Governments that adopt a fully coordinated approach to the development of travel and tourism policies are the most successful in maximizing the economic and social potential of the sector, according to a new report from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Speaking to the United States Travel Association at its Fall Board Meeting in Washington DC on Thursday, David Scowsill, President and CEO, WTTC, said: “Travel and tourism drives economic growth, creates jobs and sustains investment throughout the world. It drives almost 10% of global GDP and supports one in eleven of all jobs on the planet. Many governments are still not adopting a holistic approach to the maximizing the potential of this sector.”
The WTTC’s newly released report, Governing National Tourism Policy, concludes that for the sector to thrive and to develop in a sustainable manner, governments need to fully integrate travel and tourism into the national economic agenda and coordinate development across the public and private sector, Greek Travel Pages reported.
The different country examples studied by WTTC suggest that if the consultation process is backed up by legislation — if a tourism policy council or committee has statutory powers — the sector’s economic importance and priority through different government administrations is much more secure.
“For many heads of state, the starting point is the recognition that our sector is a key pillar of economic development, and that it suffers from a lack of coordination between different ministries and agencies”, Scowsill continued.
“This results in conflicting policy decisions, such as protecting and supporting national carriers instead of promoting open skies access to markets; funding promotional campaigns, whilst not facilitating visa automation; imposing unfair taxes on departing airline passengers, whilst not investing in necessary long term infrastructure, in summary a completely incoherent approach to tourism governance and commerce.”
Conductive Environment
For Travel & Tourism to thrive, governments need to provide an environment that is conducive to business development. This means adequate infrastructure, incentives for private sector investment, easy access – including good transport connectivity and visa facilitation, intelligent taxation and appropriate policies to encourage growth in demand.
WTTC research shows that those governments which seek to adopt a holistic approach to the development of travel and tourism are far more likely to make coordinated policies across ministries to support this sector.
According to the WTTC, countries which welcome and encourage the input of the private sector into strategic planning and policymaking are those that will plan successfully for future growth.
