The policies and measures related to tourism within the content of Development Plans constitute a summary of our expectations from tourism.
The ultimate goal is to contribute to economic and social development. Just like the nature of tourism, economic and social development encompasses almost all aspects of life. Therefore, we can assume from the outset that our perspective on tourism should be broad. Is this really the case? The answer to this question is expected to be provided by the Twelfth Development Plan, as it is the latest national policy document. Let's therefore examine the relationship between the Development Plan and Tourism.
In the Twelfth Development Plan, the general framework for tourism is built on six pillars: Sustainability, Digital Transformation, Education, Destination Management Organizations, Data Analysis, and Promotion. Other issues can also be grouped under these headings. The plan's targets for the year 2028 are $100 billion in tourism revenue and 82.3 million visitors. Is this possible? Under normal circumstances, certainly. If the target policies in the mentioned pillars and related issues are realized, the country's potential will be evaluated. A critical transformation will be achieved, leading to becoming a true "Tourism country" and making progress toward exceeding the goals. In this regard, the Twelfth Development Plan is promising.
The beginning of every endeavor is "management," and the focus I want to highlight in this article is "Destination Management Organizations." In fact, tourism that you cannot manage is not your tourism but someone else's. Being passive and unable to be effective is a significant challenge in this industry, as implied by the goals of the Plan. Therefore, central and local organization and management of tourism are crucial. Tourism is a challenging field to manage. The key to success is the application of "good governance" that employs "power collaboration" and "collective action." Understanding and managing tourism well in all its aspects, throughout the country, will guarantee the transformation and the achievement and even surpassing of the goals mentioned in the Plan.
The Twelfth Development Plan holds the distinction of being the first plan after the Covid-19 pandemic. Many issues that the pandemic brought to light and its impacts are undergoing transformation. The pandemic has refocused our attention on the importance of individual and public health. It is crucial to emphasize the word "again" here. This also implies the re-emergence of many forgotten concepts whose value is now recognized again. Thus, we have come to understand the importance of gathering, acting together, and solidarity. We are trying to delve deeper into concepts related to our social life, such as regrowth, re-development, re-branding, and image. We are thinking more about health and well-being. Within all these concepts, tourism is also undergoing a process of change, redefinition, and understanding. Therefore, it is expected that the Twelfth Development Plan will address and consider these concepts. In this period we are going through, "governance" takes precedence, and the concept of "good governance" is emphasized. Especially concerning local governments, collective action that meets the needs of the community and improves the quality of life has become a priority. Additionally, all these strategies and policies should be based on an ecological approach, thus ensuring environmental, social, and economic sustainability. How will we achieve this? Here, collective action for comprehensive development and organizations that will enable this take precedence: According to the tourism literature, the function of "Destination Management" is; "Collective Brand Management"...
Tourism takes a central place among the most important issues to stand out in competition, develop, and brand. This development seems to have caught the attention of our local governments, but there is no clear roadmap on what to do. This attention should be well-founded, and tourism should be seen as a compulsory public service and its management should be taken seriously. Actually, local governments that manage their regions well also manage tourism well. The extensive scope of tourism allows this, but still, being successful in issues perceived as related to tourism, such as place branding and development, requires good organizational management and institutionalization. This issue is often mentioned in our country but is in a situation where a decision on what to do has not been made. How will we achieve a tourism management, or referring to the Plan, "Destination Management," suitable for our geography, culture, administrative, and political structure? As someone who has researched the systems of many countries on this matter, the first thing I will say is the need to develop a management system suitable for our identity when starting this sentence. In other words, we will establish our system; we will not import it. The principles will be universal, but the system and its implementation must be specific to us.
At this point, I believe it is necessary to benefit from the experience of the Local Government Associations, which I have previously presented to you. Our institutional experience of about 60 years, especially the accumulation formed in this field with the Local Government Associations Law accepted in 2005, indicates that there is a need to activate democratic local government organizations that comply with the requirements of the age by evaluating the legal, technical, personnel, and organizational deficiencies or renewal needs of the Law. Also, the renewal of the law by evaluating the need for compulsory public services, including projects related to the protection of the environment and ecological balance, with an understanding change that considers tourism-related services will provide strength to the structural transformation needed by our tourism sector. (The law lists projects related to compulsory services such as water, wastewater, solid waste, etc., and the protection of the environment and ecological balance as compulsory services.)
In this context, the successes of the Tourism Infrastructure Service Unions established in the past and still functioning can be recorded, and their failures can be evaluated to bring them to the organizational and service structure needed today. This change will contribute to the change of understanding towards tourism throughout the country and its access to everyone, in line with the principles of public service and governance.
With the hope that the Twelfth Development Plan will achieve its goals, I wish it to be auspicious for our country.
