Overseas Development Institute - Theme: Tourism

Online - Blog post - Six priorities for business and development

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:00:00 -0700

This blog summarises six priorities that are emerging from a meeting series on Harnessing the Power of Business for Development Impact. With six more meetings to go, it is already clear that the evolving agenda demands:

Shifts in mindsets;
Strategic innovation;
Stronger focus on impact;
Willingness to take and share risks;
New blends of business-development expertise and collaboration; and
Practical responses to the economic crisis.

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Publications - ODI Briefing Paper - Value chain analysis and poverty reduction at scale

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:00:00 -0700

This Briefing Paper looks at how markets can be made to work for the poor, building on experience in the tourism sector to unblock access to profitable market opportunities.

The need – and opportunity – to harness markets for poverty reduction is evident in tourism. Developing countries are littered with well-intentioned community-based tourism projects, delivering small benefits to few people. Developed in isolation from commercial distribution channels, they lack the client volumes needed for commercial sustainability. In contrast, Ministries of Tourism and mainstream businesses often see increased arrival numbers as the barometer of success. Research by ODI suggests that neither approach is right, but tourism markets can – in some cases – be exploited for the benefit of the poor.

The ‘pro-poor value chain’ approach to tourism has been developed by ODI, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), as a way to shift thinking from projects to interventions that harness markets and deliver impact at scale. By ‘value chain’ we mean the full range of activities that are required to bring a tourist to a destination and provide all the necessary services (accommodation, catering, retail, excursions, etc.).

The approach ‘follows the dollar’, focusing on key points along the chain where interventions could expand income opportunities for the poor, within a commercial service sector. ‘Pro poor income’ (PPI) is the wages and profits earned by poor households across all the inter-related strands of the value chain. The aim is to support market-based interventions by analysing how poor target groups currently engage, how their positions can be upgraded, and how changes in value chain performance would affect them.

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Project outputs - Report - Making success work for the poor - Package tourism in Northern Tanzania

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Tanzania’s strategy of maintaining a high-value tourist product and attracting large numbers of foreign tourists is clearly working. International package tourists climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and visiting the Northern Safari Circuit deliver significant benefits to the poor, and international comparisons suggest that poor Tanzanians are capturing a relatively large share of tourist spending. There are a series of simple and practical steps that could be taken to increase the pro-poor benefits of Mount Kilimanjaro climbing and Northern Safari Circuit package holidays.

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ODI in the media - Citation inIPP Tanzania : "$1bn revenues, little reaches the common man"

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Project outputs - Background paper - Effects of the Global Financial Crisis on Developing Countries and Emerging Markets - Policy responses to the crisis

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:00:00 -0800

Three pieces of information provide interesting insights into current policy issues related to the global financial crisis.

The first is a quote of Joseph Stiglitz’s, Whither Socialism, published in 1994 (1990 Wicksell lectures), warning of the problems facing American financial institutions:

• Inadequate capital requirements, which resulted in insufficiently capitalized institutions having an incentive to take excessive risk

• Inadequate incentives for banks not to engage in risk taking

• Inadequate monitoring by regulators

Were we prepared for the 2008 global financial crisis? No. Was the crisis avoidable if the rules had been right? Most likely, yes.

The second is the crude observation in October 2008 that developed countries responded to the global financial crisis safeguarding their own banking systems to the tune of $2-4 trillion, as if only national tax payers mattered with no respect for international linkages (and no common EU position on banking or fiscal issues). Will the future hold improved global and regional economic co-operation?

The final piece of news reminds us of how slow some developing countries are to react to the greatest global recession since the 1930, thinking that they might be unaffected. President Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa moved only last week to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis when the government decided to set up a special task team to look at how best to cope with the knock-on effects of job losses. How will each developing country cope with and respond to the crisis?

This note addresses these policy issues and suggests that:

• While some evidence is beginning to become available, individual developing countries need urgent access to updated research on country-specific economic, social and political consequences of the financial crisis.

• Each developing country needs to set up a crisis task force to consider the best possible policy responses.

• Global financial rules need to allow for new rules to reduce pro-cyclicality in international capital flows, to increase transparency, and to ensure a greater voice for developing countries.

• Developed countries should not amplify the financial mess they pass on to developing countries, and improve their disbursements on aid and development finance as the case for aid is stronger now than previously.

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Project outputs - Background paper - The Global Financial Crisis: will successful African countries be affected?

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:00:00 -0800

The effects of the global financial crisis on developing countries will be as high as on developed countries. IMF forecasts for sub-Saharan African growth for 2008 and 2009 have recently been downgraded by between 1-2 percentage points to 5.5% in 2008 and 5.1% in 2009. The revision represents a reduction of up to USD 20 per head in sub-Saharan Africa due to the financial crisis.

The channels through which the global financial turmoil affects developing countries include financial channels and real channels. Financial channels include effects through: stock markets, banking sector (borrowing from advanced economies, foreign ownership of banks, exposure to sub-prime market), and foreign direct investment. Real channels include effects through remittances, exports, imports, terms of trade, and aid. Our previous research based on current updates and forecasts as well as on evidence on what happened in previous slowdowns and in the absence of policy responses, suggested that net financial flows to developing countries may fall by as much as $300 billion in two years, equivalent to a 25% drop.

