Government involvement in tourism in developing countries

The article examines the case for involvement of government in the tourism sector in developing countries and makes definitional distinctions between passive and active involvement. It is argued that in most developing countries government involvement in tourism is required not only to attain long-term objectives but to compensate for the absence of a strong and tourism-experienced private sector. Five areas of concern for government involvement are discussed, and conclusions relate to the need for government-private sector cooperation for development purposes.     

Nature-orientated tourism promotion by developing countries

A survey of promotional practices indicates that many offices representing developing countries respond slowly to, or completely ignore, written requests for information on natureorientated tourism opportunities. Promotional material varies greatly in visual appeal and informational content.     

The economic impact of tourism in developing countries

The paper examines the costs and benefits brought by tourism to the economies of developing countries. The criteria for decision making are discussed and the main policy implications are mentioned. The paper concludes with a suggested model for evaluating the effects of specific projects within the framework of a sectoral analysis of an economy.     

Social planning for tourism in the developing countries

The usual perspectives on tourism planning have been economic. This paper argues for the need to take much more explicit account of non-economic costs (and benefits) in this field, and links the discussion to questions that have preoccupied those concerned with general issues of development in recent years. It emphasises that planners act in specific socio-politocal contexts, and that it is especially the dynamics of class structures and theis expression in the power relations at local and national levels which influence outcomes in this field. Practical issues of social planning for tourism are discussed, and the dangers of development which is too massive and too fast are stressed. Some attention is also paid to the role of transnational enterprises in the tourism field, and to the question of bargaining at the international level.     

Future of national and regional tourism in developing countries

This article deals with aspects of national and regional tourism in developing countries with particular reference to political, economic and sociocultural factors as inhibitors or drivers of development. Tourism can provide a major source of foreign exchange and the Directorate-General for Development of the EEC Commission is ready to support tourism projects suggested by developing countries in a variety of ways.     

The effects of scale in tourism projects in developing countries

The paper by Rodenburg (Annals VII:2:177–196) on the effect of scale in tourism development in Bali raises important questions relating to tourism development in Third World countries. One fundamental question is whether large-scale development is inevitable in such countries, or whether there is persuasive evidence to support smaller and craft scale enterprises. This article undertakes a critical review of Rodenburg's analysis and concludes that large scale developments are likely to be inevitable because of external economies of scale and market structures in international tourism, but that the consequences of such developments can be foreseen and therefore mitigated by appropriate pre-project planning.     

Entrepreneurship in the tourism industry: Issues in developing countries

The tourism industry in Malaysia is one of the most important sectors in terms of its contribution to the growth of the nation. The extensive demand on the tourism industry has stimulated the emergence of many small and medium hotels, resorts, and chalets in Malaysia. According to the literature, small and medium hotels are an extension of the entrepreneurial characteristics of the owners/managers of the hotels. In Malaysia, small and medium hotel entrepreneurs (SMHEs) have not been given much attention. Looking at this gap, this study aims to provide a significant result on entrepreneurship issues in Malaysia. The main objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of small and medium hotel owners/managers and the issues and problems they confront in relation to their survivability in the industry. The result revealed that the majority of owners/managers of small and medium hotels were male, middle-aged and older, with secondary and upper level of education, and whose prior specialisations or knowledge were not related to tourism. With strong self-confidence and independent personality characteristics, the majority started to establish their businesses after the financial crisis in 1997–1998. The result also defined small scale to mean hotels with less than 50 rooms, which had been constructed with limited personal funding and bank loans. Information technology was found to be an important tool to promote their hotels, but conventional techniques such as word of mouth and signboards were still significant. The owners/managers of small and medium hotels were in agreement over their weaknesses in terms of lack of knowledge and skills in running the business. At the same time, they also felt that the government should play a more proactive role in promoting the tourism industry.     

