Tourism Governance

A Critical Discourse on a Global Industry

Amir Gohar

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9783110633771
• eBook ISBN: 9783110634068
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Tourism Governance takes a systematic approach to reveal the varying internal and external dynamics that influence tourism policy and strategy across countries. With particular attention to the role of stakeholders and governmental scales, the book offers a broad geographic representation, highlighting the diversity of governance relationships towards tourism in Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, India, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and United States. Two additional chapters push beyond borders to examine tourism driven nongovernmental organizations and international tourism governance. As the first and only comprehensive comparative analysis of tourism across governmental systems, Tourism Governance promises to be a platform for inspiring critical discourse on the forces that shape this global industry.

1 Introduction

1.1 The Concept of Governance

The origins of current notion of governance are long-standing since ancient past yet had the chance to evolve throughout time. The foundartions of principal forms of governance, as stated by Finer (1997), can be traced as far back as 3200 BC along the Nile Valley and Southern Mesopotamia. Finer affirms that the earliest forms of governance that can be traced relates back to the ancient states of Sumer, Egypt, Persia, and Assyria, as well as the classical states of Greece and Rome, the Byzanitine and Caliphate Empires of the near East, The Han, Tang and Ming states of China, Tokugawa Japan, and the “modern” states of Europe and North America.

With regard to its contemporary definition, social scientists and public administration scholars make clear distinctions between government and governance, and they explore the relationship between the two concepts. For instance, Fasenfest (2010) argues that government is the office, authority, or function of governing; governing is having control or rule over oneself; and governance is the activity of governing. In a more recent definition is by UNESCO (2016), governance refers to structures and processes that are designed to ensure accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment, and broad-based participation.

The concept of governance is an overarching one that encompasses government. Weil (2015) asserts that government is only one arm of modern society and that it derives its legitimacy and powers from its taxes, spending, laws, and regulations. The other two arms of modern society are the business/for-profit sector, which derives its power from creating jobs and paying taxes, and the non-profit sector, which serves the public interest without profit.

Because these three facets of civil society were never explicitly trifurcated, the distinctions between them are oftentimes porous. Such blurred lines apply to overall governance and sector-specific governance (such as the governance of tourism), and governance must be considered in order to fully understand tourism development.

Spirou (2011) asserts that the introduced tourism infrastructure coupled with intense marking efforts and promotional practices exercised by municipal government, corporations, and business leaders has lured thousands if not millions of visitors towards destinations. This volume aims to understand the evolving nature of tourism governance and compare how tourism is shaped in different countries as a result of its governance system. Each chapter is about one country, describing its recent contemporarily tourism policies and how it is shaped. Each follows a consistent structure (with some flexibility) to allow for each chapter to address similar issues, concerns, recommendations across wide range of countries from all over the world. The chapters are presented in alphabetical order by country name.

1.2 Tourism Governance Across Countries

In this volume, different authors offer a critical overview on tourism governance across varying scales (central, regional, and local outreach) and also across different governing bodies (government, non profit, and private sector). The authors also explore how tourism governance is led in their respected chapters. A quick reference guide can be found in the Appendix at the end of the book, while a list of common terms and their acronyms is presented.

In Chapter 2 (Colombia), Patrick Naef presents how Colombia managed to completely reverse its global image with strong political will and consistent work of the government and how the international community such as UNWTO has supported this notion by only declaring Colombia as a visitable destination.

Bertram Gordon in Chapter 5 (France) uses the Eiffel Tower to explain how France’s government collaborates on different levels (central government of France and local government of Paris) in supporting Paris as tourism detonation. He also uses Euro Disney as an example to the coordination between government agencies and private sector initiatives. Euro Disney is the most visited site in France, and it would not have achieved this success without the backing of the government.

Amir Gohar in Chapter 3 (Egypt) and Priyanka Ghosh in Chapter 6 (India) explain the dynamics between central government as a regulator and local state government as an executive overseeing the hotel industry. The two countries also share the intersection of tourism authorities’ efforts with the environmental authorities and forests/park management. Although the overall composition of government in this area is similar, India seems to have higher influence from the environmental authorities on shaping its tourism activities than Egypt. This appears in looking at the extent in which they control tourism development in coastal areas which shapes tourism by antagonism.

Monica Pascoli in Chapter 7 (Italy) explains that in Italy tourism in central government is combined with heritage and culture which, for a country like Italy, makes it the largest economic sector. One can navigate tourism governance in Italy through multiple levels: from the EU, central government, regional government, and subregional. The central government main role is to orchestrate the scene and negotiate roles with other stakeholders such as private sector and community organizations. Italy seems to be unique in understanding the importance of tourism on the local level. And how local government is more aware of what is happening in their specific regions. However, this decentralized approach has revealed some challenges that local tourism is facing due to the absence of central government role such as lack of infrastructure, lack of strong country level brand, lack of quality standards to monitor local operations and absent of statistical surveys that can inform future tourism decisions.

