Democracy for Development Institute (D4D) held a conference to launch the paper “Development of Tourism through Effective Policies and Legislation”, whose focus was to identify the possible steps for reforms in both tourism policy and legislation.
This paper aims to inform economically-developing countries how to benefit from tourism in employment growth. This is best accomplished by regulating legislation through a National Tourism Organization. The National Tourism Organization would be the main coordinating institution of all of the ministries at the central, municipal, and local level. The Ministry of Trade and Industry cannot solely be in charge of tourism; other Ministries such as Foreign Affairs, Culture, Diaspora and others also have a role to play in tourism development. Tourist destinations need to be better maintained and managed by municipalities and tourist guides need to be created for foreigners so that it can assist in the development of tourism. Another important regulation would involve the transportation used to access these tourist destinations. For example, Macedonia has regulated their entire tourism transportation network by creating direct and low-cost flights, coach tours, and bus routes.
The general public and some sectors of society, including the private sector, are not encouraged to participate in tourism consultations. If they are more involved in planning and implementing these activities they would be better informed about the benefits from tourism they will have.
The paper can be read here.
