Relationship between Tourism Policy and Development in Kiribati - Case Study Example

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOURISM POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT IN KIRIBATI By Introduction Countries that perceive of tourism as a contributor to economic development can attest to it that once properly nurtured, it can reward handsomely. Tourism creates jobs for local citizens; enables others to create jobs through catering to tourists, attracts revenue generation, and generally contributes to the progress of local economic development, which is key to sustaining an economic context. As such, tourist-based economies have come to acknowledge that it is important to come up with tourism policies, which support harnessing of maximum returns from the practice. In this discussion text, the relationship between tourism policies, and how they relate to economic development will be highlighted using the Kiribati Republic as the case study. The study concludes that the policies introduce thoughts, which enhance establishment of new strategies and sustenance thus visible growth in both the tourism sector and economic development. Kiribati is made of up of groups of islands that include the Line, Phoenix, Banaba, and Gilbert islands in the central pacific and which flow along the equator. The twenty one constituent islands and atolls collectively add up to eight hundred and eleven (811) square kilometres of land lying in a total area of three point five (3.5) square kilometres (Kiribati 2014, n.p.). Tarawa is the capital centre and acts as a main transportation and commercial point of the state. The average population is slightly above one-hundred thousand and consists of English and Kiribati-speaking peoples (Rural Poverty Portal 2014, n.p.). There are several factors which contribute to Kiribati’s dependence on tourism as an economic activity. One, it has poor soils that together with the poor rainfall patterns sideline agriculture as a major economic activity. However, considering its geography, Kiribati’s placement on a tropical climate on the Pacific supports some form of tourism; that is an ocean-dependant tourism. Commercial fishing is open and widespread throughout the Pacific state, which includes the tourist-favourite fishing spots. In addition to these, the government of Kiribati licenses foreign fishing fleets (University of Hawaii n.d., p. 2). According to Milne (1991, p. 56), the desire to further boost the status of tourism in the state developed from various economic problems which hinder the country from achieving maximal returns. The Kiribati tourist industry is considered to be in its infancy and still has a long way to cover before it can be independent on its own. The government is working to establish policies that will develop the sector as is discussed herein. The first issue that limits the tourism sector is lack of sufficient air linkage to the main tourist origins (markets). Currently, the only consistent air travel available is a weekly flight by a Marshall Islands, which lands in Kiribati from Honolulu, and Air Nauru, which operates a Boeing service to the Tarawa Capital (Taylor & Francis Group 2004, p. 2461). The Boeing links Kiribati to Sydney, New Zealand and Solomon Islands. Again, Milne (p. 57) adds that poor marketing expertise due to expenditure limitation also hinders the harnessing of the tourism’s potential. The limitation on marketing has contributed to its limited market capture in which the only significant markets, it has successfully captured are Japan, United States, New Zealand, and Australia. Lack of marketing means distant potential tourists have no exposure of Kiribati’s tourist attractions thus the low turnout. In addition, lack of marketing denies the tourists knowledge on the season patterns resulting in their uncertainty of when to visit the Island. Finally, lagging in the provision of tourism infrastructure and majorly accommodation also hinders tourism. The quality (tourist-level) accommodation available is restricted to Tarawa and the entire Kiribati is limited thus unable to hold all the tourists who visit the islands. Surprisingly, the hotels and rooms available in the entire state can be counted in their tens. This factor also keeps away tourists who are in most cases denied the chance owing to fully-booked hotel rooms (Tourism for Nature & Development 2010, p. 11-28). Kiribati National Tourism Action Plan (2014, p. 21) provides the paradigmatic pattern in which the Kiribati state is implementing to rescue the situation and enable maximum achievement of tourism’s contribution to the economy. One of the suggested measures is investing in the overall infrastructure to better support tourism. Among these was upgrading the Bonriki, Cassidy, and Kanton Airports to an international level and these included resurfacing the runways, constructing runway lights, and redeveloping all the air terminals. Again, the Kiribati Cruise shipping infrastructure was being restructured to harbour a cultural centre, handle tourism services, and fasten immigration processing. The second aspect recommended for development to boost tourism was enterprise investment. This included establishing new fishing resorts at Kiribati, creating an adventure lodge that would also act as a fishing lodge at Kanton Island, and upgrade the fishing operations to meet international standards. In boosting hotelier services, there was a proposal to privatize the Captain Cook and Otintaai tourist hotels. Still under enterprise investment, the government proposed to establish programs to develop micro-enterprises through educating and training the proprietors whose business are oriented towards tourism. Such programs targeted Kiribati and Tarawa (Kiribati National Tourism Action Plan 2014, p. 24). A crucial determinant of tourism’s success is its marketing strategies. Having realized this, the Kiribati administration invented some ways of achieving that. The first move was lifting the profile of the state through digital marketing and public sensitization to reach out to more potential clients. The program was aimed at the United States, Germanic Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. To cater for this, funding was injected into the communications enhancement program. Still on the matter, the marketing part would go on to cater for online reservations and booking systems. These are important aspects of tourism in that virtual bookings are the in thing today as a match with internet technology (Oates 2014, n.p.). Air route development and enhanced aviation access were also addressed as a key policy in enhancing the harnessing of maximum returns from tourism. This would be done in several phases which include establishing new airline partnerships, mostly with international charter airlines. After this, it would go for commercializing of Kiribati as an air route, a measure that would see air traffic increase. The target was set on increasing