The Rhossili Town Development - Case Study Example

?The Rhossili Town Development Project Executive Summary The vision of the paper is to enable the Rhossili Town Council to develop Rhossili, rated asone the most beautiful places on earth, to one of the most desired tourist destination in the world. The policy initiatives required to develop this small town into a global tourist spot is outlined in the paper. The priorities of the town council are to develop a global town providing a 'little bit for everyone' along with maintaining the heritage of the town. The facilities in the town have to grow proportionately to accommodate the increased population that would inhabit the town, as anticipated by the Town Council. Accordingly, infrastructure development has been marked as a key area requiring attention. The development of malls, shopping zones, theme parks and other avenues for entertainment, road and monorail for transportation, and re-vitalizing the town airport, therefore, remains the immediate objectives. The development plan envisages review every five year for long term target setting and every two years for short term target setting to keep pace with the growth of Rhossili. Health, safety and general welfare of the citizens are of paramount importance and the same cannot be overlooked at any point of time. The environmental issues that growth will bring along needs to be studied and plans to mitigate the harmful effects needs to be implemented. Protecting the parks, landscapes and community gardens along with encouraging the citizens and tourists to use bicycles to move around would go a long way in keeping Rhossili fresh and closer to nature. The projects are to be funded by a mix of financial plans including state funding, public-private partnerships, and private funding. It is important that an integrated development approach is taken for the overall development of Rhossili. The Opportunity This is heaven! The sounds of the waves, lashing out against the rocks that form a tiny cliff around the corner; the long winding beaches with the end not in sight; the golden sand and a few kids running on it. The palms trees overlooking the beach and swaying to the tunes of the gently blowing wind. This is Rhossili, voted one amongst the ten most beautiful places on earth. This small town however, is tucked away from the glaring eyes of the world. The beauty is there for all to see, but not many to see it. It is in this context that the Rhossili Town Council declares its intent to develop Rhoissili into a well known tourist spot while maintaining the natural beauty of the place and peace and tranquility of the citizens of the town. Mission Statement “The Rhossili Town Development Project is dedicated to developing, refining, and implementing a comprehensive urban planning vision for Rhossili Beach with the objective to develop an integral Town Square while maintaining the town's heritage, enhance the quality and diversity of the urban experience, inclusive of its residential neighborhoods, business districts, and resort, recreation and entertainment areas.” Objectives The long term objectives of the Rhossili Town Development Project is to develop a active, people friendly town with clean surroundings, means of entertainment for all ages, environmentally sustainable projects and progress for the town dwellers. While the ultimate aim is to make Rhossili a world class tourist destination, the first steps need to be taken up on priority and progressed expeditiously. The objectives of the Rhossili Town Development Project with a target time frame of 05 years with a biannual review plan are listed below. (a) Develop a vibrant Beach Town by undertaking a range of major public realm projects such as the Town Central Square and Rhossili Mall Master Plan. (b) Working collaboratively with the State Government and other public/ private partners on a range of major Town projects, such as Hotels, the Airport, Rhossili Amusement Theme Park and Beach Park. (c) Encouraging more people to call Rhossili home through such initiatives as the Affordable Housing project. (d) Helping people to be active by investing in recreation and sports facilities, and support programs; this will also promote health tourism initiatives in the town. (e) Creating a bicycle friendly town by implementing Use Bicycle projects such as new bike lanes, Parking Lands and bicycle end-of- trip facilities. (f) Protecting and improving our Parks, landscapes, streetscapes, gardens and trees, and developing and activating more community gardens. (g) Facilitating and fostering new investment and existing businesses through the provision of advice and support, and working with businesses to contribute to place- making and activation projects. (h) Ensuring environmental sustainability through increased use of renewable sources of energy, providing energy efficient public transport system and motivating citizens to minimize wastage of power. (i) Delivering quality services such as town cleansing to ensure the Rhossili is presented to an exemplary standard. Product Description The Rhossili Town Development Project has shortlisted the following five projects for the current financial year 2013-14. (a) Development of Town Central Square and completion of construction of Phase I of Rhossili Mall. (b) Revitalize the Town Airport and encourage airlines to operate to major destinations from Rhossili Town. (c) Development of Phase I of Amusement Theme Park. (d) Redesign the existing Beach Park to increase the facilities in the park, enhance capacity and make the park more children friendly. (e) Setting up a dual transport system including a six lane road and monorail project connecting the main points of the town and also to facilitate entry and exit to the town. Market Analysis Preliminary analysis of the present market has already been conducted and the potential competitor to Rhossili Town is Swansea City. However, with nature having endowed Rhossili much more than Swansea and the advantage of developing right from the basics provide the planners of Rhossili an advantage to set up state of the art facilities and equipment. An integrated development approach would provide Rhossili the advantage of focused growth and balanced development. The freshness that the town would provide primarily because it has not been on the tourist map until the recent survey also works advantageously for Rhossili town. The target customers include the local population of Wales and also to reach out to much of England to begin with. When the facilities are all well established and the town could handle more visitors, the target population could include potential tourists worldwide. The natural beauty of the place is the Unique Selling Point. Being rated amongst the top ten most beautiful places on earth is a very significant achievement. The bonus would be the proposed Amusement Park and the re-designed Beach Park. The new malls and the re-vitalized airport would provide the basic amenities to the visitors and the dual transport system would make moving around the town a leisure activity. While these points are the Strengths and the potential to attract tourists is a golden opportunity, the present state of the town and its poor reputation in terms of transportation is a glaring weakness. The necessity to acquire the necessary land for the new projects and private firms to invest in the new projects is also a weakness which would be overcome by proper support and encouragement from the Town Council. The Marketing Plan The importance of marketing Rhossili town cannot be overstated. The absence of visitors as of date and the need to publicize the new found status of the town is vital for the successful implementation