Advanced Planning of Tourism Destinations

BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION
This subject is based on the knowledge acquired in “Tourism Planning and Development” and aims to study in further depth those aspects that influence the design of tools for planning and management of tourist destinations. This subject will help consolidate theoretical concepts related to sustainable development, acquired through a critical review and analysis of several case studies, and address current issues. Therefore, students will become familiar with elements that directly affect the current tourism context (such as climate change, globalization, cultural banalization and identity loss, equitable distribution of wealth, or empowerment through decision-making, among others) and will be able to understand how to create and manage sustainable and competitive tourism experiences in the tourism sector. To summarize, the course will deal with the phenomena that shape the job of tourism managers and technicians, and issues directly related to the competitiveness of tourism companies and the sector’s key players.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To know different tourism planning strategies that contemplates a sustainable implementation vision, as well as development principles, rules and procedures.
2. Being able to relate different agents involved in touristic destinations and analyse interconnections between them and other external agents.
3. Understand political-administrative structures that develop touristic activity and to know how to display different tourism management and politics strategies that public institutions work up with, as well as become acquainted of the impacts that it may produce.
 

ACADEMIC CONTENTS
1. Introduction to advanced tourism planning
1.1. Review of planning phases
1.2. Review of planning tools and instruments
1.3. Tourism strategic planning
2. Tourism trend analysis for planning
2.1. Legal and political trends
2.2. Environmental trends
2.3. Social and economic trends
3. Tourism destinations analysis
3.1. The coastal tourism areas
3.2. The development of rural areas
3.3. Conservation of mountain and natural protected areas
3.4. Concentration of urban places and historical cities
4. Tourism planning development
4.1. From theory to practice
4.2. Diagnosis and Territorial inventory
4.3. Formulation process
4.4. The final document and presentation

LEARNING METHODOLOGY
The learning methodologies planned for the subject contemplate different activities that contribute to develop the skills related to this course. Some of the learning activities that will be developed are the following:
• Lectures • Case studies
• Discussions
• Practical exercises
• Problem-based learning

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
The assessment system measures the student’s achievement of learning outcomes regarding the subject’s competences and contents. Students may choose continuous assessment or single assessment:
Continuous Assessment:
the teaching-learning process is assessed by a continuous monitoring of the work done by the students throughout the course and a final individual examination. Students must attend classes in order to be assessed by continuous assessment.
Single Assessment: for those students who cannot come to class regularly, they can choose to be assessed by single assessment. The teaching-learning process is assessed by means of the assessment of all activities and in-person individual examination at the end of the course.

To qualify for this form of assessment, students must apply within the first 15 days of the start of the course through the assessment section of Virtual Campus.

Revision and Reassessment of the Course
The student has the right to revise all the evidences that have been designed for the assessment of learning.
If a student fails to achieve the learning objectives of the course, in order to opt for the reassessment of the course and submit a new reassessment task, it will be mandatory to fulfil one of these conditions:
A) Students must have been awarded a mean grade of 5.0 or higher in relation to the activities carried out throughout the semester without taking into account the final exam/s (both continuous assessment and single assessment) and having attended the final exam.
B) Students must have been awarded a final minimum grade of 4.0 in the overall course. After the reassessment, the maximum grade is 5.0 in the overall course.