In Chapter 8 (Lebanon) Kamil Hamaty reveals the complexity of tourism governance in Lebanon. The lack of funding and power of the ministry of tourism in the central government have resulted into multiple tourism projects that are popping up under different authorities. These popped-up projects can be funded by Arab investors, real estate developers, and international funding from external organizations. Therefore, multiples of projects are labelled under leisure, hotels, restaurants, and other activities of that nature. This has led to the involvement of other non-tourism sectors such as investment development authority in Lebanon (IDAL), general directorate of urban planning (DGUP), and council of development and reconstruction (CDR). This has left the ministry of tourism with the role of promotion and branding. The weak role of ministry of tourism, rather absent one, has also encouraged the non-profit sector to play stronger role with some independent initiatives that seem to be very successful, such as Shouf Biosphere Reserve.

As for Chapter 9 (Mexico), Matilde Córdoba Azcárate highlights the shifting yet dominant role of the state in development and planning while consistently working side by side with the business community and private initiatives when it comes to tourism development. Tourism governance in Mexico is not unilinear, rather multidirectional with the influence of alliances between the government, private sector, transnational, and philanthropic actors. The continuous presence of a governmental body solely responsible for tourism is threatened due to the drop in resources for the Ministry of Tourism, and hence the agreement on the route of discontinuing tourism boards and governmental agencies responsible for designing, operating, and coordinating the tourism strategies across the nation.

One governance direction that can be detected from the upcoming chapters is the notion of merging a tourism governmental body under different ministries that regulate other aspects of society, just as in the case of Oman and Poland. Amna Al-Ruhelli and Rashid Al-Hinai in Chapter 10 (Oman) shed a light on the relatively young and recently developed governmental ministry of tourism in Oman. Oman recently decided to merge the ministry of tourism along with the ministry of heritage into one governmental body as to make use of Oman’s diverse cultural and natural lifestyles as main tourism attraction points across the nation. Oman, as a nation, recently took the decision to shift its economic standpoint from mainly depending on oil and its by-products to a more diverse plan, which includes initiatives as preparing tourism masterplans, privatizing the management of natural sites, investing more into adventure activities, and other initiatives such as Oman Tourism Strategy 2040 and Tanfeedh National Program that aim mainly to diversify the touristic activities within the country to contribute towards the national economy. Oman is shifting its focus towards promoting the nation as a sustainable and eco-friendly touristic attraction.

As for Chapter 11 (Poland), Magdalena Banaszkiewicz and Sabina Owsianowska highlight how tourism was listed under the governance of different ministries such as Ministry of Transport and Marine Economy, Ministry of Economy and Labor, Ministry of Sport, and finally Ministry of Economic Development, Labor, and Technology. The authors also showcase how the Polish state is mainly concerned with the promotion of tourism by depending on regional and local tourist organizations as well as foreign branched of Polish tourist organizations by promoting brands of cities instead than promoting a brand of the country as a whole.

Joana Almeida and Pedro J. Pinto in Chapter 12 (Portugal) explain how tourism in Portugal is regulated under five different regional tourism bodies, where each body is dedicated for a specific territorial scope and holds administrative and financial autonomy over it, and report back to the national tourism authority under the Ministry of Economy. Moreover, tourism development and marketing emerged as a joint effort between the regional governance bodies and non-profit or private associations within each region. The authors also argue that despite the abundance in tourism resources, Portugal only recently started being labelled as a successful touristic destination as a result of the cooperation between the central government and municipalities for the development of attractive tourism products and investing in the upgrading of city enters and their infrastructure.

In Chapter 14 (Thailand), Louise Mozingo and Wilasinee Darnthamrongkul discuss Thai tourism governance and how it is highly centralized under the dominance of Department of Tourism, responsible for development of touristic sites, and Tourism Authority of Thailand, responsible for marketing and promoting Thailand as a touristic destination. The authors also note that even though Thailand has abundant geographical and other touristic magnets, the governmental approach towards tourism does not engage in a sustainability dialogue when it comes to how to preserve these touristic magnets, which can be a red flag when it comes to sustaining the touristic flow in Thailand specially when tourism is responsible for a chunk percentage of the country’s GDP.

