2020 will be a landmark year for countries whose large part of their GDP composition is based on the product of tourism and the environment respectively, concepts that are causally linked. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a profound decline in the GDP of these countries due to the loss of revenue from their tourism product.
It is the quality of the tourist product that creates over-value for the participants in this industry. The quality of the tourist product in turn is based on two main pillars in the anthropogenic environment and the natural environment of the country that produces it and disposes of it for consumption in the world.
By Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
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The new approach to the development of the tourism product
Investments made should, among other things, consider the impact that these investments will have, whether small or large– on the aesthetic and environmental sustainability of the country developing its tourism product.
For example, a wind farm could be set up in Thailand’s Phuket Islands or in the Cyclades islands in Greece; if so what impact would it have on the tourism product of these countries; would it increase tourism or not?
In addition, strong legislative frameworks should be created to defend both environmental and urban regulations which affect the tourism product offered in the long term. For example, the image of Costa Brava in Spain and Acapulco in Mexico are negative examples and show why specific regulations should be considered.
Furthermore, investment in the tourism sector should consider the wishes of tourists who usually change in generation by generation. The correct labelling and prediction respectively of these wishes of tourists will give the comparative advantage to the country that will implement them first in its tourism product compared to the other competing countries in the field of tourism.
Today tourists seek, interesting and authentic experiences, contact with the primary production of the tourist product they choose, and of course the type of tourism that contributes to the preservation of the environment.
Once we determine the wishes of the consumers of the tourist product then a country with the appropriate strategy can each time adapt to them, achieving long-term sustainability of its offered tourism product and at the same time increasing revenues over time that would greatly help to increase its total wealth (GDP) as a country.
To implement a successful strategy, there should be organization, coordination, management, accountability in the implementation of both this strategy and in the management of human and environmental capital respectively undertaken.
The right steps
- Creation from the outset of a new structure and organization.
- Providing real executive power to this new structure and organization to be able to develop and set the new framework for both the development of the tourism product and the protection and development of the environment at both local and country level.
- This new structure and organization will necessarily cooperate with the local authorities and local communities, to jointly design a sustainable and appropriate model of tourism development adapted to the local environment considering the opinion of local communities.
- The planning and start of implementation of this framework strategy will identify bureaucratic obstacles and all kinds of obstacles posed by local and general government, respectively. This new structure and organisation will then be able, through proposed solutions, to enforce the removal and elimination of these obstacles.
- With this implementation, the pressure will increase on the public administration, which will then be forced to adapt to the new green development and transition data set each time by this new structure and organisation.
The countries that will understand this and implement this new framework first will also be the ones that will be able to increase their tourism revenues over time.
