1.

ANALYSIS OF THE TOURIST

POTENTIAL OF AN AREA
1.1. Land Use Planning and Tourist Organization

1. Land Use Planning

- Create favourable conditions for different activities.
- Development of tourism has a tremendous impact on the environment and in society
(culture, economy, social development ...)
- Applying a territorial policy to all of them is achieved with general interest objectives:

❖ Balanced and sustainable socio-economic development of regions and towns.

❖ Improving the quality of life of the population by providing access to the use of public infrastructure,
natural heritage and cultural heritage services.
❖ Responsible management of natural resources and protection of the environment.
❖ Rational and balanced use of land, defining or promoting acceptable uses for each type of land,
creating appropriate infrastructure networks…
1.1. Land Use Planning and Tourist Organization

1. Land Use Planning

- Public administrations play an important role in tourism development plans. This law is merely a basis
for respecting and following other rules to be developed in different areas. The law is made up of
different local plans and guidelines, such as the Land Use Planning Guidelines (LPG), the Partial
Spatial Plans (PSP) and the Sectoral Territorial Plans (STP).

- Being a dependent structure it is not possible to go against the higher level law and we can often
encounter difficulties because the STP can be approved by different institutions, States, Communities,
City Councils or Historical Territories.
1.1. Land Use Planning and Tourist Organization

2. Tourist organization
- The regulation of the use of the territory is called territorial planning. It is necessary to provide a
country with facilities for accessibility, good communication, and TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION
AND TOURIST ORGANISATION, in order to separate and limit fields and activities.
- In our case, it will be necessary to take into account LAW 13/2016, of 28 July, on Tourism, which
organizes the tourism sector in the Community.
* The relationship between the territory and the sector can be found in Article 10, which states that
the organization of tourism resources will be carried out through the territorial sectoral plan
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

- Tourist resources are tangible or intangible goods or things, physical, nature-related, social
and cultural elements that can attract and encourage the consumption of tourism, as well as
the infrastructure of establishments and services aimed at tourism.

“Tourism resource” ≠ “Tourism service”

- In order for a place to be a tourist activity, it is essential to have a flow of people, and in
order to do so, people must have a clear motivation to go to that place in order for the
purchase process to be complete. Therefore, the elements that create, promote or influence
the tourism movement are considered as a tourist resource or attraction.
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

- The World Tourism Organization (WTO) distinguishes between tourism heritage and tourism
resource; thus, heritage is the raw material of tourism, and it becomes a resource through
human activity, making heritage available from a tourism perspective and attracting people to
that heritage.

RESOURCE SERVICES ADDED VALUE

+ GEOGRAPHICAL + INFRASTRUCTURES
SPACE
PRODUCT

= DESTINATION
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

CLASSIFICATION OF TOURIST RESOURCES

- The classification made by the OAS (Organization of American States) is considered the
most complete, since in addition to classifying it allows evaluating resources. Classify
resources as:
1. Natural spaces → places that have a landscape value (fauna, flora, hunting or fishing…)
2. Museums and historical cultural manifestations (set of resources of a cultural nature that
have an artistic, historical or monumental value…)
3. Folklore (manifestations related to the cultural heritage, customs and traditions of the
population…)
4. Contemporary technical, scientific and artistic achievements
5. Scheduled events (organized events and demonstrations that may be attractive to
tourists)
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

CLASSIFICATION OF TOURIST RESOURCES

- According to the relevance of the tourist attraction, as follows:
○ Hierarchy 3: to attractions with exceptional features and great significance for the international tourism
market, capable of motivating a significant flow of visitors by itself.
○ Hierarchy 2: to exceptional attractions for a country, capable of motivating a stream of national
visitors, either alone or in conjunction with other attractions.
○ Hierarchy 1: to attractions with some striking feature, capable of attracting visitors who have come to
the area for other tourist reasons, or capable of motivating local or regional tourist trends.
○ Hierarchy 0: to attractions without sufficient merits.