The use of investment incentives for tourism projects in developing countries

The use of investment incentives to attract capital finance is common to both developed and developing countries. This article (a) examines the reasons why investment incentives are offered, (b) describes the main characteristics of these incentives and (c) suggests guidelines for the use of such incentives to promote tourism development. Although this analysis is related primarily to developing countries, much of the comment is pertinent to developed countries.     

Issues in the identification and appraisal of tourism projects in developing countries

This paper considers the perspectives of the developing country as host to tourism projects, and examines the interests of both its citizens and government. Empirical material is based on the experiences of recipients of British aid in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, although this discussion can be extended to other Third World countries.     

Inhibitors to host community participation in sustainable tourism development in developing countries

The involvement of host communities (or destination residents), particularly in developing countries, is critical to the success of tourism development and to the creation of a “Just Destination”. This paper investigates host community perceptions about obstacles to their participation in tourism development in Lombok, Indonesia, providing new insights into institutional influences on tourism opportunities and issues. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques targeted separate groups of destination residents who live in a developed tourism destination, a less developed tourism destination, a remote rural village far away from tourism destinations, as well as a group of university students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation, and were analysed using content analysis. Results show three main institutional factors inhibit host community participation in tourism: tourism agencies, private sector providers and tourism infrastructure, and perceptions of the negative impacts of tourism. The underperformance of state tourism agencies and private sector providers resulted in a lack of tourism infrastructure and limitations on host community opportunities to participate in tourism development and businesses. The findings suggest the need for improvement in the training of state tourism agency employees, better coordination among government agencies, and improved education and training for tourism operators.     

Limits to community participation in the tourism development process in developing countries

This study deals with a normative concept of participatory development approach, which originates in the developed world. In particular, it analyses and explains the limitations to the participatory tourism development approach in the context of developing countries. It was found that there are operational, structural and cultural limits to community participation in the TDP in many developing countries although they do not equally exist in every tourist destination. Moreover, while these limits tend to exhibit higher intensity and greater persistence in the developing world than in the developed world, they appear to be a reflection of prevailing socio-political, economic and cultural structure in many developing countries. On the other hand, it was also found that although these limitations may vary over time according to types, scale and levels of tourism development, the market served, and cultural attributes of local communities, forms and scale of tourism developed are beyond the control of local communities. It concludes that formulating and implementing the participatory tourism development approach requires a total change in socio-political, legal, administrative and economic structure of many developing countries, for which hard political choices and logical decisions based on cumbersome social, economic and environmental trade-offs are sine qua non alongside deliberate help, collaboration and co-operation of major international donor agencies, NGOs, international tour operators and multinational companies.     

An educational simulation tool for integrated coastal tourism development in developing countries

In spite of the importance of coastal tourism for the economies of many developing countries, tourism infrastructure has often been developed without full consideration of long-term impacts on the environment. The simulation model presented in this paper aims to address critical gaps in awareness and capacity for integrated decision-making and planning in tourism infrastructure development in a developing country context. We build a simple closed-loop model of tourism infrastructure investment, which integrates typical economic, social and ecological dimensions of the problem. The model is calibrated so that within 20 years, investment projects in tourist capacity done without concomitant investment in solid waste and wastewater treatment result in a collapse of fish stocks and a sharp drop in tourist attendance. The model includes several policy options that allow users to intervene at various points in the loop, allowing stakeholders to explore how various combinations of policies perform in financial, environmental and social terms over the long period. The model can, therefore, be used as an educational tool for training and capacity-building.     

Economics of tourism & growth for small island countries

We theoretically analyze the impact of changes in foreign income from tourism source countries on the growth of tourism dependent small island economies. Using a general theoretical construct, we attempt to answer the question of how price elasticity of demand, income elasticity of tourist and the degree of competition in the service sector influence the economic development of small economies. One of the main results is that politicians may consider applying policies which lead to a competitive environment in the service sector to maximize growth and the consequent labor income share.     

