strategic approach?

The tourism guidebook is a planning guide for LGUs, but it is not a
strategic planning process. Strategy is a position that encourages
organizations to look into their competitive environments. It is also a plan
and it deals with how leaders try to establish direction for the organization
TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES
MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT
April 27, 2019

(Mintzberg, 1987). However, the tourism guidebook did not suggest any tool
that allows the LGU to look into and analyze their competitive environment.
As to the formulation of a strategy, the guidebook suggested a few types
of tourism strategies, the identification of tourism circuits and SWOT analysis
tool as a guide in creating the strategy.
Porter (1996), who introduced three key principles in strategic
positioning, discussed that an organization should have a competitive strategy
by deciding what unique activities they want to offer to a specific type of
market, what are the things that they are not willing to do, and how to fit or
align the organization’s activities to their strategies to reinforce these
strategies. To be able to come up with a competitive strategy, planners should
be able perform activities differently from their rivals. This suggest that the
planning process should involve a study of the competitors, and in the context
of tourism industry, this would mean destinations with similar attractions or
activities. Tourism planners may compare their destination with similar
destinations and come up with activities that are unique or different from their
competitors. Moreover, strategic positioning suggests that the planning
process should involve a study of the market. Market analysis would serve as
basis of planners to determine what particular needs of tourists that they want
to address or what type of tourists that they want to cater to.
Porter (2008), also suggested that there are five competitive forces that
needs to be studied so that an organization can work around or reshape the
forces in their favor. These five forces are the established rivals, customers,
suppliers, new entrants, and substitute. In the context of tourism, established
rivals are the similar destinations that the LGU would like to consider as their
direct competition, the customers are the tourists or tourism consumers, the
suppliers are the industries and establishments directly connected in the
tourism value chain of the destination, new entrants could be the new or
TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES
MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT
April 27, 2019

potential destinations, while substitute could be the alternative destinations

or activities.

The tourism guidebook did not suggest any tool that allows the LGU to
look into and analyze their competitive environment. It neither suggested any
tool to study the competitors or the similar destinations of the LGUs nor to
conduct a market analysis. Suppliers are assessed in the site evaluation tool
but it may be too general as it only looked into the ‘Availability of onsite
facilities’, and ‘quality of surroundings’, but these may not be enough to
evaluate the other five competitive forces surrounding the destination.
Therefore, the tourism guidebook is not a strategic planning process. The
guidebook may be an effective planning guide for LGUs, but to make it more
comprehensive, there should be prior steps to be conducted such as a more
extensive tourism assessment that would include the competitive environment
of the destination, and another step such as a strategic planning.

Do the tourism guidebook identified strategies address the geographic, mode

of production, or dynamic dimension of a destination?
The geographic dimension of destination is expressed in terms of space
and place (Pearce, 2014). This relates to guidebook’s suggestions of the use
of cluster strategy and creation of tour circuits. According to the guidebook,
clustering increases the economic viability of attractions, and offers the
tourists value-for-money destinations. Thus, compatible attractions can be
clustered to become more strategic. The destination as a Mode of Production,
expressed destinations on how they function. Characterized by structural
relationships in terms of interdependence of tourism establishments offering
complementary products and services within the destination, the behavior of
firms within the destination that could be cooperative, characterized by
TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES
MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT
April 27, 2019

complementarity, trust and economies of scales. That means, the

complementary nature of products encourages firms to cooperate as they
recognize the benefits of working together to deliver a complete and satisfying
experience to visitors (Pearce, 2014). This relate to the guidebook’s
suggested use of the hybrid strategy where providing of high quality products
at low prices can be achieved if there is economies of scale, where “the
average costs fall in line with the growth in output” (Tribe, 2005).

