UNWTO Global Summit - Speech by Mr. Enrico Gaveglia, UNDP Maldives Resident Representative on Community-based Tourism

Sustainable Tourism – Perspectives from the UN Development Agency, 16 June 2022

June 16, 2022

 

Minister of Tourism, Honourable Dr Abdulla Mausoom, 

Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Honourable Yumna Maumoon,

Ministers and distinguished leaders from the participating Asia-Pacific countries,

Panellists for today’s session on Community-based Tourism, 

Special invitees, and colleagues,

Good Morning.

 

Let me first thank Honourable Minister of Tourism and the UNWTO for extending this opportunity to share some insights into the tourism policy discourse from a UNDP standpoint. 

I am pleased to share this platform with Honourable Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, on this very relevant and important topic for the Maldives. 

Tourism is undeniably the bedrock of many of the fastest growing economies in the Asia and Pacific Region and the rest of the world – accounting for 10% of the global GDP and employment.

It is an important sector that influences all facets of development - across economic - and the very core of social and environmental fabric in host destinations. 

Tourism is increasingly being recognised as a key driving factor for development, including our progress towards Agenda 2030.

2017 was the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development declared by the UN General Assembly. 

The same year, the 22nd General Assembly of the UNWTO held in China, committed to the “Chengdu Declaration on Tourism and Sustainable Development Goals”.

These were very timely commitments aligning with the growing significance and the link between tourism and sustainable development globally.

Then in 2018, UNWTO and UNDP developed a joint publication titled “Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Journey to 2030”.

The report stresses UNWTO and UNDP’s interlinked commitment to realise the SDG targets. A commitment that can’t be held in isolation from each other and that benefits from both policy and experience from the ground on over 170 countries across the world where UNDP is deployed with country programmes sealed with governments. 

The publication gives a detailed and joint guide of how the tourism sector can contribute towards the implementation and achievement of each of the 17 SDGs integrated with each other. 

The core UN message that the report put forward was and is that tourism and its growth must be carried in diligent harmony with the social and environmental assets of countries. 

What this means is, the occasional adverse effects of tourism, like its contribution to carbon emissions, environmental degradation, economic inequalities must all be considered and well-planned for, if we want to harness and sustain a net-positive contribution to people and planet from the sector.

As UNDP’s Administrator Achim Steiner stated in the report -  tourism can greatly accelerate SDG progress, IF well managed. It can provide employment, reduce poverty and even incentivise environmental conservation.

We’ve seen examples from home and abroad that unchecked expansion of tourism – without environmental safeguards, at times even with direct detriment attributable to the tourism operations – will only increase the pressure on the natural resources, ecosystems and biodiversity that communities depend on.

Effects on fragile ecosystems must be kept under close check – to avoid situation that may, IF not well managed, created unwanted “casualties”.

So, it is crucial to have balanced and well-planned strategies in place to ensure that:

Environmental conservation and sustainable business practices form the foundations of business models – NOT a CSR gimmick or an afterthought. 

Tourism preserves and promotes the unique social norms and customs of its host community and provides opportunities for them. Especially those disadvantaged and minority groups furthest behind on the socioeconomic ladder. 

Tourism and its benefits are made equitable. 

Tourism must not be extractive nor predatory. 

 

Our entire consumption model is built to be extractive of economic value but puts an unbearable liability to nature and there is simply not enough borrowing available anymore.

In essence, benefits that tourism draws from the community, must be equitably distributed back into the community.

A circularity must be put in spin. 

For developing countries, specifically in Asian region, tourism is a key source of the livelihood for millions of people.

Before coming to Maldives, I worked in Sri lanka, Cambodia and the Philippines where I was witness to how tourism is a key component of country’s economies. 

So naturally, I had to do a quick comparison exercise. 

And while for example before COVID, the travel and tourism industry contributed 12.7% of the Philippines GDP, 

In comparison, in Maldives, tourism accounts for more than half of its GDP (56.6%).

As the UN development agency, we recognise the sheer importance of tourism for the Maldives. 

