Strategie rozwoju turystyki

Abstract

The notion strategy in the context of company management became popular only in the 1980s of the 20th century. With time it was used by economies (national, regional and local). Currently, one may speak of the two main types of strategies: the strategies of company development (including tour companies) and territorial strategies created for particular regions (most often for units of administration division). The fact of joining the European Union by Poland had a significant influence on the range and the way of preparing the development strategy of territorial units. However, the Union does not possess a specific budget which would support direct activities in tourism. The most important sources of financing tourism are structural funds: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF), European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF). The National Development Plan (Narodowy Plan Rozwoju) (NPR) constitutes the basis for negotiating conditions of the aid – the main document containing the analysis of the socio-economic situation of the country and defining priority tasks for the regional development. Nowadays Poland has such a plan (NPR) for 2004–2006. Till the end of 2005 the National Development Plan (NPR) for 2007–2013 is to be passed. Tourism in the National Development Plan (NPR) is mentioned merely in the context of regional and horizontal policy. As an interdisciplinary branch, tourism is to support the dynamic development of other branches of economy. An individual sector strategy of tourism does not exist in NPR. Yet, works over the elaboration of the Strategy of Tourism Development for 2007–2013 have been in progress. Five priority areas have been distinguished in the strategy. These are: tourist product, human resources, marketing, tourist space, support of institutions and tourist organizations. Undertaking activities in these areas is to lead to mission accomplishment: making Poland an attractive tourist destination, and using tourism as a tool of development in regions and in the whole country. In strategies of socio-economic development elaborated regionally, tourism is very often perceived as a strategic field. As many as 11 Poland’s provinces considered it to be one of the main elements of their socio-economic development. However, only few regions can boast their own sector tourism strategy (among others Pomeranian province). A study of conditioning and directions of land development of the commune, based on the strategy of its development, is an essence of formulating spatial policy at the lowest level. These documents should be coherent, and at the same time take into consideration principles of development policy charted in regional and national documents. Not all communes in Poland have the basic strategy of development, and strategies of tourism development are charted only sporadically. The construction of the development strategy is reduced to the reply to three basic questions: – What is the stage of the development of the region and what way of development is it likely to choose? – Where should the region get to in time determined by the strategy (e.g. in 10 years’ time)? – How to achieve the required stage? Theoretical elaborations suggest various stages of strategy formulation. Its most significant elements should: – formulate the vision/mission of the development, or determine the overriding aim, – formulate the prospective diagnosis – examine internal (potential) and external conditioning of the development of tourism in the given region, – carry out strategic analysis of opportunities of tourism development (SWOT), – create variant programmes, – determine directions and hierarchic aims, – prepare agendas. The essence and the main aim of each tourism strategy is to formulate a complex conception of creating and developing tourist product of the given region. It should indicate on 2–3 tourist products which are to become the brand marks of this region. The most significant advantages of such a solution are the following: – synergy effect – combination of strengths and means enables to use the existing tourist potential better, among others due to more efficient management of limited resources, improvement or increase in the range of promotional activity with the same global expenditure, – creating an expressive coherent picture – making brand products of the region favours the construction of its identity and a positive brand image: and this, in turn, is of vital significance for tourists to identify and easily differentiate it from competitive products. Each region (a county, a commune or even a town) has its own “wealth”, specific resources to be developed. Yet, tourist potential is not a tourist product. This is only a certain wealth that can be used by the commune to promote the development of tourism on its area (therefore, it is extremely important to recognize and to inventory the “wealth” of the area). Tourist potential can be used in many ways – different products can be constructed from the same elements in various arrangements and combinations, choosing only some of them which match the stated conception. The area as a tourist product is then, a conglomerate of various, sometimes very different elements. They may be considered at several levels. These are: – heritage – resources of the area genetically unrelated to the development of tourism (nature, culture, history, economy, etc.), – infrastructure – resources of the area related to the development of tourism, making tourist offers more attractive (accommodation, catering, para-tourism), – added value – symbolic attributes of the area bringing about tourists’ specific psychological satisfaction, among others the image of the area, its stereotypes, a conception/main idea of the product, elements of the identification programme (name, logo, commercial cliché, sound, range and context of promotional activities, etc.), identity of the brand or special values, features which should be permanently associated with the region, – organization and management – all structures and activities enabling the listed elements to function as a tourist product. The main, brand product of the region may be based only one object or event. However, it is the most favourable when the main attraction of the area is “built around” by a number of various “little bricks” – individual products created by various tourist subjects functioning on the premises of the commune. These can be both simple material (things) and immaterial products (services), and more compound products, organizationally and spatially integrated (a building, an event, a route). All partial products must be well fitting the accepted idea, philosophy of the product of the whole region, complete mutually and enrich one another. A successful development of Poland’s communes in the 21st century re-quires undertaking energetic activities resulting in elaboration and imple-mentation of complex strategies of tourism development. This is an essential condition because: – lack of strategy prevents from getting the financial support from structural funds of European Union, – strategy strengthens the position of tourism in the economy of the region, and due to lying out far-reaching aims and directions of activities extorts a consequent and long-term tourism policy, – creating a brand tourist product significantly raises the competitiveness of the given region on the market.