of the projects and the rise of Rhossili town as an important tourist destination. As an initial promotional measure, entry to the Amusement Park and Theme Park would be free for all school children who visit these places in groups of more than 50 on Wednesdays and Fridays. This would provide the much needed initial thrust to these facilities without affecting the privileges of the other paid visitors, who are expected in greater numbers over the weekend and in the summers when the schools are closed for vacations. The transport facilities could be offered as advertisement boards through a bidding system which would also bring in necessary funding for the projects. The role of advertising cannot be overstated in the Rhossili Town Projects. The advertisements would be initially limited to local Wales and English magazines, newspapers and electronic media, as the town grows the scope of advertising could be reviewed. Encouraging the younger population to use the internet for booking through a dedicated Website would also open up the media for advertising. Facilitating investments from public/ private firms in the major long term projects of the town is vital for the development of the town projects and needs to be studied in depth. Management and Human Resources Plan The facilities being set up would be operated either by the Town Council or the Public/ Private firms as the case may be. The public transport system would be operated by the Town Council and the Airport by the State government. The malls, parks and such other facilities would be operated by the private firms for fixed periods after which the Town Council would have an option of extending the rights or issuing new rights to new agencies. Well trained man-power is vital for smooth operation of all facilities and the Town Council would emphasize on the quality of man power inducted for operating and maintaining these facilities. The necessary certifications to operate and maintain various facilities are a must with every operator and agency involved. Operation and Production Plan The Central Square will play multiple roles as a public gathering space for a wide range of activities including markets, events, festivals, shows and protests. This will be in the central location of the town and be the primary gathering spot in the town. The Central Square will also be surrounded by a garden and will be developed 2km away from the beach and would be alongside the Main Road of the town. The Town Mall is envisaged to operate round the clock with not closed holidays. The Phase I of the Mall would cater for the basic requirements of the citizens and the visitors. The Phase II, which would be taken up subsequently, will cater primarily to bring the major global brands on all products to the town. The Phase III will be planned as per the requirements that will originate as the Rhossili town develops in the next five years. The Rhossili Airport has been non-operational for the past five years. However, the plan is the rejuvenate the airport by developing the airport interiors, redesign the surroundings for enable setting up of shops and hotels in and around the airport and develop a dual transport scheme to the airport connecting the key points of the town. The amenities would include state-of-the-art security screening area, boarding lounge with improved seating, and enhanced features like an atrium and a garden walkway. The airport would utilize solar and green technology to minimize energy consumption. The dual transport scheme will include a six lane road and a monorail. The monorail will start from the vicinity of the Town Center and have a direct check in facility at the Town Center Station for the air passengers. The growth of the town is linked with the air services to the town and therefore air line operators would be encouraged to operate from the town by maintaining minimum Airport Utilization Charges for the passengers and Airport Maintenance Charges for the airlines for the next 10 years. Fun and frolic is important for the visiting tourists and the residents of the town. A state of the art Amusement Theme Park would be set up in the outskirts of the town. The Amusement Park will be in the lines of Disneyland and will also have a Water Park. The Amusement Park is intended to be operated privately. The plan is to set up the park by a Build Operate Transfer scheme where in the park would be operated for the next twenty years by the private operator who bids to construct the park. After twenty years, the park could be operated by private agencies for a duration of five years with expansion plans and up-gradation plans in place. The six land road and mono rail will have one terminus at the Amusement Park and the Terminus would also operate as a maintenance hub for the monorail system. The existing Beach Park is in a dilapidated state. The Beach Park needs to be redesigned to make is more user friendly and improve the capacity holding of the same. The necessity to set up world class games and equipment in the Beach Park needs no greater emphasis. The project will be taken up by public funding and the expenses will be shared between the Town Council and the State Government on a 40:60 ratio as has been agreed in the state budgeting plans. The six land road and mono rail will pass alongside the Beach Park making it easier for the public to access the park from all common points within the town. The final project for the financial year is to undertake construction Phase I of the Six Lane road connecting the major venues of the town and also forming the main entry/ exit route to Rhossili town. The monorail would primarily be for transportation within the town and would also act as an extended-terminus for the Airport. The two transport systems would complement each other and along with the proposed Bicycle Project will go a long way in provided smooth and quick access to all places in the town to one and all. Financial Plan The funding of the projects is considered to be a mix of purely state funded projects, public-private partnership projects and private projects. Welfare and pure infrastructure projects like transportation is planned to be funded by the state, implying the Town Council and the State Government. The other infrastructure projects which will be long term projects would be funded through public-private partnerships. The smaller projects are to be developed and operated by purely private funding. The plan has been prepared in keeping with the budget based on estimated Operating Revenue and Expenditure for the next five years with a projected growth in both the revenue and expenditure as the town develops. A high level of fiscal discipline is to be maintained for breakeven position to be arrived at in the initial years. The budgeted expenditure on the five major projects is tabulated below: - Sl Project Estimated Expenditure (a) Phase I Development of Town Central Square $10 Million (b) Revitalize the Town Airport $50 (c) Development of Phase I of Amusement Theme Park $15 Million (d) Redesign the existing Beach Park $5 Million (e) Setting up a dual transport system including a six lane road and monorail project $250 Million References 1. Birmingham City Plans. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=Policy-and-Delivery%2FPageLayout&cid=1223388572180&pagename=BCC%2FCommon%2FWrapper%2FInlineWrapper 2. City of Irvine Planning. http://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/about/strategic_business_plan/default.asp 3. Development of Miami Beach. http://web.miamibeachfl.gov/planning/ 4. Palm Beach Development Program. http://www.palmbeach.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FB1B61D0-22E0-42FC-9385-CD114D863C2A} Read More