I also recognise the tremendous positive role it has played in the Maldives development success story – a story that started as an LDC but now is written in a SIDS at UMIC status. 

It is therefore very happy for me to be speaking here with you – in this year – where we are celebrating 50 years of tourism in Maldives.

Over recent years, the tourism industry has seen major changes. 

In addition to the growth of high-end, luxury and ultra-luxury tourism, we have seen an expansion of local and community-based tourism.

The introduction of guesthouse businesses has all the intentions to bridge the gap between tourists and locals and brought tourism revenue closer to communities.

It also opens up the tourism market – allowing the country to attract new and more diverse variety of tourists. For example, giving an opening to local tourists hopping between islands of their own country.

Variety of tourist arrivals is important elements of a resilient, multi segmented market that can self-stabilize in times of stress on certain markets. 

With the Government’s decentralisation plans, the potential for community-driven tourism is immense, and the possibilities endless.

During these last two years, the pandemic has shown us in clear and uncertain terms - just how dependent the Maldives is on tourism, and how susceptible the economy is to global shocks such as COVID-19.

Pre-COVID, in 2019 Maldives reached 1.7 million inbound arrivals, which was an increase of 14.7% from 2018.

During COVID, the Maldives like many other countries, had to close their borders. The public health measures implemented by the government are commendable and no doubt allowed the country to open back up and achieve one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world.

Public policy is not easy. The choice to close down Maldives borders was necessary but it came at a great cost to the economy as a whole. 

Even when borders reopened, the tourism revenue did not pick back up immediately, as the biggest arrival markets were further behind in controlling the pandemic.

The health crisis was not just a local one, but an interlinked global emergency we were all unprepared for.

In mid-2020, at the height of the pandemic, UNDP undertook a Rapid Livelihood Assessment to understand its impact on people’s livelihoods. 

While it may seem obvious that people were deeply, DEEPLY affected, it’s good to have deeper analysis of complex issues such as this. 

This was a necessary exercise to understand and document the fast evolving, wide ranging and unprecedented knock-on effects that the pandemic and ensuing lock down measures were having on the lives and livelihoods of families. 

The assessment showed that in the Tourism sector - as the employer of one-third of men and a quarter of women, the economic hit taken by COVID-19 was greatest on those families that depended on the tourism sector for revenue and employment. 

Undoubtedly, the pandemic has necessitated us to adapt and innovate. 

Evolve WE MUST! Evolve WE DID!

We no longer have the luxury to continue business as usual and must approach challenges from a new perspective. 

A perspective that is informed by adversity. 

Maldives was one of the earliest tourist destinations to reopen borders after the pandemic lock-down, and it did so by adapting quickly to the newly emerging needs of the market.

This involved a new approach to marketing Maldives as a brand, including open and clear communication on health and safety protocols, investments on specialised training and sensitisation of all levels of personnel in the industry, as well as making information and services available through digitalised service provision.

Digital and virtual connectivity was a crucial tool used to continue marketing efforts and boosting engagement. 

As UNDP we believe that the future we want can be leapfrogged by different form of finance, innovation and digitization, and the latter requires closing fast the digital divide. 

As we roll out new tourism concepts, you will continue to hear UNDP advocate for mainstreaming and capacity building of local operators, especially youth, women and persons with disabilities to enter the future digital economy and integrate these new ways of doing business early on.

UNDP has been a long-standing partner in the development journey of Maldives, we’ve been by your side for 45 out of the 50 years of tourism.

A continous presence that doesn’t last a week with a boat ready to depart at the shores. We are here and we stay.

We stay, side by side for many of the development milestones the country has achieved. 

You can therefore continue to count on us as you navigate the ever-increasing globalization and its associated complexities. 

For the Maldives, tourism begins with and derives its value from the unparalleled natural beauty of its tropical islands.

It is therefore the logical that tourism in the Maldives needs to be nature positive – and employs practices that are rooted in the sustainable use of natural resources. 

In past years, UNDP have supported the Government on making this pivot. 

We’ve been partners on conservation efforts, from eroded beaches, mangrove ecosystems, waste management systems, etc. 