This paper examines whether Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda, which represent successful countries in Africa recently, are at risk of back sliding on their recent successes. It does this by first painting the picture on how Africa might be affected using the channels mentioned and then by discussing each country in detail, as much as possible taking into account of what has already happened. It is clear that some countries are seriously at risk of being affected by the current global financial crisis either through real contagion or financial contagion. Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania are more at risk than the other countries considered since they have a significant share of foreign owned banks and their economies strongly rely on foreign direct investment. Uganda has a high remittances dependency that makes it exposed to the current crisis; the turnover at its nascent stock market has already been more than halved. Kenya’s indicators (remittances down by 40%, tourism by 30%, stock prices down by 40%) suggest it has already been affected in a major way.

The policy space for responding to the impact of the financial turmoil varies across SSA countries. In particular, the effects might be stronger in Ghana as it has both a large current account and a large fiscal deficit, and the level of its reserves was below 3 months of imports of goods and services. In other countries this crisis is yet another set back. Kenya was already under political pressures and the current bad news will make the situation only more precarious.

We suggest that while some evidence has emerged, individual developing countries need urgent access to updated research on country-specific economic, social and political consequences of the financial crisis. Each developing country needs to set up a crisis task force to consider the best possible policy responses – short term and long term economic and social policy responses.

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ODI in the media - Citation inIRIN Africa : "Sex tourists exploiting children "

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:00:00 -0700

Audio and video - Video Blog - Sobre comercio y pobreza en América Latina

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:00:00 -0700

Las discusiones, debates, estudios de casos y opiniones de investigadores y profesionales en el comercio y la pobreza en América Latina.

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Publications - ODI Opinion - A misguided quest: Community-based tourism in Latin America

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:00:00 -0700

Tourism can help reduce poverty in Latin America, but community-based tourism is not the answer. Instead, communities should be helped to access mainstream tourism markets.

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Publications - ODI Working Paper - Doing the right thing approximately not the wrong thing precisely: Challenges of monitoring impacts of pro-poor interventions in tourism value chains

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:00:00 -0700

Approaches to tourism intervention are changing. Organisations that have been investing in pro-poor tourism, or community tourism, have found that their efforts remain in a niche and are too marginal in denting poverty levels. Others operating in mainstream tourism are realising that growth in arrivals is not all that counts – more has to be done to deliver impact for the poor from the growth of mainstream tourism. The focus today is on scaling up the contribution that tourism can make to poverty reduction. Amid disappointing and piecemeal data on the impact of pro-poor tourism initiatives to date, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and other organisations are addressing the challenging question of how to scale up impacts of tourism (and their interventions) on poor people. They are increasingly adopting a 'value chain' (VC) approach, seeking to intervene at key points in the tourism value chain that can significantly expand income and opportunities for the poor, while working effectively within a highly commercial and sophisticated service sector.

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Project outputs - Report - Creating pro-poor linkages around Rwandan tourism

Sat, 31 May 2008 17:00:00 -0700

This brief gives an overview of where poor people participate in Rwanda's business tourism and gorilla-viewing tourism. It outlines the value chain and rough estimates of earnings accruing to the poor, highlighting key factors that need to explore the extent of poor farmer participation in supplying food to Kigali hotels in order to qualify estimates of pro-poor impact of business tourism. The impact of gorilla-tourism varies by the business model of the lodge or hotel, and the components of the tourists' itinerary. It concludes with 6 areas for action by government and private sector stakeholders, ranging from work with private operators on inclusive business, enhanced access for poor farmers to hotel markets, and development of local tailor-made products for conference tourism.

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Publications - ODI Opinion - Stepping up the ladder: how business can help achieve the MDGs

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:00:00 -0700

Business and development is the topic to watch and work on in 2008, as businesses respond to sustained pressure to contribute to the MDGs. This Opinion outlines the three -- possibly four -- steps to effective engagement of the private sector in efforts to reach the MDGs. First: business engagement int he community. Second: taking corporate social responsibility into the heart of companies. Third: businesses working through every aspect of their activity to see whether development impact can be improved. An emerging fourth step is involving business in global public policy. Business interests do not always coincide with social interests. But interests do not have to be perfectly aligned for a productive partnership to develop. Opportunities must be seized to build new kinds of relationships with the private sector.

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Publications - ODI Opinion - Mitigating climate change: what impact on the poor?

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:00:00 -0700

The impact of climate change is of vital importance. But, for the world’s poor, policies to mitigate climate change may, in the short term, have as much impact as climate change itself. This Opinion assesses four mitigation strategies and their possible impacts on the poor: environmental labelling; green growth strategies; biofuel production and food prices; and forest protection. It focuses on sub-Saharan Africa.

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Publications - ODI Working Paper - The Gambia tourism value chain and prospects for pro-poor tourism

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:00:00 -0700

This study examines the current state of tourism in The Gambia, West Africa, and proposes a series of practical measures to enhance the flow of benefits to the poor. It is based on a framework of international 'best practice' for boosting benefits for the poor, combined with innovative local economic analysis that maps the current flows of benefits to a range of stakeholders from the tourism value chain in The Gambia.

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