A framework for analysing the Local Authorities tourism planning in Ireland: A socio-cultural perspective

Tourism inevitably takes people to new places while broadening their perception and knowledge of different cultures and environments. This informative process is an important function of the tourism industry. This study reports on results that form part a postgraduate research thesis, on the levels of planning for the socio-cultural impacts of tourism by local uuthorities in Ireland. Drawing on the theme of sustainable planning for tourism, the authors discuss the concept of socio-cultural sustainability as conveyed by current literature. In addition, the authors investigated every Irish Local Authority County Development Plan (CDP’s), utilising a content analysis approach to identify the level of planning for the socio-cultural impacts of tourism in 2014. CDP’s were found to lack any integration of sustainable tourism indicators, along with any codes of conduct for best practice. Also few local authorities were found to be supporting or implementing tourism certification schemes. All of which local authorities could use to improve their tourism plans from a socio-cultural perspective.