Ines Mestaoui and Amira Benali in Chapter 15 (Tunisia) discuss how Tunisia has tourism under the control of the central government, through the establishment of the Ministry of Tourism which seeks the implementation of governmental policies, and with the help of other multiple organizations working under the supervision of the ministry itself. The authors argue that even though there are governmental bodies responsible for tourism, the sector is lagging behind due to the unsuccessful use of Tunisian territories into promoting different events and forms of tourism; currently, Tunisia lacks entertainment schemes and events that significantly help stir tourists’ interest into local traditions and customs, or what is referred to as Tunisian Paratourism.

Another example discussed in this collection is Chapter 16 (Turkey), where İsmail Kervankıran, Gülsel Çiftci, & Azade Özlem Çalıkalkin highlight how Turkey’s current tourism governance is a joint-effort between the governmental Ministry of Culture and Tourism body and organizations or agencies working closely with it as well as the private business sector. Legislations, promotion, and control over tourism is traced as interaction between governmental and nongovernmental actors (private and social). The authors also discuss that regardless of Turkey’s abundant touristic magnets, the stakeholders working around tourism have to evaluate and adjust their governance approaches to ensure the sustainabiliy of these magnets against rising new technologies.

The last nation-specific Chapter 17 of this book addresses tourism in the United States of America. Dean MacCannell discusses how the US tourism follows a fundamentally decentralized form of governance when it comes to tourism; the US does not house a federal department or national policy makers dedicated to tourism. Instead, tourism governance is achieved thorugh coordinated state or local offices and often promoted and managed through private sectors.

In addition to individual country chapters, this book discusses other forms of tourism that are not country-specific and do not necessarily follow the mold of tourism governance. One of these forms as discussed in Chapter 18 (Tourism Without Governance) is the notion of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF. In the 21^st century, WWOOF is a platform used to connect farm owners and prospect “helpers” or people who volunteer their help in exchange of being provided accommodation by farm owners. Such relationship allows volunteers to travel around the world without being bound to monetary ristrictions or the negative effects of mass tourism. In addition, WWOOF is listed as a type of volunteer tourism or voluntourism. The chapter unfolds into discussing how WWOOF is present in various countries such as Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, and USA.

No doubt that international governace play a significant role in shaping national and local tourism poslices. In Chapter 19, Nelson Graborn elaborates on how international organisations such as UNWTO, UNESCO, WB, USAID, UNEP, GEF, and many others contribute to infuncing tourism polcieis on both the national level, such as offering economic support to nation states that gets spent on the tourism sectorsa. As well as development of plans for specific sites on local level such as developing world heritage sites for tourism, tourism development within national parks and environmental sensitive areas, or sites with significant cultural attractions.

The coming chapters will take the reader to a journey through different tourism governance systems, where the reader will witness many similarities and differences between different nations. This volume is an attempt to compare/contrast the tourism governing bodies and provide insights on how tourism is shaped, measures, represented and managed by different stakeholders. The volume will meander through different tourism landscapes across a number of countries.

2 Colombia

Patrick Naef

2.1 Colombia as a Post-Conflict Destination?

Colombia, a country of about 50 million people situated in the north of South America, has been off the tourist map for decades due to its high level of violence. While cities such as Medellin and Cali were considered as among the most dangerous in the world until the end of the 20th century, the whole country has been plagued by a long-lasting armed conflict involving guerrillas, paramilitaries, narcos, and regular government forces. The security situation significantly improved during the last two decades, and in 2016, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government signed peace agreements promising to put these years of war behind them. However, the violence is still far from being over and since the peace process began, hundreds of social leaders, former guerillas and civilians have lost their lives. In view of this, many questions the label of “post-conflict” officially attributed to the country, and prefer to refer to “post-agreements” (González & Álvarez 2018; Guilland & Naef 2019). Yet, the general improvement in security, especially in large urban centers and specific areas like the Caribbean coast and the coffee region, resulted in an important increase of foreign visitors, as well as local tourists eager to rediscover their country. This rapid growth of the tourism sector is not happening without tensions. The public authorities are struggling to adapt tourism governance to a fast-changing setting. Indeed, in Colombia’s “post-conflict” context, tourism is not always a priority: the formula...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acronyms
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Colombia
• 3 Egypt
• 4 Finland
• 5 France
• 6 India
• 7 Italy
• 8 Lebanon
• 9 Mexico
• 10 Oman
• 11 Poland
• 12 Portugal
• 13 Spain
• 14 Thailand
• 15 Tunisia
• 16 Turkey
• 17 Unites States of America
• 18 Tourism Without Governance: WWOOF
• 19 Tourism and Governance Beyond National Boundaries
• 20 Conclusion
• Index