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Planning and engineering analysis

19 January, 2016 - 17:57

The objective of this analysis is to study existing conditions in a number of potential sites and to collect, for these sites, information on factors and regulations that impact the development of these sites for tourism purposes. Areas covered include quality of infrastructure; prevailing government practices and regulations; and environmental and ecological conditions for each potential area.

Infrastructure

Information on the infrastructure covers such items as when it was originally installed, the reserve capacity of the system, programmed improvements for increasing the capacity of the system, or the programmed extension of the system to serve additional areas.

Communications and transportation. Visitors must be able to get to and from the destination. Even the enormously successful Disney World required an investment of USD 5 million by the state of Florida for access highways. As the nation's interstate highway system developed, many smaller communities that attracted tourists en route elsewhere lost that business. Some communities did not recover while others were able to develop attractions to lure people off the interstate. Asbury Park, New Jersey, was bypassed in the 1950s by the Garden State Parkway. The parkway allowed visitors quick access to better beaches farther south. The town of Asbury Park developed a new attraction (Grand Prix racing) as a way of getting people to visit. The same situation was faced by towns in Georgia that, for years, had captured visitors on their way to Florida. Interstate 95 bypassed them. Local people worked with state and federal authorities to develop codes for limited advertising along Interstate 95. Today, directional signs identifying travel service facilities, areas of scenic beauty, and public attractions are permitted. As a result, many travelers continue to stop there en route to Florida.

The principal areas for which information would be evaluated would include:

  • Roads: existing roads providing access to a given area or service within an area; number and width of lanes; paved or unpaved; planned extensions, widening or other improvements; extent and quality of parking; adequacy of signs.
  • Airports: location and quality of existing airstrips and airfields; type of runway, lighted or not; accessibility of terminal to tourist areas.
  • Ports and marinas: location, size, number of slips or berths; depth of channel; extent of marina facilities; accessibility to tourist areas.
  • Telephone, telegraph, and postal service: availability and adequacy of telephone, telegraph and postal service; planned improvements or extension of service.

The interdependence of these facilities should be considered. For example, if an expansion is considered at the airport, there will also be increased ground traffic. How will this be handled? Will ground transportation and/or road capacity be increased? What will this do to street traffic?

When looking at transportation in and out of the region it is necessary to examine the time-zone preferences of the visitors. People generally prefer departure times convenient to their everyday schedules. In flying from the United States to Europe, it is common to leave in the evening and arrive early in the morning. On the other hand, it is not unusual for British visitors to many European resorts to have to check out of their hotel by midday and find something to do until their plane leaves early the next morning to return to Britain.

A major problem often is that, by improving the access to a destination, demand increases and the area loses its attractiveness to visitors. Destinations may be forced to limit or ban traffic from certain areas, even set speed limits or institute one-way scenic loops to keep traffic flowing.

Parking is another major problem related to congestion. Increased road traffic tends to force the elimination of parking places. On-street parking can be increased through such things as instituting one-way traffic or changing from parallel to angle parking. Parking can be handled in several ways.  1 It may be provided privately by the attraction, as in the case of major attractions where the cost is often included in the price of admission. For new businesses locating in low-density areas the community may require that attractions and facilities (through zoning and provision of business licenses) provide off-street parking on some ratio of spaces per room, per seat, or per square meter. Private lots may be set up by entrepreneurs. Visitors pay but local businesses often will stamp the customer's ticket if a purchase is made. The cost to the business is passed on to customers in higher prices. However, a problem occurs when the owner of the parking lot wants to turn the land into a more profitable use. This type of conversion can be deferred by placing low property assessments on land used for parking. Another way to handle parking is to provide public lots. The expense may be picked up by the community, or motorists may pay through parking fees or meters.

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Figure 8.5 Transportation can take many forms. 
(Courtesy Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation.) 

Urban services. An inventory must be taken to ensure the adequacy of such support services as water, electricity, sewage collection and disposal, and the provision of police and fire protection.

Land availability

Development of tourist attractions and facilities obviously requires the availability of land. However, the question goes beyond the physical availability and into such areas as:

  • Who owns the land?
  • Are the owners willing to sell or allow development?
  • Can foreigners own and develop land?
  • How much does the land costs?

The situation can be illustrated by the ski industry in the United States. Approximately half of all privately operated ski areas are on federal land. To expand these areas further or to develop new areas requires the permission of the federal government.

Environmental and ecological aspects

Any major development will require some form of environmental impact statement. Oftentimes the success of a particular tourist area depends upon the quality of the physical environment. This may include such factors as sunshine, temperature, isolation, surf, snow, beaches, water, natural drainage or vegetation. The impact of development on the natural features of the environment must be considered as they relate to the planned use for each site.

Safari development in Africa has increased the close shadowing of lions by tourists. As a result, many kills are missed by the lions and lion cubs starve to death.

At this early stage of analysis it is appropriate to evaluate, in a preliminary fashion, the alternate sites. The dominant characteristics of each would be arranged, evaluated and graded on a matrix in order to allow an evaluation of their relative merits and limitations using the criteria noted above.