Is the guidebook useful and user-friendly? Is it something that LGUs can use
on their own without the assistance from outside experts?
The guidebook was designed to be used by local tourism officers and
local development officers for localities that has potential for tourism
development and has a thriving tourism industry. It was launched by the
involved national agencies alongside a rolling-out activity where resource
persons from each agencies oriented the LGU beneficiaries on the salient
points of the guidebook (Development Academy of the Philippines, 2015).
Aside from the 53-page guide in formatting the local tourism development
plan, it comes with supplemental readings that may be used to help the LGU
better understand the different tourism concepts and tourism planning
process.
The development of a local tourism development plan is pursued
by the government especially the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Pursuant to
Republic Act No. 7160, otherwise known as The Local Government Code
of 1991, LGUs are mandated to prepare, adopt, implement and monitor
their local tourism development plans (The Local Government Code of
the Philippines (Republic Act No. 7160)). This is further enforced by the
TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES
MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT
April 27, 2019

Republic Act No. 9593 otherwise Tourism Act of 2009, mandating LGUs
to submit their local tourism development plans to DOT for review and
approval as to consistency with the national policies and development
plans. DILG implements an incentive programs to further encourage
LGUs to create their TDPs. The Seal of Good Local Governance or SGLG
challenges LGUs to push good governance practices while providing
better public services. It requires LGUs to pass seven governance areas
namely financial administration, disaster preparedness, social
protection, peace and order, business friendliness and competitiveness,
environment protection and tourism culture and the arts. Under the
tourism culture and arts areas, LGUs are scored whether they have a
tourism officer, a tourism council, tourism centers, tourist arrivals data
gathering system and a local tourism plan among other
(www.dilg.gov.ph, 2019). This much coveted SGLG pushes LGUs to
complete the necessary requirements of a tourism office under the
tourism and culture and arts area, so as to have a better standing.
Therefore, LGUs should find the tourism guidebook useful, for them to
be able to create their TDPs.
The guidebook is also designed with easy to follow worksheets to aid
even non-technical writers and non-academics. Tourism concepts and
planning concepts are simplified. The examples used are relatable since they
are based on actual experiences of LGUs in the Philippines who participated in
focus group discussions and pilot testing activities. Moreover, the guidebook
ensures that the TDP is aligned with other local plans such as the Provincial
Development and Physical Framework Plan (PDPFP), Comprehensive Land Use
Plan (CLUP), Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) and the National
Tourism Development Plan (NTDP). Therefore, the guidebook is not only user-
friendly, it is also relevant and applicable to local settings. To cite as an
TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES
MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT
April 27, 2019

example, the Department of Tourism Region 1 Office reported that the

Province of La Union has mandated their LGUs to prepare their TDPs, and
about 90% of the LGUs have already completed their TDPs following only the
tourism guidebook, without the help of technical writers or consultants. The
town of Bani in the Province of Pangasinan has also successfully finalized and
adopted their TDP using only the tourism guidebook (PTCAO, 2019).

What suggestions would you have to improve the guidebook?

To make the guidebook become a more strategic approach, it should

include a more comprehensive profiling of the local tourism environment that
would include the competitive environment of the destination. The competitive
environment of a destination may include the evaluation of the five forces
mentioned by Porter (2008), but relating it in the context of tourism, namely,
the direct competition, customers or tourists, suppliers, new entrants, and
substitute.
TOUR 281 : TOURISM STRATEGIES
MONIKA ALIGUAS N. LABAUPA – GDip. Tourism Development & Management, UP AIT
April 27, 2019

References
(2019). Retrieved from www.dilg.gov.ph:
<https://www.dilg.gov.ph/news/DILG-banners-upscaled-criteria-for-
Seal-of-Good-Local-Governance-this-year/NC-2019-1101>
Andrada, W. (2015). Tourism Guidebook for Local Government Units
Introduction. Retrieved April 24, 2019, from
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0of%20Local%20Governments/kex2015-8-
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Development Academy of the Philippines. (2015, August 19). Retrieved from
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lgus-finally-rolls-out/
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Porter, M. E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy.
Harvard Business Review .
The Local Government Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 7160).
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