- With this ranking, only the intrinsic values of the resources are taken into account. But on many occasions
the resources compete with each other with very similar intrinsic characteristics, so the qualitative difference
between them is often the result of the characteristics of the environment in which they are found.
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

CLASSIFICATION OF TOURIST RESOURCES

UNWTO proposes evaluating resources based on both internal factors and external factors:

A. Internal factors: specific qualities and values that each resource possesses.
- Urbanisation
- Infrastructure
- Equipment
- Travel services
- Intrinsic characteristics-aspects of the very nature of the resource.
B. External factors: can damage or promote the internal values of the resource, influencing the tourist flow received by the destination
where the resource is located. They are aspects such as:
- Accessibility
- Proximity to emission centres.
- Uniqueness or specificity
- Importance
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

CLASSIFICATION OF TOURIST RESOURCES

In summary, for the tourist resources of a certain place to allow us to determine the possibilities of exploitation and
the capacity to become an area with tourist potential, a series of conditions must be met:

- Know the resources → what they are, how many there are and where they are.

- Analyse the accesses and their suitability → what conditions the environment is seen, what ways there
are to access the resource, if they are adequate or need adaptation…

- Carry out a qualitative assessment: the physical state of each resource will be assessed, taking into
account its uniqueness and attractiveness. You also have to know if it is currently being used; if so, how it
is used and who owns it.

- Carry out a total assessment: once the three previous steps have been completed, the resource must be
given the go-ahead and it will be necessary to decide what steps must be taken to convert the resource
into a tourist attraction, that is, to be able to attract the public.
1.2. Tourist resources: definition and classification

CLASSIFICATION OF TOURIST RESOURCES

It is necessary to have financial resources and adequate personnel:

- There are many territories that have tourist resources and it is possible to improve their
economy through tourist activity, but without outside help they are unable to achieve it,
lacking the infrastructure and services necessary for their development.
- The lack of experience of the population prevents the proper advancement of the sector,
which is why training is needed. Ignorance can make the tourism development plans of a
certain place fail.
- Some organisations and public administrations provide investment , training grants, etc. to
promote and develop certain types of tourism.
 1.3. Inventory of tourist resources

Law 6/1994, of March 16, on the regulation of Tourism, article 47

Two steps are necessary:
1. Identify the resources
2. Evaluate each one of them.

Once the resources are identified, the following phases are followed for the evaluation:
- Identification phase: the resource is located geographically.
- Quantitative valuation phase: the amount of those resources that are possessed are counted.
- Qualitative assessment phase: the status of the resource will be measured and what extent it can be
attractive.
- Access analysis and adaptation phase: how to get to a resource is evaluated, what situation the
surroundings of the resource are located and if the adaptation is necessary or not.
- Complaints phase: ideas that have not been taken into account in the previous phases are proposed.
 1.3. Inventory of tourist resources

Law 6/1994, of March 16, on the regulation of Tourism, article 47

After this global assessment, a score will be given to each resource, taking into account the
demand of the tourism market. Taking advantage of the OAS model, a similar classification is
established:
- 4 points: very good evaluation. The resource is capable of attracting both national and
international tourists.
- 3 points: good evaluation. The resource attracts national tourism.
- 2 points: regular evaluation. The resource only has the capacity to attract tourists from the
autonomous community itself.
- 1 point: bad feedback. The resource does not attract tourists, either because it is very
deteriorated, because it is unknown …
 1.3. Inventory of tourist resources

Technical Files of Tourist Resources

- The information on each of the resources must be available each time it is needed, so it is
essential to have a standard format that allows us to graphically capture all the information.

- The information is obtained both through field work and through surveys carried out both to
visitors and to professionals in the sector.

