Publication: The Future of Pacific Tourism
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2023-04-25
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2023-04-25
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Over the two decades preceding the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, tourism became one of the most important drivers of economic growth across the Pacific. The COVID-19 crisis had a devastating impact on tourism activity in the Pacific, with severe and potentially durable economic and social consequences. This study takes a fresh look at tourism’s role for development in the Pacific, its future after COVID-19, and the scope to foster a greener, more resilient, competitive, and inclusive sector. It complements and builds on the 2016 Pacific possible report, which assessed specific opportunities to increase arrivals in a context of rapid tourism growth, by considering the changes to the industry’s model that could maximize tourism’s economic, social, and environmental benefits for Pacific Islanders. It does this by: (i) taking stock of the evidence on tourism’s historical contribution to development in the Pacific Island Country (PICs) and of the COVID-19 crisis’ impacts, (ii) analyzing current obstacles and potential opportunities for a more competitive and sustainable Pacific tourism, focusing on selected issues key to target higher value markets, and (iii) recommending policy priorities and investment needs to (re)position the Pacific tourism model for the future and broaden its benefits, focusing on competitiveness, environmental sustainability, resilience and inclusiveness. Given the scarcity of data on Pacific tourism and frequent discrepancies across sources, one of the study’s main contributions is to provide a detailed quantitative assessment of the sector and its economic impacts, for instance on jobs, poverty, and public revenue, based on an extensive data collection, cross-checking and integration exercise.
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“World Bank. 2023. The Future of Pacific Tourism. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39738 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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