WE TOUR Project Course 2 - Module 4 - Build Entrepreneurial and Tourism Skills

1. TRAINING PROGRAM COURSE 2:
TOURISM ORIENTED POLICY
MODULE 4: HOW TO BUILD
ENTREPRENEURIAL, INCLUDING
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
TOURISM CAPACITIES AND
DEVELOP SPECIFIC TOURISM
SKILLS

2. 1) Entrepreneurial activity and
entrepreneurship
2) Entrepreneurial entities
3) Social entrepreneurship
4) Social inclusiveness, employment and
poverty reduction
5) Capacities for sustainable tourism

3. Entrepreneur
«enterprising individuals who display the readiness to take risks with new or
innovative ideas to generate new products or services»
Entrepreneurship
A social tourism enterprise aims to generate tangible and intangible benefits for
the community, environment and tourism including job creation

4. Entrepreneurial entities
Commercial organizations: economic value creation in market systems
Non-Commercial Organisations: established for community or member interests
Social Enterprises: exist to serve a specific social or social objective

5. Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneur uses
entrepreneurial activity to provide
solutions for cultural, social, or
environmental issues while making a
profit.

6. Social enterprise
People: change human lives and initiate social change
Planet: environmental impact and the contribution towards lower footprints
Profit: has to have financial gains and profit to be able to sustain itself, increase its impact,
grow and provide decent jobs.

7. Social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction
Global GDP2019
Tourism Other Sectors
Total jobs 2019
Tourism Other Sectors
Covid 19
11% decrease in
jobs
62m job losses

8. skills empowerment
Social
inclusiveness
Tourism
gender equity jobs
livelihoods
community
resilience
poverty
reduction
Sustainable tourism businesses
and social enterprises are among
the best positioned actors to
bring about change in enabling
skills development, capacity
building, access to decent jobs by
the vulnerable communities and
populations.

9. Strengthening “Decent work”

10. Advancing an “inclusive
growth” approach
reach local communities directly
facilitate employment of or directly
employ people in poverty, women,
youth, people with disabilities and
migrants
include local makers, artists, other
entrepreneurs and communities in
their networks

11. Enhancing Capacities for Sustainable Tourism
social
entrepreneur-
ship
decent
jobs
poverty
reduction
protection
of assets
and
heritage
social
inclusion
change
Sustainable
tourism

12. «destination
management
approach»
get the most out of different types of
sustainable tourism – i.e. adventure,
culture, heritage, religious, agro, gastro…
carrying
capacities
cooperation
structures
mobilisation of
social capital
establishing inclusive
management structures
organization
of resources

13. Assessing the situation
gather as much information,
knowledge and data to set the
grounds for informed
decisionmaking and sustainable
planning by mapping exercises

14. Identifying the Areas for Intervention and
the Selection of Interventions
Ability to achieve development goals and make a difference
Amount of time to implement actions
Level of resources required
Availability of existing “services” for the implementation
Visibility to the agency

15. Formulating Actions - 1
governance structures and processes
policy
strategies and plans
legislation and regulations
research, studies and reviews
collection and dissemination of data

16. Formulating Actions - 2
incentives
awareness and
communication
capacity building and training
needs and barriers
networks
specific projects

17. Idea Pitch
Brief explanation Key Objectives
Key Resources (experts)
Relevance and sustainability
Advocacy / pitch Added value to digital
transition
Added value to green
transition
Expected impact for NICD (value proposition)
Added value to food systems
Added value to resilience

18. Implementation
and Evaluation of
Actions
Implementation plan
Activities, sub-activities, deliverables, outputs,
risk assessment, M&E and comms plan
Resource plan
Finance, human capital, etc
Timeplan
Milestones vs.total duration