- This is how individual files are designed and completed with this information.
 1.3. Inventory of tourist resources

Files to Inventory and Evaluate Tourist Resources

A. Sample sheet for a general inventory

Inventario general de recursos y actividades

Recursos Valoración Actividades Notas

Nombre del 1 2 3 4 Qué se hace Qué se puede Acciones
recurso en la hacer en el necesarias
actualidad futuro para el futuro
 1.3. Inventory of tourist resources

B. Evaluation
Ficha de evaluación de form of tourist resources
recursos específicos

Denominación:

Tipo de recurso Valoración Descripción

Atractivo natural 1 2 3 4
Patrimonio histórico/Museos 1 2 3 4
Folklore/Tradiciones 1 2 3 4
Acontecimientos programados 1 2 3 4
Elementos para la evaluación (1) Valoración Actividades relacionados con este recurso
Singularidad 1 2 3 4
Actividades actuales:
Atractivo global 1 2 3 4
Estado de conservación 1 2 3 4
Actividades posibles relacionadas con este recurso:
Grado de aprovechamiento 1 2 3 4
Tipos de accesos y señalización

Accesos(2) Valoración Acciones recomendadas

A pie 1 2
Por carretera 1 2
Otros 1 2

Señalización(2) Valoración Acciones recomendadas

Parking 1 2
Calidad entorno
1 2
belleza/limpieza
 1.3. Inventory of tourist resources
Tourist Resource Evaluation Questionnaires

- In order to evaluate tourist resources, it is essential to know the preferences of the

demand and the reasons why a specific destination or resource is visited. One of the
most direct ways to find out about these preferences is through surveys or
questionnaires.

- It is convenient for these questionnaires to be periodic, random and, if possible, carried

out once the visitor returns to their place of origin.

- The questionnaires can be of various types. It is convenient that they collect some
relevant data on the profile of the demand: age, length of stay, nationality, ...

- If the tourist interest of a certain area is being analysed, it will be necessary to include
 1.4. SWOT diagnosis

- In tourism, any decision taken involves large investments, both by private initiatives
(building a hotel) and public initiatives (roads, airports, cycling routes, ...). In order to
make the right decisions, regarding the development of tourist activity, it will be
necessary to know the tourist potential shown by the different territories.

- The tourist potential will be given by the existence of resources that cause a sufficient
attraction to motivate tourists to travel to these areas. Thus, to determine whether or
not that territory has tourist potential, an analysis of its current situation will have to be
carried out, analysing: the offer, the demand, the suppliers, the competition, the
environment, ...

- SWOT diagnosis system allows us to have this vision of the real situation.
 1.4. SWOT diagnosis

STRENGHTS (S) WEAKNESSES (W)

- The weaknesses of the company or
- The strengths of the company or the
the destination are those that place
destination are those that place them
them at a competitive disadvantage
in a position of competitive
compared to their competitors.
advantage over their competitors
- They are aspects of their own that
limit their capacity for development.

OPPORTUNITIES (O) THREATS (T)

- These are favourable environmental - These are environmental factors that,

situations that, if they materialise, if they materialise, can have very
may have positive consequences for negative consequences for the
the company or destination. company or tourist destination.
 1.4. SWOT diagnosis

- If the company or destination has strengths and there are opportunities in the
environment, potentialities will emerge.(SO)

- If the company or destination has weak points and there are threats in the
environment, limitations will arise. (WT)

- If the company or destination has strong points and there are threats in the
environment, risks will arise (ST)

- If the company or destination has weak points and there are opportunities in the
environment, challenges will arise (WO)
 1.5. CAME
Correct, Adapt, Maintain, Explore

- Strengths → Maintain: allows you to create strategies and plan actions to turn them
into strengths.
- Weaknesses → Correct: It means eliminating the weaknesses, or at least taking the
necessary measures within our power to avoid having to deal with them and to
prevent them from influencing the development of the business plan.
- Opportunities → Explore: We will maintain the strengths, making everything positive
that can influence business stay with us. As a result we will have a competitive
advantage.
- Threats → Adapt: Prevent the same threats from going one step further and
becoming weaknesses.