Yes, Tourism Minister

You learn that you will be appoin­ted Tour­ism Min­is­ter of your coun­try in Janu­ary 2023. 

To help pre­pare your­self for media inter­views, draft a brief sum­mary of your vis­ion for the future of tour­ism in your nation.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put this hypo­thet­ic­al to a range of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers — “GT” Insight authors, “GT” Part­ners, and their invit­ees — and invited emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words. 

One respond­ent, who declined to par­ti­cip­ate in this “GT” Insight Bites, wrote:

“Thanks Dav­id, but I do not wish to be the Tour­ism Min­is­ter of any coun­try. They have no powers what­so­ever and just need to do what the fin­ance, for­eign affairs, and eco­nom­ics min­is­ters tell them. Let me know if the office of PM becomes avail­able and I will have an opinion.”

Indeed, I have heard the same or sim­il­ar sen­ti­ment expressed many times over the years. Is there truth to it? What do you think?

Thanks to the nine respond­ents from across four con­tin­ents who pre­sum­ably do see value in the tour­ism port­fo­lio, and who chose to par­ti­cip­ate in this “GT” Insight Bites. Their answers appear in the order received. Click/touch a name to go to their answer:

• Kar­en Sim­monds — UK: Tour­ism ‘for good, cre­at­ing peace and prosperity’
• Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci — Italy: Col­lab­or­at­ive mar­ket­ing, trans­port, agriculture
• K Michael Hay­wood — Canada: Tour­ism as ‘a path­way to hope and happiness’
• Susan Eardly — Sri Lanka: A green and inclus­ive future for tourism
• Zohreh Khos­ravi — Iran: Access, ease, income, employ­ment, for­eign exchange
• Kev­in Phun — Singa­pore: ‘People are our strength’
• S Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazi — Iran: ‘Image and repu­ta­tion are key’
• Jona­thon Day — Notes for a new leader
• Issoufou Adamou Has­sane — Niger: Tour­ism a key to ‘Cul­tur­al Renaissance’
• What do you think?

Pre­vi­ous “GT” Insight Bites:

• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

UK: Tourism ‘for good, creating peace and prosperity’

Karen Simmonds, Founder, Travel Matters, UK

We are all part of an eco­sys­tem. We are inter­linked with one anoth­er; vis­it­ors and hosts. We are all glob­al cit­izens who can learn from one another. 

I want to see a tour­ism industry in which every­one is treated with respect and dignity. 

I want to show how travel & tour­ism, when done right, can impact the world in a pos­it­ive man­ner; be a force for good, cre­at­ing peace and prosperity. 

I am pas­sion­ate about trav­el­ling and aim to share how col­lect­ively we can care for our plan­et and people through tourism. 

To that end, let us favour part­ner­ing with com­munity-owned and ‑man­aged lodges or hotels, where we can have a mean­ing­ful loc­al impact; source loc­al goods and services. 

Let us ensure long term eco­nom­ic bene­fit for tour­ism busi­nesses that offer fair pay and con­di­tions for all employees. 

For trav­el­lers, let us offer safe and sat­is­fy­ing new exper­i­ences, includ­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to inter­act with happy loc­als, who also truly benefit. 

Let us keep des­tin­a­tions spe­cial. It’s vital for des­tin­a­tions to con­serve their ancient cul­ture and tra­di­tions, wild­life and hab­it­ats. Let us ensure that they con­tin­ue to be great places for us all to vis­it for gen­er­a­tions to come. 

We need to respect nature and the plan­et as a whole

Let us fly less; use pub­lic trans­port where pos­sible; take a train, or any elec­tric form of trans­port; walk. 

If we must fly, let us make choices that encour­age air­lines to reduce their emis­sions; carry less bag­gage; take a charter flight; fly eco­nomy; avoid domest­ic flights.

Let us enjoy few­er, but longer breaks where our travel cre­ates real bene­fits to con­ser­va­tion and com­munit­ies in the places we visit.

Let us ‘make travel matter’. 

Back to menu ^

Italy: Collaborative marketing, transport, agriculture

Saverio Francesco Bertolucci, Administrative Assistant, Alcambarcelona, Spain

As Itali­an Min­is­ter of Tour­ism, I would firstly devel­op a tailored cus­tom­er mar­ket­ing strategy in a co-cre­at­ive approach with may­ors and des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment organisations.

Secondly, there needs to be great­er col­lab­or­a­tion with the Min­istry of Trans­port in order to address tour­ists’ as well as com­munit­ies’ needs. Faster, more effi­cient, and wider trans­port­a­tion is needed in order to tackle mass tourism.

