Public Policies and Tourism – First Reflections

This is my welcome article to this new space of communication, where I hope to create many connections.

I have been in tourism for 27 years and of these 27, 27 have been working directly or indirectly with the public sector, whether at municipal, regional, state or federal level.

And, of course, with a lot of learning about what tourism is from the perspective of public policies and planning at all levels.

Organizing a tourist destination is a challenge. It only happens through planning, and this planning requires a broad vision that includes actions from the private sector – we cannot lose sight of the fact that tourism is a business and business is inherent to the private sector – but also actions from the public authorities.

These actions, which are the responsibility of the public authorities, are the so-called public tourism policies.

No tourist destination that does not have well-defined public tourism policies will be able to evolve as an organized destination. Many, in a disorganized and unplanned manner, grow, but this growth, unfortunately, is not sustainable. And, without planning and well-defined public policies, they succumb to mass tourism or have their image tarnished.

Such public policies, in turn, need to reflect not only the characteristics of this location, but the needs and demands of the tourism trade, the community and the tourist himself, who is also an actor within the segment's activities.

And for them to effectively bring this characteristic, it is essential that they are worked on in a participatory manner, always taking as a premise the concept of politics, linked to the management of the city/state.

The participation of the community, trade, third sector (without forgetting to listen to tourists) is therefore a determining factor for the success of a destination, i.e., the structuring of a participatory public policy is essential.

And this public policy must be reflected - and provided for - in the Municipal Organic Law, in the Municipal Master Plan, it must guide and compose the municipality's Tourist Development Plan and effectively become a public policy in the form of law, duly approved and regulated.

The process is not simple. It is systemic and structural and must be thought out strategically, methodologically, and, above all, by people qualified to develop these documents. Here, I call for (or demand) the responsibility of the presence of tourism professionals, of course, in public management. No one is better than a professional who has training in the area of ​​tourism to develop this work.

A public policy structured in a participatory manner, in the form of a law, organized, managed and implemented by a qualified team: this is the most basic principle for the development of a sustainable tourist destination.

Thus, this initial reflection already intends to plant this seed: the development of tourist destinations has an intrinsic relationship with the existence of well-structured public policies in the sector.