The WTTC revealed its Blueprint for novel tourism in 2003 calling for both the tourism industry and governments to make numerous long-term commitments to make certain the affluence of tourism industry, one of the largest industries in the world, employing more than two million people and accounting for ten percent of the global GDP (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2003). The WTTCs blueprint for new tourism contains a fresh vision for travel and tourism and tactics to steer its recovery from a sequence of unparalleled drawbacks over the previous years in the form of war, SARS, economic slowdown and terrorism. There is an increasing consciousness among governments that the growth of the travel and tourism industry should not be left to chance.
In fact, what is required is a novel strategy and vision involving cooperation among all stakeholders, both private and public, to transform potential challenges into the openings. The WTTCs Blueprint for novel tourism provides guidelines on how that can be accomplished (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2003). In an attempt to meet the challenges that lie ahead and attain the vision, the Blueprint creates three basic conditions. First, administrations must identify travel and tourism as a number one priority. Second, businesses must balance money matters to people, environment and culture. Thirdly, all stakeholders must contribute to the quest of long-term prosperity and growth.
Governments possess it within their authority to unbolt the sector’s potential to create employment and generate prosperity. Novel tourism largely relies on governments identifying travel and tourism valuable flow via impacts for every segment of the economy and the populace as well as having the feeling of leadership to take action on that identification. In this view, governments should participate in developing the human capital needed for tourism development (Baumgarten and Ian, 2004). They should invest in human resources via education by closing the gap between the industry and authorities and help in planning for future requirements. An easily accessible online market could connect the tourism market with information on employment.
Numerous new tasks for the private segment are concrete. The segment should develop careers, employee relations, create environmental awareness, education, promote small firms and assist in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. Further, the private sector can participate in the new tourism by enhancing the eminence of tourism goods and adding worth for cash while widening consumer choice. At the same time, it can improve its interaction with the world or the environment in which it functions including input from tourism organizations of leadership at local and strategic levels. The cumulative impact will be a reorientation towards tourism that continually serves the private segment’s needs while at the same time embracing the broader interests of the communities and countries in which it functions.
Novel tourism requires fresh joint approaches using mechanisms that spring from partnership with the public sector. The industry’s realization of its wider duties has to be paralleled by the administration. At the same time, all stakeholders must be ready to embrace a new kind of thinking and a fresh level of cooperation and openness to develop emergency planning and development strategies. Public and private sectors can partner to establish sustainable plans for developing holiday regions or destinations. Further, tourist boards can be restructured to reflect public-private partnership which may go a long way in boosting tourism (Briise et al, 2006).
Indices of Competitiveness
Price Competitive
Ideally, price competitiveness in tourism should encompass prices of major goods consumed or purchased by tourists, including travel, rental, car and entertainment. The price component comprises purchasing power and hotel prices. The combination of hotel prices and purchasing power indicates the amount of money tourists are required to pay at the place of destination. This grouping mirrors the duality nature of the tourism segment, specifically in developing nations, where the tourism sector is perceived as an enclave segment where quality and prices of products purchased by tourists are different from those consumed by locals.
Infrastructural Development
Competitiveness is also connected to infrastructural expansion, which is represented by access to drinking water, sanitation facilities and development of roads. The infrastructural index shows the length of roads in a particular country compared to its anticipated extent conditioned on the urbanization, population size and per capita income. Infrastructural expansion in tourism should incorporate quality and quantity of airports, railway networks and telecommunication systems (Gooroochurn, 2007).
Environment Indicator
The nature of the surroundings is also a significant consideration for a destination, particularly with a rising number of tourists who are environmentally conscious. The environment index captures the eminence of physical surroundings and the degree to which a nation is involved and aware of environmental management. The environment index combines carbon emission, population density and ratifications of treaties related to the environment. Ratification of treaties includes leadership, membership and ratification of main environmental agreements laid down by the UN.
Technology Advancement
The technology index reveals the progress of a country in its attainment of contemporary systems, symbolized by telephone mainlines, internet, mobile phone usage and advanced technology exports (Gooroochurn, 2007). The internet theme shows the proportion per ten thousand people of the total number of computers with active web protocol addresses linked to the internet. The mobile phone theme shows the proportion or number of individuals having portable telephones or those who have subscribed to mobile telephone providers.
Human Resources Index
The human resources gauge measures the eminence of the labor force in the country of destination using education or any other related criteria. The presumption here is that a high quality of labor can offer quality tourism services. In this circumstance, training and education in tourism and travel segment would be a better proxy. Such information is however not easy to obtain and consequently the education index from the UNDP is utilized.
Opened Indicator
The openness index agrees with development literature, implying that a nation’s openness to commerce is an important determinant of development. Openness is normally represented by commerce openness, which indicates the level of a country’s openness to international commerce and is usually computed as the proportion of the summation of exports and imports to GDP. The openness indicator includes commerce openness index, visa index, tourism honesty index and tariff on the world trade index. The visa index is used to show the degree of a country’s honesty towards overseas tourism. Tourism openness on the other hand measures the degree to which a country is open to intercontinental tourism.
Social Development Index
It is obvious that eminence of life at the place of destination will greatly contribute to the experience of tourists thereby enhancing the superiority of tourism. The eminence of life is well captured by this indicator. Given the intricacies involved in assessing the eminence of life, the index is constructed by the amalgamating Newspaper Index, TV Index and PC Index with Human Development Index (Blanke and Thea, 2008). The total number of crimes committed in every country is considered important, but rarely included in the calculation of the index. The HDI assesses the degree of a country’s accomplishment in the background of human development and often comprises income, life expectancy and education indicators.
Human Tourism
The Human tourism index assesses the attainment of human development in relation to tourism activity. It is normally constructed in line with the human advancement indices computed by UNDP to assess human development in various facets. It is calculated as a standard of tourism participation indicator and tourism impact indicator (Gooroochurn, 2007). The TII assesses the direct effects of tourism on the economies and is computed as the summation of expenditure and receipt from tourists as a proportion of the GDP. The TPI on the other hand, assesses people’s participation in tourism activities.
Conclusion
The WTTC plays a pivotal role in promoting new tourism, which requires a stronger partnership between public authorities and private sectors. It is aimed at delivering products which are commercially successful in a way that guarantees benefits for everybody. Further, new tourism focuses beyond short-term benefits and centers on the benefits for both tourists and people in the societies they vacate, and for their social, natural and cultural environments.
References
- Briise, B. et al. (2006). Travel and Tourism Organizations. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
- Blanke, J. and Thea, Chiesia. (2008). Selected issues of T and T competitiveness. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
- Baumgarten, J., and Ian, P. (2004). Blueprint for new tourism. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
- Gooroochurn, N. (2007). Measuring competitiveness in the travel and tourism industry. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
- World Travel and Tourism Council. (2003). WTTC’S blueprint for new tourism calls on government and industry to make significant long term commitments. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
