Tourism as a National Development Strategy
Tourism as a National Development Strategy
This page introduces the reasons why and the ways governments can develop tourism as an international strategy. It first uses several maps and graphics to examine global and national patterns concerning GDP, Government spending and FDI. It looks at the importance of tourism for sustainable development and the links to the SDGs. It then goes on to examine in more depth Morocco's 2020 Vision Strategy, with its key aims of doubling tourist arrivals, expanding its luxury and niche sectors and becoming an internationally referenced sustainable tourism destination.
Enquiry Question
What are the costs and benefits of tourism as a national development strategy?
Lesson Time: 1 Hour
Lesson Objectives:
- To examine the costs and benefits of tourism as a national development strategy, including economic and social/cultural effects
Starter Activity - Tourism at the National Scale - Processes and Patterns
Study the following graphs and for each graph
- Describe the pattern shown
- Suggest reasons for the patterns
The third graph suggests how governments may use the data to inform their national tourism strategies
Student Activity - Tourism and the SDGs Platform - Processes
Watch the following video from the SDGs Tourism Platform and note down how tourism can radically change the lives of people such as Nguyen Thi Ba in Vietnam
Watch the first 2 minutes of the following video and note down how tourism is being developed in the region of Ruta Lenca, Honduras for cultural development.
Student Activity - TNCs, Foreign Direct Investment - Processes and Places
Read the following resource adapted from a report from FDI Markets on the role of FDI. Identify the trends in FDI flows through tourism:
- What is FDI spent on and where is it being spent?
- What impacts does it have and which stakeholders are most concerned?
TNCs and FDI
Note: This resource was also suggested on the previous page on stakeholders.
Student Activity - Tourism as a National Development Strategy - Processes
Morocco - The Tourism Landscape
Contributing 8.1% to GDP and accounting for 7.1% of total employment in 2016, tourism holds an important place in Morocco’s economy. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), travel and tourism contributed €7.6bn to GDP in 2016. Looking ahead, the WTTC forecast the sector’s direct contribution to rise at an average rate of 4% per annum from 2017 to 2027, to reach a contribution of €11.4bn, or 8.6% of GDP, in 2027. The sector directly generated 819,000 jobs in 2016. The rate of growth is forecast to increase over the long term, with the WTTC predicting an average yearly rise of 2.6% over the 2017-27 period, reaching 1.1m jobs in 2027, or 7.8% of total employment.
1. Suggest reasons why tourism is used by governments as a development strategy
Consider economic and social/cultural factors
2. Watch the following video-based outlining Morocco's 2020 Tourism Vision
Morocco Vision 2020 StrategyRead the following text which outlines the 2020 strategy and outline:
- How the 2020 strategy aims to stimulate economic development
- The role of the government in achieving this
Aspiration
- “Continuing to make tourism one of the pillars of economic, social and cultural development of Morocco”.
- “Being part of the world’s 20 largest destinations and establishing itself as the benchmark around the Mediterranean in the field of sustainable development”… through a unique and environmentally responsible model of tourism development and placing sustainable development at the heart of its strategy.
Objectives
Doubling the size of the sector to become the first industry of the country
- Building 160,000 new hotel beds and 40,000 new beds of luxury tourism residences;
- Doubling tourist arrivals by doubling the market share on the main European markets as well as attracting 1 million tourists in the emerging markets;
- Tripling the number of domestic trips;
- At the end of the decade, reaching one million direct job positions in tourism;
- Generating MAD 1,000 billion of accumulated revenue during the decade;
- Increasing the contribution of tourism to the country’s GDP by 2 points.
Strategic framework
An innovative approach based on three major axes:
- A proactive policy related to the territorial development of tourism offer
- A new institutional scheme of dynamic control
- An innovative approach and a device built for tourism sustainability
8 Differentiated Tourism Territories
Vision 2020 plays a major role in the regionalisation process to which Morocco is committed. The new regional planning policy allows regions to take advantage of all their potentialities (natural sites, cultural heritage, living culture, etc.).
Thus, the tourism offer is structured around eight tourism territories.
Study the following interactive map of Morocco
Describe how the map and the tourism strategy help the spatial distribution of economic development - what does it seem to focus on to achieve this
Watch the following video based on sustainable tourism in Morocco and note down what the government prioritises for sustainable development
Read the following summary describing Morocco's sustainable tourism strategy
The Moroccan Sustainable Tourism Strategy: Vision 2020
Within the Vision 2020 Strategy, Morocco aims to be a recognisable benchmark destination for sustainable development in tourism. Morocco is one of 85 Global Partners for Sustainable Tourism as part of the SDGs.
The objective of its program is to develop natural resources whilst preserving them and to ensure that the socio-cultural authenticity of the hosting communities is respected by offering them socio-economic benefits.
It foresees the distribution, in 8 territories, of new high-end tourism structures, which are environmentally friendly and integrated in their socio-cultural environment, in the shape of eco-stations, eco-resorts, green stations, desert resorts and luxury bivouacs.
The consolidation and the upgrading of Tourism Hosting Countries (PAT) is part of the Eco/Sustainable development program.
Housing structures of small stature such as lodges and eco-lodges will be developed for tourists looking for a change of scenery and alternative lifestyles.
This program also involves the development of the first “neutral carbon” African destination at the Ouarzazate site based on the production platform for energy (scheduled for 2015) to compensate for the CO2 emissions generated by all the local economic and touristic activities.
The purpose of this program is to give added value to the natural and rural resources whilst preserving them and to ensure the socio-cultural authenticity of the hosting communities by offering them socio-economic benefits.
The new Moroccan sustainable tourism charter, dated January 25 2016, on the occasion of the celebration of the 1st edition of the Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Day, is intended as a framework reference and a unifying tool for all industry stakeholders around the principles and values of sustainable tourism.
It revolves around four principles:
- The Environment and Biodiversity Protection
- Sustainability of Culture and Heritage
- Prioritisation of Local Development and respect for host communities
- Adoption of the principles of fairness, ethics and social responsibility