Publication: Ecuador : Fostering Environmentally Sustainable Tourism and Small Business Innovation and Growth in the Galapagos
Loading...
Published
2003-06
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Well-managed tourism can be an important contributor to sustainable development, providing incentives to protect the environment and maintain biodiversity, while fostering small business development. A recently completed subcomponent of Ecuador's International Trade and Integration Project, supported by a Bank Loan, demonstrates this win-win situation. This note analyzes tourism, in particular the pressures it creates on the environment in the Galapagos islands, given its stance as the fourth largest industry in Ecuador. Voluntary environmental quality standards certification for tour vessels were addressed by specialists, who developed a strategy, focused on the tourists, and the 60 currently active tour boats. Standards were established to minimize environmental impacts by applying conservation practices to boats, and requiring sensitizing clients to the need for environmental behavior. To this end, stakeholders, including government agencies, conservationists, and local communities participated in developing the "SmartVoyager" standards, a development effort beyond conservation. The International Galapagos Tour Operators Association, made significant inputs to the standards, and pledged to support the certification program. This outreach effort enabled the small boat operators to learn what the standards required; how to comply with the requirements; and, most importantly, why the requirements were included in the standards. After this training and motivation, a number of boat operators began to implement practices specified in the standards. Some lessons address the need to bring small businesses into this initiative early on, to gain strong acceptance and support; that beneficiaries share in the costs, including tourists, tour operators, and the national park; and, that the seemingly commercially advantageous certification, should allow enterprises to become self-supporting once its benefits are demonstrated.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Valdivieso, Jose; Toth, Bob; Hanna, James; Quintero, Juan. 2003. Ecuador : Fostering Environmentally Sustainable Tourism and Small Business Innovation and Growth in the Galapagos. en breve; No. 26. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10382 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Tourism in Africa : Harnessing Tourism for Growth and Improved Livelihoods(Washington, DC: World Bank and Agence Française de Développement, 2014-06-06)This report is the first to examine tourism in Africa comprehensively and regionally and the first to recommend practical, evidence-based measures enabling the sector s economic and development power. This gives new impetus to the continent s development progress by leveraging tourism in pursuit of lasting poverty alleviation and the creation of significantly more jobs and opportunities for all Africans.Publication Africa Region Tourism Strategy : Transformation through Tourism - Harnessing Tourism for Growth and Improved Livelihoods(Washington, DC, 2011)This paper presents the strategy vision for Africa of promoting tourism. The strategy relies on four pillars: policy reforms, capacity building, private sector linkages, and product competitiveness. Working closely with client countries, implementation of the Africa Region Tourism Strategy, will focus interventions in these four areas in order to address the persistent constraints to the growth of tourism in Africa. Combined, these interventions will enable high-demand tourism products to compete in the global marketplace. The approach is region-wide; it engages staff across the Bank's Africa Region. Implementation will be led by Africa Region s Finance and Private Sector Development Department (AFTFP). The World Bank Group support to the Africa tourism sector is currently 120 million US dollars. It could reach 500 US dollars million by 2015, generating as many as 300,000 direct formal jobs. The report examines the social, environmental, and economic risks associated with poorly managed tourism, and offers recommendations based on years of experience with tourism projects.This review has provided a snapshot of what Bank has been doing to support tourism development, and its alignment with national strategies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings from this review are anticipated to facilitate future dialogue and negotiations among tourism stakeholders to increase support for tourism development in the region.Publication Madagascar Tourism Sector Review : Unlocking the Tourism Potential of an Unpolished Gem(Washington, DC, 2013-07)The island nation of Madagascar has a treasure trove of tourism assets, ranging from wildlife viewing to beach tourism to cultural encounters. Yet despite its undeniable tourism potential, its growth has been severely stunted by years of political instability and lack of action on necessary policy reforms and initiatives. While there is much that needs to be done for Madagascar to fulfill its potential in tourism, if adequately addressed, tourism can undoubtedly become a significant contributor to the country's economic revival. This review of the Madagascar tourism sector has been conducted as part of a larger Indian ocean regional tourism integration study. The principal objective of the synthesis is to highlight opportunities to strengthen the countries' tourism sectors through regional integration initiatives. This report is structured as follows: section one gives introduction to the Madagascar study; section two gives overview of the Madagascar tourism sector; section three presents key issues; section four gives recommendations; and section five gives conclusion.Publication Promoting Nature-Based Tourism for Management of Protected Areas and Elephant Conservation in Sri Lanka(Washington, DC, 2010-06)Sri Lanka's ten-year development framework aims at accelerating economic growth while ensuring a path of sustainable development and prioritizing conservation of the country's natural heritage. It is in this context that this policy note seeks to examine the scope for enhancing protection of Sri Lanka's natural assets through nature based tourism as an instrument for conservation with a specific focus on elephant conservation. This study identifies development opportunities that increase tourism revenues and offers an assessment of the human/elephant conflict, which is the primary impediment to long term elephant conservation.Publication Nature Tourism, Conservation, and Development in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003)The book provides an evaluation of, and policy advice on key environmental, social, and economic issues concerning the development of nature tourism. Using KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa as a case study, it highlights both the benefits, and trade-offs I promoting, an managing sustainable nature-tourism development, and it assesses how policy can enhance nature tourism's contribution to economic growth, poverty reduction, and conservation. The book's contributors explore three key issues. First, they consider the importance of moving beyond development of a wildlife industry, to the creation of a true nature tourism economy, that supports biodiversity conservation. Second, they explore the role of the private sector in contributing to equitable development, and job creation, while generating conservation finance. Third, they consider alternative pricing, and other market mechanisms that can help make nature tourism more viable, and growth-oriented. Ultimately, the authors argue, economic development, equity, and conservation objectives can be balanced.