Evolution of Tourism Approaches for Poverty Reduction Impact in SNV Asia: Cases from Lao PDR, Bhutan and Vietnam

Abstract

Development agencies are facing a growing demand to demonstrate larger impacts on poverty, which has resulted in a questioning of tourism as an effective intervention strategy. Tourism has been employed as an agent of economic development, job creation, and environmental and cultural conservation. However, critics have cited a dearth of evidence of tourism's contribution to poverty reduction. SNV Asia responded to this impetus in the last decade. The article provides a review of approaches to reach more development impact. Cases from Lao PDR, Bhutan and Vietnam show how SNV's way of working changed. It demonstrates how SNV involved the private sector, and how the organization adjusted its impact measurement systems. However, assessing development impact remained challenging. SNV decided to focus on select sectors that showed most development impact, and phases out from tourism. The article proposes not to move away, but find pragmatic approaches to increase tourism benefits for communities.

Keywords:

• pro-poor tourism
• development impact
• poverty reduction
• value chain analysis and development
• SNV Netherlands Development Organization

Notes

SNV was established in 1965 as a Dutch development organization. In the 1990s it changed from employing volunteers to national and international development experts. Since 2000, SNV provides advice to clients and partner organizations, rather than implementing own projects. It strengthens organizational capacity, in a mix of capacity development services and thematic expertise, supporting private, public and NGO actors, to strengthen their performance in realizing poverty reduction and good governance, within a framework of home-grown national development strategies (SNV, 2000, 2002). The current SNV strategy emphasizes development impact (SNV, 2007a). In 2009, SNV supported over 2,100 clients, through almost 900 advisers, in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Balkans. In 25 countries, around 60 tourism advisers support tourism initiatives (SNV Annual Report, 2009).

The evaluation was conducted by Harold Goodwin (ICRT), as team leader, and Caroline Ashley (ODI) and Dylis Roe (IIED), as team members. It consisted of four case study reports, and a synergy report written by Goodwin (2006).

The evaluation report states (Goodwin, 2006, 4): ‘SNV is widely recognised as the development agency with the leading role in pro-poor tourism across its advisory practice areas in Africa, Asia and South America. SNV has more experience in pro-poor tourism than any other organization and has secured a pre-eminent reputation for its work in this field, resulting in SNV's international partnership with the UNWTO’.

Bhutan has a unique payment system in place in which each tourist pays a minimum daily fee of US$200 for an all-inclusive tourism package. The US$200 daily tariff includes a so-called Royalty of US$65 and an additional US$5 in taxes, which RGOB withholds for every visited day. These taxes are channeled back into government budget.

The private sector is involved but has not yet bought itself into the development of products. The Nabji project did not instigate private sector investment in product development, but made national tour operators invest time and human resources to facilitate decision making, training and the marketing of the products.

Within the Sustainable Tourism-Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) framework, this participatory process was later replicated by UNWTO and SNV in Bhutan, Lao PDR, and Albania, of which all received technical support from UNWTO.