Lastly, togeth­er with the Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter, I would boost rur­al areas that are spe­cial­ised in wine, olive oil, truffles, and mush­rooms to enhance the import­ance and con­sump­tion of such rare and premi­um goods only Italy can offer.

Back to menu ^

Canada: Tourism as ‘a pathway to hope and happiness’

K Michael Haywood, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph, Canada

Des­tin­a­tion Canada’s trans­ition from recov­ery to resi­li­ence is an action­able quest for a more pre­dict­able, new nor­mal or, more likely, a con­ten­tious abnormal.

Our abil­ity to thrive now demands that we redesign tour­ism to enhance the qual­ity-of-life for all our cit­izens, and mag­ni­fy the joys of our hos­pit­able com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions for both hosts and guests.

While our prime respons­ib­il­ity has always been to serve as tourism’s world­wide ambas­sad­or, our advocacy for tour­ism, as a path­way to hope and hap­pi­ness, has to be authen­tic­ated in Canada. This means that our focus on growth as a determ­in­ant of com­pet­it­ive­ness will be tempered. 

In an era of vul­ner­ab­il­ity from the com­pound­ing effects of per­mac­rises, par­tic­u­larly cli­mate change, our respons­ib­il­it­ies and strategies have to shift toward ESG (envir­on­ment­al, social, and gov­ernance) initiatives. 

Real pro­gress will demand fur­ther soul-search­ing and action, includ­ing find­ing ways to improve remu­ner­a­tion in our sec­tor, and to expand oppor­tun­it­ies for engage­ment in determ­in­ing tourism’s role in our com­munit­ies, par­tic­u­larly our indi­gen­ous ones.

Con­sist­ency in cre­at­ing and deliv­er­ing value that is life-affirm­ing and soci­etally impact­ful has to be extens­ive if it is to advance everyone’s “well­th”.  This means work­ing more col­lab­or­at­ively with Tourism’s Human Resource Coun­cil espe­cially on the deliv­ery of diversity, equity, and inclu­sion initiatives. 

Place­mak­ing improve­ments will be achieved, in part, through devel­op­ment of Tour­ism Innov­a­tion Hubs. To this end, we will work tire­lessly to provide the research, resources, and assist­ance to ensure that our pro­vin­cial and loc­al coun­ter­parts can: 

• Cla­ri­fy their own sense of pur­pose for tourism; 
• Ensure our country’s legendary exper­i­ences ascend to magnificence; 
• Real­ise the neces­sity for tour­ism to oper­ate with a social license;
• Main­tain the health, rich­ness, and vital­ity of our des­tin­a­tions; and thereby,
• Con­trib­ute to accel­er­at­ing Canada’s brand resonance. 

“O Canada we stand on guard for thee …”

Back to menu ^

Sri Lanka: A green and inclusive future for tourism

Susan Eardly, Founder, Serene Vacations, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has always been a glob­al attraction.

With beau­ti­ful sandy beaches, scen­ic tea plant­a­tions, lovely water­falls, exot­ic wild­life, and rich nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age sites — such a diversity of attrac­tions — Sri Lanka has high poten­tial for the devel­op­ment of tourism.

My vis­ion would be to:

• Pro­mote green travel that pro­tects the environment; 
• Imple­ment an inclus­ive growth mod­el for the people; and 
• Lever­age Sri Lanka’s social, cul­tur­al, polit­ic­al, and eco­nom­ic val­ues to achieve the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals and mit­ig­ate the neg­at­ive impacts of cli­mate change.

Sri Lanka, with its mar­vel­lous nat­ur­al resources, has it all for a trav­el­ler look­ing for men­tal and health relax­a­tion. By unlock­ing the poten­tial of nature-based tour­ism in Sri Lanka, we can deliv­er more inclus­ive and sus­tain­able growth in new areas, includ­ing rur­al communities.

It’s import­ant to imple­ment policies that cre­ate oppor­tun­it­ies for all. To that end, I would con­sider lever­aging new digit­al tech­no­lo­gies to expand access to tour­ism edu­ca­tion and train­ing which will offer all Sri Lankans the oppor­tun­ity to bene­fit from tourism’s future growth.

Back to menu ^

Iran: Access, ease, income, employment, foreign exchange

Zohreh Khosravi, content strategist, Iran

Iran offers a vari­ety of tour­ism des­tin­a­tions to suit diverse interests and travel pref­er­ences. Our nation could become one of the most well-liked travel des­tin­a­tions in the world thanks to its rich biod­iversity, indi­gen­ous cul­ture, long-stand­ing writ­ten his­tory (dat­ing back sev­er­al thou­sand years), and the infra­struc­ture that is required to draw health and med­ic­al tourists. 

I want to put a num­ber of ini­ti­at­ives on the gov­ern­ment’s agenda as Iran’s poten­tial tour­ism minister.

