Role of the government in promoting and encouraging tourism

Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University

Tourism Faculty, Baccalaureate

Abstract

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and it has been considered as a source of benefits to
many sectors, that is exactly why many countries, developed or developing ones, are trying to
improve it and find some kind of profit, that will definitely affect country’s economy, and the quality
of living. This research is about the role of government in promoting and encouraging tourism
industry, as a citizen of developing country, I found this topic interesting as well as challenging.

Keywords: Tourism development, Tourism policy, Government Policy.

Introduction:
 UNWTO had studied the benefits that tourism has on the society and eventually
organization came up with the project- “7 mechanisms to alleviate poverty”. Plan consists
socio-economic growth through the creation of employment, this is exactly why tourism
development has become a challenge for most of the countries in the world, while producing
the statistics, including number of visitors, expenditures, visitor nights and more, majority of
them are targeting on increasing numbers. However, despite of the fact that goal is the same,
they ways to achieve this goal are sometimes very different. The paper analyzes the
importance of the government policy in tourism industry, different tourism policies in the
different countries, various approaches towards tourism industry, challenges that
governments face in planning and solutions they use to solve the problems. At the end, the
role of Georgian government in promoting and encouraging tourism industry is discussed
and evaluated. Work gives a reader sufficient amount of information to independently see
the significance of government in tourism development.
Government as a key player of the tourism industry.
The development of tourism industry strongly depends on governments, their policies and
approaches. If we glance over the history, Romans were experienced travelers, it absolutely
was not uncommon for them to travel long distances not only in Europe but also to the
southern Egypt, in V century AD western Roman Empire was demolished. Confusion and
unsecure political conditions stopped Romans from travelling. Now let’s overview the
instance of Italy. Italian governments since the second world war were weak coalitions
lasting on the average but a year, making it difficult to implement clear policy objectives on,
as an example, tourism development. In contrast to a flourishing private sector, much of the
general public sector is characterized by inefficiency and widespread political corruption.
This has resulted in one in all the biggest ‘black economies’ in Europe. However, nowadays,
situation has changed and government of Italy has made tourism development a part of the
responsibility of regional governments. As we see, while culture, history, nature are
significant parts of tourism industry, if the decision-maker authorities don't wrap these
“products” and deliver it to customers (in our case-tourists) accordingly, the private sector
will hardly manage to survive and progress alone. Another issue is the importance of peace:
creating world peace without governments is impossible. Peace is directly connected with
tourism industry, tourists won't travel during a country where they feel insecure, tourist
destination should be safe, within the first place, and every other Criteria, comes next. This
might explain why countries with political problems face many difficulties in tourism
development. as an example, Georgia suffers with occupation, Cyprus is split into TRNC and
RC and there are many restrictions and unofficial borders. Those are the places where
political tensions are the apparent things, therefore assuming a danger to the world peace
keeps many tourists at home. For instance, the fuss of potential US-Iran war in 2020 has been
a reason why many tours were cancelled. Also, it is also not a coincidence that people started
travelling intensively after 1950, right after the world wars ended and countries achieved
stability. All those examples stated one idea, according to which, government plays an
important role in tourism industry and they promote the peace inside of the country as well as
in the whole entire world.
Evaluating different tourism policies of different governments.
Tourism evaluation is the correct way to measure the industry’s value to an economy, it is
as important as having a tourism strategy itself. To implement tourism strategy public sector
uses tourism policies.: “Tourism policy is a public policy; it is generally formulated by the
public sector. The public sector in this case includes the central government, local authorities
as well as, public business.” The increasing significance of tourism as a leading income earner
for many economies across the world clearly explains why governments are trying so hard to
have an increased control over the sector, they design policies, which are aimed to achieve
goals and objectives, that are relevant to the country’s tourism sector at the state, national, or
municipal levels as well. However, tourism policies are not always successful and the policy
that was created to promote development might end up as a policy that delayed tourism is
the country or had a negative impact on the industry. That is exactly why public sector
should direct all the efforts in creating policies and anticipating potential results. However,
next example is about one of the best tourism policies that has been used so far. According to
WEF Switzerland is a country that has the best tourism policies, “country had the second,
best safety and security measures in place of all countries. Additionally, the country ranked
second-highest in terms of environmental stability, and highest in terms of human
resources.” However, high prices and costs present a significant challenge for Swiss tourism.
This was intensified with the discontinuation of the EUR rate ceiling on Thursday 15 January
2015. Tourism services became significantly more expensive and intangible overnight, for
guests from the Euroregion. Result was that Swiss tourism suffered a loss of price-
competitiveness. The policy makers supported tourism with targeted actions to overcome the
structural challenges. This was addressed by the Tourism Impulse Program 2016-19,
including the following four approaches:
Approach I: Modernization of the accommodation sector. The promotion of the accommodation sector. The
aim is to focus on more accommodation projects which use synergies with tourism infrastructures that exist
locally. The Federal Government has revised the implementing provisions of the SGH to optimize
accommodation development
 Approach II: Strengthening of quality and product development. The impulse program will set greater
incentives for product and quality development.