23. 1
TRAINING PROGRAM COURSE 2: TOURISM ORIENTED POLICY
MODULE 4: HOW TO BUILD ENTREPRENEURIAL, INCLUDING SOCIAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, TOURISM CAPACITIES AND DEVELOP SPECIFIC TOURISM
SKILLS
Contents
Section 1: What is entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurship..........................................................1
Section 2: Entrepreneurial entities ...........................................................................................................8
Section 3: Social Entrepreneurship ...........................................................................................................9
Section 4: Social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction.....................................................11
Section 5: Enhancing Capacities for Sustainable Tourism.......................................................................13
This module of the training is planned under five sections. At the end of the training sessions,
the participants will have increased entrepreneurial capabilities and develop tourism-specific
skills. As such, the module will be based on entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurship, and
specific skillsets needed in tourism enterprises and entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on
sustainable tourism.
Expected learning outcomes include developed knowledge of:
1) Entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurship
2) Entrepreneurial entities,
3) Social entrepreneurship,
4) Social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction,
5) Capacities for sustainable tourism.
Section 1: What is entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurship
From various definitions of entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity, this
module focuses on key concepts in relation to tourism.
What is entrepreneurship?
The concept of entrepreneurship generally refers to enterprising individuals who display the
readiness to take risks with new or innovative ideas to generate new products or services.
Traditional entrepreneurship aims at generating economic value and innovation through
improved business and operational models. Social entrepreneurship seeks social value with

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specific milestones on sustainability, gender equity, poverty reduction and improved access,
creation of supportive networks, inclusion and participatory approaches. In both kinds,
generation of new employment is an important factor to be able to harness full potential of the
business. A social tourism enterprise aims to generate tangible and intangible benefits for the
community, environment and tourism assets as well as the community – including job creation.
A tourism enterprise can also be a digital one. Digital tourism businesses
offer a wide array of services and opportunities for tourism
destinations and value chains to improve, upscale or reposition
their business towards different products, services or groups in
cost-effective ways. The rule of thumb in improving the ability of
your business is adjusting and re-positioning your business and
operational plans to the new needs. To enable your business to be
adaptable to change, in this case digitalization, you need a learning
organization that is open to change, is flexible and quick. Along with
financial literacy and skills, digital literacy and skills will give you a
competitive edge if you want to stay relevant and keep creating value to
attract business. Digitalisation helps reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and improve
services and customer experience for entrepreneurs and social enterprises, benefitting the
supply and demand sides as well as service providers along the chain.
For social tourism enterprises, it is also vital to develop networks and social capital to make
common use of resources especially in marketing through small groups or larger destination
management organisations. In this case, digital platforms cater to individual consumers, agents,
different intermediaries, travel media and tourism businesses. Furthermore, the report is
focusing on e-Business for tourism suppliers, particularly Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
(SMEs). For all main sectors of the tourism industry it helps
developing your E-Business strategy, gives an overview of the
relevant E-Business applications and services, offers a step-by-
step guide for the implementation and points out the critical
success factors always accompanied with detailed case
studies.
The key challenges of (social) tourism entrepreneurship across
the value chain vary by macroeconomic situation, reasons
related to conflict, peace, safety and security or disaster risk,
location, cultural factors, type of activity, type of tourism services or
products provided, but are mainly common:
Finance: Lack of financial literacy, lack of tailored or specific funding schemes,
access to and accessibility of private and public funds
Question: What are the available public, private or international funds
(credits, loans or grants) for tourism in your country?
Skills: Limited ability to innovate, reluctance to take risk, limited
knowledge of market systems, low competitiveness, lack of product or
service demand in the market (absorption capacity) due to external
reasons (conflict, disaster, economic downturn), inability to scale-up, skills
gap in the human resources, low transformation capability of the business, low
agility and flexibility of the organizational set-up, ability to conduct or access market analysis

