The ranking of countries under GDP needs a serious overhaul, especially in today’s consumer age; tourism deserves a far greater share of government attention, says Greg Duffell.
The PATA membership has spanned the globe of travel and tourism for the past 59-years, therefore, a wealth of accumulated knowledge exists; our goal is to share as much of this intelligence as possible with our members and member countries.
PATA has an accumulated knowledge databank plus current intelligence-gathering capabilities unrivalled in the industry. We intend rolling out to members over the next few months an interactive data dashboard named TIGA – Travel Intelligence Graphic Architecture. Combining data gathered from travel statistics, airlines, hotels, consumers and economic data, plus our own forecasting data, will give members access to information that they would otherwise not normally see.
We also provide PATA Task Forces to directly assist governments planning tourism and also in times of crises. In more recent times these have mostly been used for crises situations (for example SARS and tsunamis) whereas historically, some Task Forces worked on developing or marketing tourism in new destinations.
I would encourage hotels in the smaller segment to join PATA. We offer many opportunities to network both online and offline for members, as well as subsidised opportunities to attend and participate in global travel events such as ITB, WTM and the PATA Travel Mart, which they would normally pay considerably more to attend.
We also represent this segment at events such as ‘The Small & Medium Hotels Conference’ so, by being a member of PATA their voice can be heard and valuable research and intelligence shared – again, much of this data would be far too expensive for the individual small hotel to acquire.
Tourism in most countries (perhaps islands are the exception here) is recognised as contributing on average three-to-five per cent of GDP and thus ranked very low in the ‘pecking order’ in ministerial priorities. This is based mostly on the counting of very basic tourism receipts and tourist arrival numbers.
If the true impact (income and cost) of tourism (international and domestic) is measured against all economic contributors (labour, agriculture, transport, security, healthcare, finance and foreign exchange) then in many destinations, the figure rises substantially to as high as 25-30%. So tourism thus is really a large ‘shadow economy’ and deserves a far greater share of government attention.
The other significant factor is that GDP measurements focus mainly on ‘supply side’ economics whereas tourism is both supply side and ‘consumption’ economics – which is not measured at all under GDP. The ranking of countries under GDP needs a serious overhaul, especially in today’s consumer age.
All of the above unfortunately means that tourism is forgotten in many governments where large manufacturing or industry giants have the largest share of the political voice. There are exceptions; the New Zealand prime minister, recognising the importance of tourism to his economy, took on the tourism portfolio personally.
Further, tourism (and tourism related businesses) employ a significant number of skilled and semi-skilled workers and, with unemployment touching 10% in many economies, governments would be wise to view supporting tourism as an immediate opportunity to decrease unemployment.
In April, I had my first official visit to India under the PATA banner and it was therefore appropriate to call upon the Minister of Tourism and update her on the happenings of PATA around the globe. India has bid for a number of PATA events including the PATA Travel Mart in 2011, so I firstly thanked her for her support of the industry in this process.
We discussed the global economic crises and its impact on India and neighbouring countries. India has fared quite well thanks to a solid and growing domestic tourism market and is showing signs of growth in both inbound and outbound short-haul markets. The long-haul traditional markets (USA and UK) dropped in 2008-09, however already show signs of recovery, in 2010.
We also discussed the ‘Incredible India’ brand and its success; however, I urged the Minister to consider how both state and domestic brands can be aligned to reinforce the international brand.
Visa issuance between countries is always a sensitive political issue and often involves a number of government departments including Tourism, Immigration and Security. Where it is acting as a barrier for tourism, PATA will seek dialogue with the governments concerned to encourage the free flow of genuine tourists across borders.
PATA is working actively at the highest international levels with UNWTO and WTTC to gain a greater voice for the industry and see opportunities for travel and tourism to lead the economic recovery from this current recession, and to lead in sustainable ways such as CO2 reduction. We are also actively working with a number of key tourism destinations (for example China CNTA) to ensure tourism is seen, heard and recognised at the highest levels of power.
