Scenario Planning for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector: Residential Workshop

Background

Over the decades, tourism is a sector which has experienced continued growth and ‎diversification in most countries of the world. Globally, it is now one of the fastest growing economic sectors and shows no signs of slowing. In developing countries particularly, tourism is also becoming a key developmental tool and a catalyst for socio-economic progress.

Today, the business volume of tourism in many countries equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, ‎food production or automobile exports. Tourism has become one of the major players in ‎international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income ‎sources for many developing countries. The global spread of the tourism sector in many developed states has produced ‎economic and employment benefits in many related sectors and has had a myriad of flow-on effects in areas such as telecommunications and ‎agriculture. ‎
The contribution of tourism to the development of Bangladesh overall depends heavily on the strategic planning undertaken in the early stages of the sector’s development. Bangladesh’s tourism sector is currently at a key developmental stage with the creation of the Bangladesh Tourism Board, the development of the Tourism Industry Skills Council and the launching of the ILO Toolkit on Poverty Reduction through Tourism Toolkit in the Asian Tourism Fair 2012.

The immediate future of the sector relies on a number of factors, including infrastructure upgrades, sustainability measures, development of sectoral guidelines and availability of skilled manpower. The ILO’s TVET Reform Project will be working with the Government of Bangladesh to look into these issues with a particular focus on ensuring the availability of skilled workers.

Objectives

The workshop aims to:

• Identify current and future skill development needs in Bangladesh’s tourism sector through discussion with representatives from the different sub-sectors, as well as senior government delegates and development partners.
• Stimulate social dialogue on current and future needs of the industry, and how these could be addressed.
• Raise further awareness about the ILO Toolkit on Poverty Reduction through Tourism Toolkit, which is oriented towards SMEs and local communities in rural areas, includes case studies and best practices, and links the ILO Decent Work Agenda, poverty reduction and the UN Millennium Development Goals.
• Establish a Centre of Excellence in the tourism sector to meet skill needs and promote models of best practice.