Through the Tourism Adaptation project with the Ministry of Tourism:

We have supported Ministry of Tourism and key Government agencies in developing policies and plans for tourism development, strengthening the mechanisms available to address barriers and improving strategic coordination among key partners, old and new.

We have also worked closely with communities, to strengthen capacities and facilitate avenues to utilise the full potential of the natural and cultural resources that give each island their unique identity.

Climate resilience is an integral part of tourism development for a country like Maldives, and it goes hand-in-hand with any intervention we support. This includes integration of climate-smart and climate risk-informed planning, and environmentally-sound resource management practices in local tourism.

Our focus has always been sustainable tourism – building local capacities, reducing barriers and improving accessibility to opportunities in the tourism sector at different levels. We do this while following our core principle of focusing to those at the margin of the economic and social dividends, whose progress and growth are too often distracted.

Drawing from our experiences specifically on community-based tourism, let me share some thoughts on the potential for community-based tourism – As UNDP sees it across the world. 

Learning from and building on the Tourism Adaptation Project, our most recent partnership with the Ministry of Tourism is on an initiative which gives away its plot in the title.We call it the Reimagining Tourism project. 

Like the name suggests, the over-arching objective is to facilitate a new way of doing local tourism. 

The project aims to transform tourism in the Maldives with a focus on diversification of the tourism offer, actors involved and target market of the guesthouse segment.

Through this project, the Ministry of Tourism is working on several new and enabling actions that would facilitate community-led tourism.

One that is about telling a unique story of specific communities, 

Building a unique brand and identity that encapsulates the essence of the island’s natural resources, history, heritage and culture. 

All of these things have been present long before the project came along. 

What we are talking about here and attempting to do here – is to bring this to normalize the consideration of these aspects in local tourism planning. 

Not stopping at merely discussing but to establish a proof of concept for others to learn and adapt. 

Ultimately offer a unique product to the tourist market. 

It is about offering the economic benefits directly to the community and facilitating decentralised, self-sustaining business models linking livelihoods with resource utilisation.

And it is about prioritising environmental conservation and cultural heritage at the forefront of local tourism and development planning. 

Diversifying the tourism offer through the leveraging of community-led conservation of natural ecosystems and cultural heritage as a novel tourism product.

These factors in turn will facilitate a bigger role for local councils in tourism planning and enable the establishment of formal linkages of the tourism sector with traditional knowledge and livelihoods, creating avenues for greater participation of women and youth.

Additionally, it will also facilitate pathways and provide incentives for small and medium enterprises (i.e., guesthouses and other complimentary enterprises) to pursue and maximize social, economic and environmental benefits. 

Our collective effort under this project seeks to do 3 things;

acceleration of digitization efforts within the guesthouse tourism segment, 

focus on enhancing access to information and marketing of local island tourism offers; 

and prototyping of sustainable business models for local tourism.

One of the three project outputs focus on integrating island tourism development into island development planning processes.

This includes formulating minimum standards or guidelines for tourism safety, security and sustainability.

The project is also engaged in delivering necessary training to local councils as the leaders and experts of their own island development planning, starting with Laamu atoll. 

We are also planning to pilot test a decentralised audit mechanism in Laamu atoll, to measure compliance and performance of islands on environmental, social and economic indicators.

This will be supported by the introduction of “sustainability thresholds” that indicate the environmental and socio-economic capacities of individual islands (in Laamu atoll) for sustainable tourism development planning.

The second output focuses on enhancing access to information and marketing of local tourism offers that the individual islands offer.

As a first enabling step, we are mapping out the data of available natural ecosystems, cultural and historical resources that are unique to individual islands.

Then the project would support in developing unique, island-specific  marketing narratives out of those data, complete with brandings that islands can use to promote their local island tourism.

The information collected from the mapping exercise is to be compiled to a central website, which would give separate island landing webpages, guesthouse reservation options and other relevant information, all in one place for tourists to view and use.

The third and final output focuses on enabling sustainable business model for local tourism, with cross-sector value chains established.

