Governments

in developing countries have prioritized integrated national development plans

and programmes (INDP) and integrated rural development (IRD) with the focus

mainly on the poorer part of the population.

In

tourism development, a policy usually follows the strategy formulation process

and can be defined as a process of devising or using plans to achieve a certain

goal or objective.

Sectoral

planning is the most important functional type of planning for tourism development.

The most important product of sectoral planning at a national level for tourism

in South Africa has been the Integrated Development Planning (IDP).

In the South African

context, the process of policy formation systematically follows the steps of

the planning process

Tourism planning, from a macro

perspective, requires setting goals and objectives for the tourism destination

and analysing the past.

The

third phase of the suggested tourism development planning process is called “decision

making”.