• We need to make over­seas vis­it­ors’ access to Iran visas as simple as feas­ible. Even for nation­als of some nations, we ought to do away with the tour­ist visa and let them vis­it Iran for up to 15 days without need­ing one.
• We should ensure that the rail, avi­ation, and lodging infra­struc­ture meet inter­na­tion­al stand­ards. We have to estab­lish a found­a­tion for tour­ists to feel at ease and secure by expand­ing the air fleet, enhan­cing the stand­ard of flights and trains, rais­ing the bar for accom­mod­a­tions, and improv­ing the level of hos­pit­al­ity services.
• By cre­at­ing and edit­ing doc­u­ment­ar­ies about Iran’s nat­ur­al set­tings, we hope to intro­duce the coun­try’s ori­gin­al cul­ture, nat­ur­al her­it­age, and his­tor­ic­al leg­acy to for­eign tourists.
• For trav­el­lers plan­ning to vis­it Iran, we have to cre­ate a trip hand­book with com­pre­hens­ive inform­a­tion from 0 to 100 travel tips, and make it avail­able in many lan­guages. To guide for­eign tour­ists, we have to employ or train tour oper­at­ors and travel advisors who are flu­ent in Eng­lish, Arab­ic, French, and oth­er languages.

By and large, we should alter gov­ern­ment policies to con­cen­trate on tour­ism income, and sta­bil­ise employ­ment and for­eign cur­rency income via tourism.

Back to menu ^

Singapore: ‘People are our strength’

Kevin Phun, Founder & Director, The Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore, Singapore

Tour­ism is an import­ant industry for Singapore. 

We have always been depend­ent on glob­al trade, trans­port, travel, and tour­ism for employ­ment and for­eign investment.

How­ever, the glob­al pan­dem­ic that struck much of the world over the last two-and-a-half years has changed the way many gov­ern­ments think about travel & tour­ism. We should too. Let’s review our strategies and redesign them. 

We are a small coun­try, with almost no nat­ur­al resources. 

So let’s focus not on vis­it­or arrival num­bers, but on yield, and how tour­ism can improve the qual­ity of our hard and soft infra­struc­tures, loc­al cul­ture and her­it­age, and our nat­ur­al envir­on­ment (which is also largely untapped as an eco­tour­ism attraction). 

People are our strength. 

We have a diversity in our soci­ety that is unique. Tour­ism should bet­ter engage with this aspect of us. For example, our mul­ti­cul­tur­al hawker food cul­ture has been recog­nised by UNESCO as world-class intan­gible cul­tur­al her­it­age. And we have so much more that can be described as such. 

So why not devel­op and pro­mote cul­tur­al her­it­age tour­ism? It is some­thing that we have often talked about but not pur­sued. To that end, let’s identi­fy intan­gible aspects of our her­it­age and cul­ture that the tour­ism industry can mar­ket to for­eign trav­el­lers as part of Singapore’s uniqueness.

Yes, people are our strength. So let’s give Singa­por­eans more of a say in how tour­ism is pro­moted and man­aged. Our people must feel that they have a stronger stake in our tour­ism industry. We must look harder at how to link the tour­ism industry with our people. Stronger links, few­er leakages. 

Post-pan­dem­ic, we must relook at many of the things we that have been doing in tour­ism; throw out the old ways of think­ing and doing, and embrace the new. 

Back to menu ^

Iran: ‘Image and reputation are key’

S Fatemeh Mostafavi Shirazi, visiting scholar, Iran

Image and repu­ta­tion are key to attract­ing vis­it­ors to any des­tin­a­tion, includ­ing Iran. 

The past few dec­ades’ chal­lenges, includ­ing war and sanc­tions, recent glob­al crises (such as COVID), and gen­er­al instabil­ity, have had neg­at­ive impacts on Iran’s inter­na­tion­al image. 

Rebuild­ing Iran’s image will be bene­fi­cial across many areas, includ­ing tour­ism, and should be con­sidered the main pri­or­ity for Iran in the near future. 

To rebuild the image and repu­ta­tion of Iran, espe­cially in busi­ness mat­ters, we will need to solve sanc­tion prob­lems and improve rela­tions with oth­er countries. 

This will improve the oper­at­ing envir­on­ment for the hos­pit­al­ity industry, bring new invest­ment, and attract inter­na­tion­al busi­ness trav­el­lers seek­ing new opportunities. 

A renewed interest in busi­ness and invest­ment in Iran will in turn will lay the ground­work for devel­op­ing and improv­ing Iran’s broad­er tour­ism infra­struc­ture and facilities. 