Approach III: Optimization of structures and strengthening of co-operation. The aim is for continuous
improvement of destination structures and marketable accommodation offers.
Approach IV: Strengthening the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge. Improved knowledge had to be
available to the cantons and the tourism industry about certain key issues, to help them take appropriate action

Switzerland Visitor Arrivals

Source: CEIC

It is obvious that after launching the program, positive pattern was created and, that could
be directly connected to a prompt and well planned, government program.

Next example that will be discussed is an example of Canada. Canada is the only country
that has better air transportation infrastructure, than USA (rated by the WEF). Canada has
among the world’s highest per capital airports and flight departures. Canada is rich with
natural resources, also, According, to the WEF, Canada’s natural environment is among the
world’s most pristine. In the end of 1990’s Canada was struggling with crowded places during
tourist seasons, reason of this was that other places of Canada ware not able to receive
tourists, even though, their potential was obvious. That is exactly why Government of
Canada created new federal tourism strategy to empower communities across the country
and to form jobs for the middle class. Government created the Canadian Experiences Fund
(CEF) - a $58.5-million initiative that would help communities create and improve tourism
products, facilities, experiences. The Fund sees the investments made in products and
experiences that showcase Canada’s strengths, while also growing tourism in major cities.
Pillar 1—Building Tourism in communities of Canada
expanding winter and shoulder-season tourism - by funding projects such as onsite
experiences development, tours, excursions, special events and tourism facilities
growing tourism in rural and remote communities by investing in projects such as
community, beautification, ecotourism, agritourism, local product development, and
local tourism facilities
increasing Indigenous tourism- by investing in projects such as market readiness
activities, tours, festivals and special events;
promoting inclusiveness, especially for the LGBTQ2 community
Federal Tourism Growth Strategy created by government of Canada
boosting culinary and farm-to-table experiences - by funding projects in areas such as
culinary tourism trails, farmers markets and onsite experiences development in various
locations

Pillar 2—Attracting Investment to the Visitor Economy

The Strategy establishes tourism investment groups- to improve coordination among

governments and help attract private investment in the sector in every region of
Canada.
Pillar 3—A Renewed Focus on Public-Private Collaboration
Diagram 2. Inbound international trips to Canada
Source: Statistics Canada.

Diagram 2 shows that both 2017 and 2018 were record years for tourism in Canada. The
sector now supports more than 1.8 million jobs in communities large and small, and the
Government of Canada is committed to providing support to continue its growth.
Government of Canada has big expectations on federal tourism strategy.

