OHK has participated in the drafting of the United Nation’s “Declaration on Investing in Tourism for an Inclusive Future,” known as the Petra Declaration. Upon invitation of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), OHK’s Ahmed Hassan convened along with heads of various governments, chairs of international and regional organizations, and investment and banking sector leaders at the Regional Conference on Investing in Tourism for an Inclusive Future: Challenges and Opportunities, organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the UNWTO in Petra, Jordan, on 26 and 27 October 2016.
The Declaration was a team effort that synthesized and reviewed past efforts to make tourism more inclusive, namely:
- the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
- the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
- the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/64/14 of 2009 on the UN Alliance of Civilizations and intercultural dialogue
- the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/66/288 of 2012 that endorses the outcomes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development
- the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/69/233 of 2014 on the promotion of sustainable tourism
- the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/1 of 2015 on Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/193 of 2015
- and finally the T20 Tourism Ministers’ Declaration of 2015 on Tourism, SMEs and Employment – Policies to Stimulate Job Creation and Inclusiveness, the 10-Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP).
In drafting the Declaration, special emphasis was placed on the importance of tourism as one of the fastest growing socio-economic sectors – in 2014 tourism was the third largest world export-earning category (after fuels and chemicals), accounting for an estimated 10% of total world GDP, one in eleven jobs, 7% of global trade, and 30% of trade in services. OHK estimates that in 2016, total GDP contribution had risen by 3% over the preceding two years. Additionally, the Declaration made special consideration of the industry’s horizontal links with other sectors and the diversity of its value chain, highlighting how the sector can drive (and has driven) entrepreneurship and cross-industry structural transformation – a field in which OHK is particularly active as an advisor in the Middle East tech innovation, venture capital, and entrepreneurial management.
OHK’s Ahmed Hassan argued that the push for a “sharing economy” in tourism is not urgently needed in most of the struggling SEMED and MENA destinations, and that innovation in physical infrastructure, transport, security, and financing solutions are far more pressing needs for communities like Wadi Musa (pictured above), the nearest town to the archaeological site of Petra. Photo © OHK Consultants.
The Declaration paid special homage to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, of which three specifically mention tourism, namely inclusive and sustainable economic growth (Goal 8), sustainable consumption and production (Goal 12), and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources (Goal 14). Reference was also made to how resource efficiency in tourism can simultaneously meet both competitiveness and climate change imperatives, per Goal 12 and Goal 13 respectively. OHK’s Ahmed Hassan highlighted that, despite global efforts throughout the past two decades, the world still lags in putting host communities at the heart of tourism development and growth, noting in particular the discrepancy between massive investment in tourism facilities, hotels, and airport infrastructures alongside continued disinvestment the host and neighboring communities.
In response to this observation, the Declaration has placed more recognition on tourism as an instrument for local development while underscoring the promotion of stronger links among investment flows from the private sector, national development plans, and international aid flows. As a result, the Declaration did call upon the private sector, investors, financial institutions, and governments to “ensure that tourism development is based on responsible and sustainable planning, evidence-based decision making, and the involvement of all stakeholders, including the host communities and disadvantaged groups of society.” The role of governments to incentivize entrepreneurship across the entire tourism value chain, as well as to reform regulatory frameworks to enable micro, small, and medium enterprises, is inseparable from strengthening local economies, whether in established urban destinations or more remote, rural ones.
Petra believed to be 9,000 BC old and the 4th century BC capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. OHK has conducted conservation strategy work in Southern Jordan including the Petra region as part of its support to the Government of Jordan. Photo © OHK Consultants.
Mr. Hassan pushed for a realistic perspective on the role of innovation across different types of destinations and cautioned that innovation is highly dependent the maturity and resilience of a destination’s value chain. Although the Declaration references the sharing economy as a tool to improve the quality of tourism, Mr. Hassan emphasized that innovation in tourism products, business models, and management is more likely to “take” in the more mature components of the value chain, rather than in areas where enabling infrastructures are lacking. He also noted that the resilience in infrastructure, businesses, linkages, markets, and distribution is the critical enabler of tourism innovation.
Mr. Hassan argued that in Petra, the namesake of the declaration, innovation will lag until the government takes strong steps, in partnership with the private sector, to build a strong physical and technology infrastructure. In places like San Francisco, where OHK is headquartered, innovation has come on the back of significant intellectual and physical infrastructure that is often taken for granted. He cautioned that less developed destinations often ignore the building of critical enabling factors, skipping instead directly to novel market concepts and hoping they can rapidly bridge the gaps with more developed destinations.
OHK’s Ahmed Hassan (third from right) speaking during the Conference’s plenary panel and Declaration deliberations, which was moderated by CNN Money Emerging Markets Editor John Defterios (seated far left), and chaired by Ms. Lina Mazhar Annab, Jordan Minister of Tourism (seated center). Photo courtesy of the UNWTO.
The Declaration was passed on 27 October 2016 with an 11-point pledge to use and promote tourism as a tool to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The pledge of those present in the conference, including the representatives of tourism administrations, international and regional organizations, investment and banking sector, and the private sector is to build an inclusive and sustainable tourism sector that is based on human rights, social and economic justice and equality, and to continue to engage in the dialogue on how to foster public-private partnerships and increase investment in tourism, particularly related to infrastructure, product and human resource development, financing, host communities’ enablement, capacity building, research and technology, and sustainability of the tourism sector. Download the Declaration (available in English and Arabic) below:
The Petra Declaration on Investing in Tourism for an Inclusive Future
إعلان البترا للاستثمار في السياحة من أجل مستقبل شامل
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