Urban planning can play an important role in tourism promotion. Tourism and urban planning is essentially based on how traditions, lifestyles, cultural attractions and historic sites can be combined in a coherent city tourist map. Below are some ways efficient urban planning can help the tourism industry grow.
Information: Administrator and planners should ensure that enough information is available on the internet about their city for the tourists to make plans and take informed decisions. More importantly, there should be a provision of tourist information centres and signage at prominent places in the city for providing practical information to tourists.
Saving time and Convenience: Tourists want to maximize their time in a new city, there should be practical provisions for their fast and convenient travel between various tourist destinations. Several cities run Hop-on Hop-off (HoHo) buses taking the tourists on city tours and stopping at prominent tourist destinations.
Efficient public transport: Effectiveness of public transport can be the difference between the success and the failure of any city in terms of trade, investment and development, whether in traditional or smart city. The public transport system needs to provide last mile connectivity to every part of the city. This could be a combination of various modes and at every interchange or stops there should be digital information system about route and waiting time of upcoming modes of transportation.
Accessibility and connectivity: Accessibility to the city itself and tourist destinations within the city is utmost important to attract tourists. Quick and comfortable travel to tourist destinations not only attracts tourists but also motivates them to visit again. On the basis of tourist place importance, proper package & circuit need to be designed with all tourist facilities.
Safety and hygiene: Properly covered drainage system, provision of suitable waste dumping and processing grounds etc. could greatly help in keeping the cities clean and healthy. Green spaces in urban areas greatly enhance the beauty and appeal of any city. Disaster preparedness and emergency response provisions also make cities lucrative for tourists. Any help in one call at the time of distress is more important.
Tourism plays an important role in employment and in economic growth. To realise the potential of tourism as a tool for sustainable inclusive growth, a multi-stakeholder and multi-level approach is required, based on close cooperation at the various levels of tourism and non-tourism administrations. But unattended growth can negatively affect the destination. It is therefore sensibly necessary, through a careful planning and execution, to ensure that tourism development improves or maintains the environment and culture of the destination while providing maximum visitor satisfaction. Therefore, while developing or re-developing the cities, administrators need to draw-up Tourism Master Plan as it is important to plan for the basic infrastructure that enables tourists to access resources easily. Though strategic planning and marketing make city destination for tourist rather than transit for other city.