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The World Bank Group in Tanzania, Fiscal Years 2012–22(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-22)This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group's support to Tanzania between Fiscal Years 2012 and 2022. Over the past decade, Tanzania has experienced resilient growth, with an average annual per capita GDP increase of 2.2%. However, poverty remains widespread and slow to decline, underscoring the need for more inclusive growth. The report examines the Bank Group's strategic and operational approaches during this period, which were aligned with Tanzania's development priorities and focused on industrialization, human development, and public sector reforms. The evaluation includes thematic chapters on the Bank Group's support for private sector-led growth and spatial transformation, as well as lessons to inform future support to the country.Publication Evaluation Insight Note(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-12)This Evaluation Insight Note (EIN) aims to contribute to the World Bank’s goal of encouraging the use of data, digital technology, and innovation towards transforming agri-food systems in client countries. The EIN was guided by the overall question: “How are World Bank agriculture and irrigation projects using technologies and what insights can be drawn from them” In answering this question, the EIN draws from a portfolio identification and review of 158 active and 113 closed projects (FY16-23) World Bank agriculture and irrigation projects to describe the extent and utilization of agricultural technologies. It supplemented the findings from the review with insights drawn from four project evaluations (Project Performance Assessment Reports) prepared by IEG in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, and Vietnam, which were selected because of their likely lessons on agriculture technology. The portfolio and systematic review provided the basis for seven main insights on coverage and nature of technologies used in World Bank agriculture projects, demand-based technological solutions, technology diffusion, collaboration, and investment in enabling environment factors, among others. (1) The World Bank Agriculture and Irrigation portfolio shows limited coverage of advanced technologies. (2) The technologies that are prevalent in projects are mainly focused on increasing agricultural productivity with limited focus on technologies for facilitating market linkages. (3) Among the technologies promoted in Bank agriculture and irrigation projects, some technologies, and applications such GIS, early warning systems and MIS are more concentrated than others. (4) Combining demand-based technological solutions with training and technical assistance supported uptake of those solutions. (5) Technology diffusion worked well when there was strong collaboration between key research and extension agencies, each with well-defined roles and responsibilities in the projects. (6) When technology dissemination efforts are combined with investments in enabling environment factors such as infrastructure (i.e., roads, markets), they facilitated technology adoption. (7) Building sustainable institutional models – key for technology uptake and use – continue to be challenging in Bank supported projects.Publication FY 2025 China Country Opinion Survey Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-04)The Country Opinion Survey in China assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in China perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in China on 1) their views regarding the general environment in China; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in China; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in China; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in China.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication The World Bank Group in Georgia, 2014-23(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-30)This Country Program Evaluation assesses the performance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s support to Georgia in achieving the country’s development objectives. In the decade leading up to the evaluation period, Georgia pursued economic reforms to attract critical investments for becoming a regional trade and transport hub. Ambitious economic reforms went hand in hand with efforts to improve human development and strengthening social protection systems. Growing geopolitical tensions and internal political polarization have challenged Georgia’s reform progress in recent years. The Bank Group’s strategy adapted well to Georgia’s development needs and was well coordinated with other development partners. It successfully employed a range of instruments to help increase competitiveness, growth, and job creation, and effectively contributed to improved infrastructure and increased trade by using programmatic and innovative approaches. The Bank Group’s regular investments in analytical work and the switch to results-based programmatic support helped improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education and health care systems. The IEG offers the following lessons based on the evidence and analysis in the Country Program Evaluation: (i) Prioritizing Bank Group support around the move towards deeper regional integration was an effective anchor for key economic reforms for economic convergence. (ii) Pursuing a selective and adaptive approach in a country with high implementation capacity and institutions, strong coordination among development partners, and access to a wide range of external resources can allow the Bank Group to exercise significant influence in areas of comparative advantage and global expertise. (iii) A stronger focus on outcome-based programmatic approaches helped to build local capacity and crowd-in partner financing.