the seating capacity per annum for one thousand six-hundred. This would allow distant potential clients who hear about the magic on the island to travel conveniently in Kiribati (Kiribati National Tourism Action Plan 2014, p. 26). In addition to the above, fostering tourism would require the establishment of a tourism culture since it serves as one of the key economic contributors in Kiribati. First of all, the Bone Fishing activities would have to be regulated by policies that control fish stocks so that they remain sufficient to satisfy tourists’ demands. Closely related to this would be protection policies created to protect key or endangered tourist attraction bases such as coral reefs and avoiding pollution. Again, there would be a Tourism Month to focus on sensitizing both the local and international communities on the importance of tourism. The month would have a wide range of activities including education, training, giving awards to excellent stakeholders in the sector, and overall public relations (Kiribati National Tourism Action Plan 2014, p.26). A final policy would be implementation of strategic Local Government licensing, regulation, and taxation with regards to tourist-oriented businesses. Regulating business would see to it that acceptable standards are kept thus stamp out the inconveniences caused by low-standard services or rogue traders. In addition, legislating would oversee the installation and implementation of required safety and security standards as dictated by the tourism and tours sector. Finally, taxing would target transport services, fishing licenses, hotel turnover, and enterprise returns (Kiribati National Tourism Action Plan 2014, p. 28). The above measures upon application have contributed to an observation of improvement in economic growth in an evaluation conducted between 2008 and 2011 (Government of Kiribati 2012, p. 12). Some of the observations recorded were increased in Joint Ventures, reformation of state-owned organizations, a good and simple tax regime, a better regulation of Bone Fishing activities, and most importantly an increase in the number of tourists landing in Kiribati. Although the economy is still experiencing teething problems, Government of Kiribati (2012, p. 28) reveals that in the period 2009 to 2010, there was a positive development growth. This might suggest that upholding the set policies will further boost the economic development. The evidence that Kiribati sits on a gold mine is the case example of Seychelles, which was once an agricultural-based economy before it had an airport. It however, turned tables after the airport was built, and turned to a tourism-based economy. It devised means of overcoming the strains that come with being a small island and at the end of the 1990’s it rose to be a popular tourist destination. Today, as Ange (n.d., p. 1-5) reveals, about thirty-seven percent of the population survives on tourism, tourism contributes about twenty-five percent of the total GDP and of all the foreign exchange collected, and seventy percent originates from the tourism sector. The secret was inventing effective policies and planning in the tourism sector in addition to selling of licenses to European fishing agencies. While tourism leads as its economic contributor, fishing comes in second. The challenge in this comparison is that while the geographic placements of both republics is more of similar, Seychelles is way smaller than Kiribati as it measures roughly one-hundred and fifty six (156) square kilometre compared to Kiribati which measures eight hundred and eleven (811) square kilometres. This therefore means that with the proper policies in place, Kiribati can perform better economically than Seychelles. The case example of Seychelles is sufficient to motivate the Kiribati administration to ape the measures they implemented in achieving overall economic development. The most effective means as was the case in Seychelles should be first to upgrade their infrastructure so it meets international standards. Seychelles turned around after they acquired an airport (International Business Publications 2012, p. 61). Next, they should work closely with local private enterprises to feed the tourist market, which is usually insatiable, and finally embark on worldwide marketing to attract more tourists that are international. These woven together, they will be generating revenue that will be enough to significantly shift the development graph upwards towards achievement of development. Conclusion The above study explains that if the economic potential held by countries that have tourist attractions is put to good use through the establishment and enactment of effective policies; it can result in economic growth (Samimi, Sadeghi, & Sadeghi 2011, 28-32). Tourism is recognized as a fast generator of [foreign] revenue, especially when it has an all-year season pattern, which varies slightly. However, for the tourism to contribute to the economic development, the set policies should support healthy sustenance of tourism, which demands infrastructure, up-to-standard facilities, tourist markets, online booking and reservation services, internationally recognized air routes and a concerned governance system. With these nurturing factors in place, the interconnection between tourism policies and a country’s overall development will fully manifest itself as successfully. It did in Seychelles. Bibliography Ange, AS n.d, Growing Sustainable Tourism: The Seychelles Approach, Seychelles Tourism Board, 1-5. Government of Kiribati 2012, Kiribati Development Plan: Enhancing Economic Growth for Sustainable Development, 1-108. International Business Publications 2012), Seychelles Business Law Handbook Strategic Information and Laws, Intl Business Pubns USA. Kiribati 2014, The World Bank, Available at http://data.worldbank.org/country/kiribati [25 March, 2014]. Kiribati National Tourism Action Plan 2014, Ministry of Communications, Transport & Tourism Development, 1-35. Milne, S 1991, “The Economic Impact of Tourism in Kiribati”, Pacific Studies, (14), 53-70. Oates, G 2014, “Building Succesful Digital MArketting Campaigns for Hospitality and Tourism Brands,” Skift. Available at http://skift.com/2014/03/06/building-successful-digital-marketing-campaigns-for-hospitality-and-tourism-brands/ [25 March, 2014]. Rural Poverty Portal 2014, “Rural Poverty in Oceania.” Available at http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/region/home/tags/oceania [25 March, 2014]. Samimi, AJ, Sadeghi, S, & Sadeghi S 2011, “Tourism and Economic Growth in Developing Countries: P-VAR Approach,” Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, (1), 28-32. Taylor & Francis Group 2004, Europa World Year, Taylor & Francis. Tourism for Nature & Development 2010, Convention on Biological Diversity, World Tourism Organization, 11-54. University of Hawaii n.d, “Tourism Development in the Republic of Kiribati”. School of Travel Industry Management, 2-10. Read More