Alternative approaches to tertiary tourism education with special reference to developing countries

The diversity of tourism education programmes makes well considered choice of appropriate training and education in tourism particularly difficult for developing countries. This article distills guidelines for programme choice from examining two main approaches to tourism—the demand- and supply-oriented approaches—and outlines the main components of an ‘ideal’ system, paying particular attention to the needs of developing countries and the problems that are likely to be encountered in this regard. Keywords: education, tourism development curricula choice, developing countries.     

Corporate governance,tourism growth and firm performance: Evidence from publicly listed tourism firms in five Middle Eastern countries

This study explores the under-researched relationship between corporate governance and firm performance in tourism companies. We employ instrumental variable modelling using 2SLS for publicly listed firms in five countries in the Middle East. Board independence is found to be positively related to firm performance and stock performance, suggesting that having independent directors among board members will improve overall firm performance. Board size shows opposing results: large boards enhance firm profitability; however, small boards exhibit more efficient stock performance. Finally, we support the tourism-led-growth hypothesis in our selected sample. These findings have empirical implications for policy makers, governments and academics.     

Planning and developing tourism within a public sector quagmire: Lessons from and for small countries

This paper examined public sector tourism in Northern Ireland, a small country on the periphery of Western Europe which is notorious for being over-governed. The authors found that its complex web of public sector tourism bodies created confusion and duplication within the industry. There was a lack of coordination and clear policy guidelines and many of the organisations were suffering from ‘partnership overload’. To make matters worse for Northern Ireland its National Tourism Organisation, faced with a reduced remit and shrinking budget, was not capable of making decisions and providing the strategic leadership that is required to drive the tourism agenda forward. Northern Ireland, and indeed any small country involved in tourism, could learn valuable lessons from Northern Ireland’s Celtic neighbours, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, countries which have taken action to remove some of their layers of administration and bureaucracy and make public sector tourism more streamlined and manageable.     

Economics of tourism investment in data scarce countries

Ex-ante economic impact analyses are required to demonstrate the development impact and viability of multilateral loans. These assessments are often performed under tight timelines, in data scarce environments and with limited opportunity for primary data collection. This paper develops a framework for assessing tourism interventions under these challenging conditions and evaluates a US$15 million tourism investment in Belize. This paper contributes to the literature by: (i) developing a generalizable approach to building economy-wide models in data scarce environments; (ii) generating realistic expectations of agent responses with quasi-contingent valuation and auto-regressive integrated moving average methods. Applying the first economy-wide model for Belize, results show that the investment would stimulate GDP by 3% and reduce unemployment from 12% to 10% by 2040.     

Nexus of tourism demand,economic growth,and external competitiveness in leading tourist destination countries

The study investigates the causal relationship between tourism demand, economic growth, and external competitiveness in leading tourist destination countries using the bootstrap panel Granger causality test between 2005 and 2019. To determine the direction and the sign of the causality, study first test the existence of cross-sectional dependence among the countries and slope homogeneity across the countries. The empirical findings of the study produced varying results for countries reflecting the heterogeneity among the sample countries. Results also provide evidence of tourism-led growth, economic-driven tourism growth, feedback, and neutrality hypotheses. Moreover, results show evidence of tourism induced external competitiveness and vice-versa. Therefore, even though the study's empirical results have a significant implication for policymakers, regulators, and sector representatives. It is not fair to suggest one size fits all policies for the sample countries.     

The challenges of developing transit tourism

This paper examines the challenges of attracting day-trip transit passengers in Asian hub airports. The rapid expansion of Asian hub airports in the past six years should produce opportunities for destinations to benefit from short-stay visits by transit and transfer passengers, using the hub for convenient connections. However, little short-haul transit tourism seems to occur. The authors propose that two reasons may account for this lack of demand: lack of opportunity or lack of desire. This study examines transit/transfer passengers from Chinese Taipei that pass through Hong Kong's International Airport. The study concludes that interest in transit tourism is high, but a lack of opportunity precludes higher participation rates. Intervention at the travel purchase decision-making point may enhance transit tourism opportunities.