World Bank report a wake up call for Pacific tourism
A new report from the World Bank says a business as usual scenario for tourism in the Pacific will not result in significant tourism growth.
Transcript
A new report from the World Bank says a business as usual scenario for tourism in the Pacific will not result in significant tourism growth.
Ever have the feeling that you are not where you want to be? Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
The Pacific Possible: Tourism report states that without careful and sustainable planning Pacific countries could lose billions of dollars in earnings and up to 128,000 new jobs by 2040.
The report recommends a focus on improving transport links, attracting higher spending tourists, better public sector engagement and improving links between tourism and the local economies.
The Bank's senior technical specialist, John Perrottet, says in the Pacific there are significant opportunities for sustainable growth in the Chinese tourist, cruise ship, luxury travel and retiree markets.
He spoke with Koroi Hawkins
JOHN PERROTTET: When we have looked at long term growth and tourism has been growing in the Pacific better than world average it is good news story. But the reality is it is not enough, it is not contributing enough to economic growth in the region and this gives us an opportunity to look at well what could be done to change that. What will have to happen for the tourism industry to make a more significant contribution to growth because our long term projections indicate that growth is going to stay fairly modest in the Pacific if nothing really changes.
KOROI HAWKINS: And what are countries with more successful tourism sectors doing differently from those with less?
JP: I think the first thing that they are doing is they are looking at the key drivers of this industry they are looking at how they can improve their connectivity to the markets that are likely to generate growth in the future. Other things that they can be doing is looking much more positively at the sort of policies that are in place to attract the right kind of operators to try to get some, more brand names in the region. The Pacific is very, very seriously under represented in major brand names of hotels for example. So when you look in other parts of the world you know there just isn't the marketing thrust through those marketing and distribution networks that could help the Pacific and then another area of policy is this whole area of improving the yield from tourists. You know how they can get higher value out of the tourists that are coming and that means much more targeted marketing to the segments that could deliver that.
KH: So comparing places like Tahiti with really expensive high end resorts and maybe cheaper alternative accommodation in Vanuatu you are saying that they should lean more towards higher paying customers?
JP: I am. In fact this report shows that this is one of the segments that we think the region should focus on. And there are high end resorts they are quite boutique in their character in Fiji and there is one or two others in the region and we think that the countries could look much more at those markets to see how they can be attractive and that requires some police that requires you know ensuring that the right sort of land is made available that the right kind of conditions are in place to attract those kind of tourists. It doesn't necessarily have to be large hotels in the way we have in Tahiti. It might be smaller ones and as I say there are some of those already doing very well. But I think it does require a kind of a policy.
KH: Looking at most of the other countries that don't have tourism as their main form of income it is mostly extractive industries resources and some quite destructive. Do you think tourism can offer a sustainable alternative and an equal alternative to those revenue streams?
JP: Well it has to and I think this, the approach that we have taken in undertaking this research and analysis is to ensure that we always keep that sustainability question in mind just what are the carrying capacities of each of these countries and how can they engage in the benefits without sustaining damage. And I think one of the opportunities we have been looking at is the cruise industry and there are quite a lot of places in the Pacific that are a bit remote they are hard to get to but are no less attractive and if more cruise vessels could be attracted to those locations with different itineraries. You would have to give them a chance to engage with those industries without actually having to have, build large hotels that might be damaging to the environment which is the very thing that people want to go there to see.
KH: One of the bigger issues for Pacific government is turning any form of revenue into benefits for the general population, can tourism be that alternative, can it actually have a trickle down effect to other areas or will it be pretty much the same as current industries where a lot of the revenue and money stays up higher in the status or the class?
JP: It can be the Pacific could make some big improvements in fact in what I would call the efficiency of the industry. The way it connects to local communities and how people more efficiently get there benefit from the fact that there are tourists around. That doesn't mean that they have to own something by the way. They don't actually the providers. The Maldives is a very good example of a country that has made some significant growth in its tourism contribution to GDP it is up in the 30 percent mark. But that country is characterised very strongly by its fiscal management where the government uses tourism as a generator of income for the country and that effectively enables that to be the engine of redistribution of wealth and out of that industry they have built, you know moved themselves out of low income status and have created opportunities for relatively high levels of education and social conditions in that country. So it can be done and I think this is another one of the messages in the report is that it can be done but it does need to be planned carefully and it needs to be thought through we can't just let it happen. I think if tourism is let happen it may continue to grow it may well continue to grow higher than world average. But that growth as I said at the beginning won't generate the kind of incomes that are necessary to contribute to improved living standards.
The full Pacific Possible: Tourism paper can be accessed at www.worldbank.org/PacificPossible
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.