Next example is about North Cyprus. Tourism potential in TRNC varies among beautiful
landscapes, sea, magnificent nature, historical and cultural heritage, fabulous infrastructure.
Success in tourism sector has achieved in Cyprus since 1980s, when North Cyprus started
relying on the service sector to reach real economic development comprising tourism sector,
the higher education and banking, but government of North Cyprus has not been very
effective, the first Five-year Development Plan (FFYDP) catered for the time from 1978 to
1983. The plan geared towards laying a correct foundation for tourism. It never came up
with any policies and techniques for tourism implementations and failed to indicate
responsibilities for the varied sectors of tourism. Policy makers didn’t take part as well, so
FFYDP didn’t involve tourism policies at all. Policy makers could not take part in creating
DDYFP because they were preoccupied with; accommodation and rehabilitation of refugees,
unavailability of essential infrastructure, despite over independence declaration, sanctions,
and poor planning for post-separation activities. The next was the First Three-Year
Development Plan (FTYDP) of 1983 to 1986. “This plan was overlapped with the
commotions of the independence declaration in 1983”. It had been also called the plan for
transitional period. Exactly like the First Five-Year Development Plan (FFYDP), this one also
did not have an implementation of policies for tourism. Even more, it lacked plans of
targeting tourism either internationally or nationally. The excuse for this was the
involvement in the confusions as they struggled for the independence declaration and
dependence on the government of turkey economically.
The role of Georgian government in promoting and encouraging tourism.
During Soviet
Union, Georgia was one in all the foremost tourism destination, drawing over 3 million
visitors annually. The demolish of communism, 1990s brought tourism to a standstill, as
many hotels, resorts became displaced for people, tourism began to demolish because of the
crumbling infrastructure, corruption, failure to gather the tax revenues and political unrest.
Situation changed since 2004, as government simplified the tax code, improved tax
administration, increased tax enforcement and named a tourism development as the priority
of country. The August 2008 conflict with Russia was a second blow to the country's tourism
industry. Since then, government of Georgia has worked a lot to successfully promote
tourism, and reach the level of satisfaction that is expected by Western travelers. With
strong support from the government and even stronger local spirit of hospitality tourism
industry started increasing.
Diagram 3. Tourist Arrivals in Georgia
Source: Georgian National Tourism administration (GNTA)
Increased tourist arrivals and support from international stage became strong motivational
factor for Georgian government. In 2015 Georgian government came up with the new
tourism strategy, definitely it’d not happen without support from World Bank Group to all
tourism stakeholders. The entire process involved an immense consultation process and
extensive dialogue with a wide range of organizations/individuals from national and local
governments, investors, protected areas and heritage site managers, tour operators and tour
agents, hotel owners, tourism educators, and most importantly, citizens. The design of the
strategy also consisted interviews and consultations, which were held with the industry
professionals, and they were aimed at identifying key challenges to tourism development and
ideas for addressing them; “”Georgian Tourism Strategy 2015-2025“ is a 10-year vision and
strategic plan for increasing the value and importance of tourism for the benefit of the
country’s economy and ultimately its citizens. The plan was created through a partnership
between the government and the private sector with a view to maximize tourist satisfaction,
diversifying market and products, increase the size and profitability of the industry in a
sustainable way, and maximizing opportunities for job creation.”
Georgian 2015-2025 strategy strives to achieve 8 objectives:

Respect, enhance, and protect Georgia’s natural and cultural heritage

create unique and authentic visitor experiences centered on those natural and cultural assets
enhance competitiveness, through delivery of world-class visitor services
attract higher spending markets, through increased and more effective marketing and
promotion

expand and enhance Georgia’s ability to collect and analyze tourism data and measure
industry performance

expand public and private sector investment in the tourism sector

enhance the business environment, to facilitate increased foreign and domestic investment
build partnerships between government, industry, non-governmental organizations, and
communities that will be needed to achieve all of the above.

Diagram 4. Tourist expenditures – Georgia

Source: Data.worldbank.org

Unfortunately, diagram doesn’t provide information about tourist expenditures in Georgia, in

2019, but the average expenditure on the visit was 433.2 $ , and they spent 2.4 billion GEL in
Q2 of 2019 .

Summery:

As we see, governments are the key stakeholders in the policy making and implementing
process, they can affect in both, positive and negative way to the development of tourism
industry in a country. Without effective government policies, most of the popular tourism
destinations would be unknown today, constructive approaches of the governments and the
spirit of locals create the mix that attract tourists and make many unknown countries make
more notable as well as stronger.

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Table of content:
• Abstract, introduction……………………………………………………….…pg-2
• Government as an essential part of the tourism industry………………….....pg-3
• Evaluating different tourism policies of different governments……….…….pg-4-7
• The role of Georgian government in promoting and encouraging tourism…pg-7-10
• References …...……………………………………………………………….…pg-10