This involves designing and establishing a Blue Seal recognition for guesthouses, to recognise performance based on a number of environmental, social and economic indicators. 

Environmental indicators could include aspects like plastic free, zero waste and low carbon practices.

Social indicators could include employment of men, women, youth, Persons with Disabilities.

Economic indicators could include linkages with other local businesses through cross-sector value chains created.

Further training opportunities would be available for MSMEs and individual entrepreneurs, particularly women and youth, to explore and engage in subsidiary business opportunities that would complement local tourism. 

This can include marine conversation, water sports and recreational activities, local culinary, culture, arts and handicrafts, customer service, digital services, and many more.

The idea is for a whole-of-island approach to capacity, to cater to a full package delivery of services for tourists.

All of this will enable the marketing of sub-regional and regional eco- and cultural tourism packages for both international and domestic tourists.

We are hoping to converge all of these interventions through a Sustainable Tourism Conference this year, to share lessons learnt and best practices to move forward with the enabling environment we hope to create through this project.

This brings me to a final point of reflection;

Where does the future lie in community-based tourism? 

The biggest barrier and challenge to local councils, businesses and individuals in entering and sustaining the local tourism market, is access to finance. 

The second aspect to focus is on capacity building, in both the usual conventional areas such as finance and business management, and entrepreneurship, marketing; as well as newer areas including climate-resilient planning, digital services and innovation.

Public-private partnerships for financing and technical knowledge-sharing, is an area with huge potential that we should explore systematically to encourage and facilitate linkages for community-based SME businesses.

Something that always makes me think, is the immense wealth of knowledge, skills and decades of experience that the leading high-end brands in the Maldives would have, in ALL aspects of the value-chain in tourism operation.

That makes me think of the HUGE potential for transfer of that knowledge and skills to the local communities. This should be approached not only as corporate responsibility, but as a longer-term investment into building quality local expertise within the country’s largest industry – because in the end, that would be mutually beneficial to both the community and the private sector.

The Tourism and SDG report also highlights private sector as a key opportunity to be unlocked, 

One that can lead tourism towards the achievement of the SDGs. 

The tourism private sector can contribute to all 17 SDGs, aligning business goals with the SDGs can bring about greater efficiencies, cost savings and competitiveness while enhancing their social license to operate.

I have had the opportunity to visit a few islands during my brief time here. 

I have visited Maafushi, I’ve had a team retreat in Thulusdhoo and I have accompanied the Minister to Mundoo. 

I would leave you with some questions that I myself have been thinking about after my travels around Maldives.

What is the ideal for local tourism in the Maldives?

Is it Maafushi that has had explosive tourism growth over more than 10 years where large hotels and influx of tourism may be perceived by local community abrasive of the former island characteristic, with evidence before your eyes of waste, sanitation and water systems stretched beyond capacity. 

Is it Thulusdhoo that is currently balancing the growth and trying to bring in niche markets such as surfers and thrill seekers to enjoy their magnificent surf breaks. 

Or is it Mundoo where tourism has yet to reach its beautiful shores. Where local hospitality is maintained in people’s homes and welcome mats drawn out to visitors to share a meal at the family table. 

If could be Fuvahmulah where good planning and leadership may have just traced a limitless window of opportunity.

I do not have the answers to any of these questions, and certainly we don’t have the time to go through it today [SMILE]

My hope is to go with the Maldives on its journey to discover the answers.

Once again let me thank the Minister, UNWTO and organisers of this event for giving me and UNDP this opportunity to share our experience. 

You have brought together a group with immense knowledge and experience and facilitated this very fruitful platform for sharing that collective knowledge.

I look forward to listening to the panel discussion that follows.

UNDP remains committed to work with our partners and the people of Maldives.  As said, we were here, we are here and we will remain here with you. 

Ours is a long friendship, and as any friends we remain sincere and transparent on our exchanges. We say what we think with the full assets of our global network. 

As Jiminy Cricket is to Pinocchio, at times we say inconvenient truths, but we are not judgmental. We remain committed to support a collective journey towards a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive tourism sector for people, planet and prosperity. 

I thank you for your attention. Have a good day!