For example, these two high-value tour­ism niches rep­res­ent good oppor­tun­it­ies for invest­ment in Iran’s hos­pit­al­ity industry:

• Iran’s poten­tial for cul­tur­al her­it­age tour­ism is sig­ni­fic­ant, with very diver­si­fied attrac­tions includ­ing many UNESCO-registered sites; and
• Iran has great poten­tial for health and med­ic­al tour­ism, and could start now by tar­get­ing neigh­bour­ing countries. 

Of course, devel­op­ing and/or reviv­ing inter­na­tion­al tour­ism mar­kets for any des­tin­a­tion is a very com­plic­ated task, and requires con­tinu­ous col­lab­or­a­tion among stake­hold­ers. To achieve this, Iran will need a com­pre­hens­ive plan for col­lab­or­a­tion among loc­al, for­eign, private, and pub­lic stakeholders. 

Back to menu ^

Notes for a new leader

Jonathon Day, Associate Professor | Graduate Program Director, White Lodging — J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, USA

Notes for the new DMO leader:

Con­grat­u­la­tions. You have one of the best jobs in the world. You will be con­trib­ut­ing to the lives of the people in your des­tin­a­tion com­munity and enrich­ing the lives of your visitors. 

As you start com­mu­nic­at­ing with intern­al and extern­al stake­hold­ers about the work you’ll be doing togeth­er (because tour­ism is col­lab­or­at­ive), keep these three things firmly in mind:

• Your role is to make life bet­ter for the people of your des­tin­a­tion com­munity. (You are not a sup­ple­ment­al mar­ket­ing arm for the loc­al hoteliers or entrenched industry stal­warts, no mat­ter what they think.)
• You are build­ing assets that can be used today and tomor­row. Nur­ture your nat­ur­al envir­on­ment and the unique cul­ture of your place. These are the things that people come to see, and that is what des­tin­a­tion stew­ard­ship is all about. 
• Meas­ure your­self against what is really import­ant. Rather than just tout­ing vis­it­or growth, focus on wheth­er the vis­it­ors spend more in loc­al busi­nesses, and con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the com­munity when they visit. 

Good luck in the new gig!

Back to menu ^

Niger: Tourism a key to ‘Cultural Renaissance’

Issoufou Adamou Hassane, Co-founder & President, Tourism and Local Development (TOLD), Niger

To be appoin­ted Min­is­ter of Tour­ism of my coun­try is a great hon­our for my mod­est per­son; an oppor­tun­ity to lead a new dynam­ism for the sector.

In view of the cur­rent situ­ation in Niger, it is import­ant to pro­ject a medi­um and long-term vis­ion to pos­i­tion tour­ism as one of the key sec­tors in a social trans­form­a­tion of the coun­try; Niger’s “Cul­tur­al Renaissance” …

It is cer­tainly neces­sary to speak of my vis­ion for the sec­tor in the lan­guage of truth; a truth based on a per­fect know­ledge of the strengths and weak­nesses of tour­ism in Niger. But lucid­ity must not turn into pess­im­ism that dis­cour­ages and demotivates.

My vis­ion is under­pinned by a reform­a­tion of the gov­ernance of the tour­ism sec­tor in Niger; to realign it for the bene­fit of the people and the State; to favour employ­ment and eco­nom­ic dynam­ism bene­fi­cial to the sta­bil­ity of the country.

Fur­ther­more, my vis­ion includes:

• Improv­ing the coun­try’s image and attractiveness;
• Devel­op­ing a tour­ist cul­ture among Nigeriens;
• Pre­serving and enhan­cing Niger’s her­it­age (nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al, and even historical);
• Build­ing the capa­city of the Nation­al Tour­ism Admin­is­tra­tion and our travel & tour­ism industry pro­fes­sion­als; and
• Pro­mot­ing invest­ment and the devel­op­ment of innov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gic­al solutions.

Thus the fol­low­ing entit­ies will be cre­ated under the super­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Tour­ism Niger: A Tour­ism Obser­vat­ory Agency, plus depart­ments in charge of:

• Rur­al and com­munity-based tour­ism development;
• Stand­ards, labels, and pro­mot­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity in tourism;
• Ter­rit­ori­al marketing;
• Tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity investment;
• Star­tup devel­op­ment and digit­al solu­tions; and
• Train­ing and partnerships.

Back to menu ^

What do you think?

What do you think? Share your own thoughts in a com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Yes, Tour­ism Min­is­ter … Eliza­beth Tower at the UK’s Houses of Par­lia­ment. (‘Big Ben’ is the name of the clock­’s main bell.) Image by Justin Vogt (CC0) via Pixabay.

Your cor­res­pond­ent’s choice of fea­tured image was inspired by the open­ing title of the clas­sic 1980s BBC com­edy series Yes Min­is­ter.

Back to menu ^