25. 3
(inbound and domestic target groups, target market segments, available and potential products
and services, competitors, value chain actors, pricing for physical and online goods and services,
product and service feasibility, absorption capacity, carrying capacity, socio-cultural elements)
Question: What is the strongest and weakest skill of your business? If you did not yet set up a
business, please provide a local example
Doing business: lack of a nurturing business environment and entrepreneurship policy, lack of
access to regional, national or international networks and social capital, a tourism policy
framework that does not meet contemporary market and actor needs, low ability of other
actors to work together as a value chain, lack of m&e systems and data for evidence base
necessary for the (social) business, a mismatch between product/service and the target market,
inability to adopt to contemporary business practices (business plan flaw)
Tourism is a major driver of economic growth in certain regions, and plays a key role in poverty
reduction as well as providing resilience to urban settings, peri-urban and rural communities.
On face of conflict, disaster or economic downturn, such as the Covid-19 pandemic with global
impact wince 2019, tourism value chains are among those hit hardest. Access to finance,
improved skills and a nurturing business environment help MSMEs and entrepreneurs stay
afloat during and upon times of crisis. UNWTO tourism barometer measures the upturn in
tourism by 4% in 2021 compared to 2020 but international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors)
are still 72% below 2019 levels. The inbound rate has increased by 18% in Eastern Europe and
the Caucasus. With easing of travel restrictions, the demand is going up, and this is the window
of opportunity for the entrepreneur.
Skills and Success Factors for Social Entrepreneurship to Survive and Thrive
Knowledge, skills and tools are a sustainable tourism enterprise’s
means to resilience and adaptability. There are certain hard or
technical skills required for a tourism entrepreneur such as
computer and digital literacy, financial literacy, marketing,
data analysis and information management skills. In most
cases as you will have limited staff and backup, your team will
need to acquire and improve these skills. In some cases, there
will be a need for an academic degree or a significant degree of
knowledge on certain topics. At times, especially in sustainable
tourism entrepreneurship end social enterprises, there might be a need for certification for
your team and facilities. These are tangible skills and assets that are measurable.
Question: what is the most relevant hard skill that you must have as an entrepreneur?
You also need a set of professional skills on the desired or current field of your entrepreneurial
activity. There is a supply gap, or a shortage of skilled people in
tourism. EU has identified issues towards this gap by “poor image of
tourism careers (e.g. seasonality and limited career prospects); key
skills gaps (e.g. digital skills, interpersonal skills, communication,
etc.); new skills are needed to remain competitive and tackle the
new tourist demand (e.g. destination management, adventure
tourism, accessible tourism, green tourism); cross-border and

26. 4
transnational mobility needs to be encouraged more”
The suggested actions are; “improving the image of careers in tourism; support transnational
mobility, especially for apprenticeships and traineeships; promoting a better knowledge of skills
gaps at local level; raising awareness about EU funding and tools available for the sector;
stimulating strategic thinking at national and local level and a strategic use of EU funding”. This
brings out the vitality of cooperation at destination level to make informed policies, design
businesses that can succeed, and support sustainability of local and regional tourism activities
and assets through strong human capital as a valuable asset.
Question: what is the key gap in your region for successful tourism enterprises?
There also are soft skills required for a (social) tourism enterprise to succeed. A most crucial
one is providing quality service to customers. The upper hand of the entrepreneur to the large
businesses and chains is the human factor: sincere, personal and personalized service. How
much you know the market, product, service, and customer segment, your interpersonal
relationships, communication skills have the greatest role to play in identifying and catering to
their needs and ensuring customer satisfaction. This in return assures positive feedback both in
person and online – your online presence and profile are mostly the reason why you receive
guests from your target group (or not).
Another skill is cultural awareness. Unless you target a very specific local segment (in which
case you are a self-employed person or a micro enterprise, not an entrepreneur), you will
receive local, regional and international guests from various cultural backgrounds, most
probably different than yours. They are visiting your social enterprise or using your services and
products not only for the local tangible and intangible offer such as natural, historical and
cultural assets, but also for the cultural exchange/experience. Cultural awareness will help you
better cater to the guests’ needs and be a good resource to exchange your own local cultural
values.
Aiming at higher quality services provision requires certain assets
such as financial, digital and market literacy. In a fast-changing
market such as tourism, entrepreneurs need to be able to
adapt to changes and to multi-task. Usually, in case you aim
for a one-person show, a sustainable tourism enterprise
needs another valuable asset to succeed: a good team that is
positive, adaptable and open to learning at all times. Your
team’s financial, digital and market literacy skills are factors of
success for your entrepreneurial future in the tourism market.
From a business perspective, success comes with a clear, risk-
averse vision and a strong strategy on how to implement
your idea or tell your story (for pitching your idea,
mobilizing resources, access to funding). A long term
vision, “where you see yourself in 5 years”, will help you
design your business plan, factoring in possible short to
medium to longer term risks, tangible and intangible
benefits to the community, region and your enterprise. m
of intangible benefits enjoyed over long time periods.

27. 5
Another factor for successful sustainable tourism entrepreneurs is the networks. You can either
be the part of an existing local, regional or international network, or support the creation of
one. In all cases, you will mobilise and utilize the social capital. This in return will provide you
with the necessary cooperation and collaboration in your destination. Sustainable tourism
entrepreneurship helps protect, restore and maintain the tourism assets, and it is a very smart
business strategy. Having strong networks and cooperation structures benefits all actors in the
sustainable tourism value chain, and empowers the actors against
crisis. Much like the cluster approach, collaborating and competing
together will carry the destination to the desired point. At this
stage, involvement of public actors is vital for an enabling business
environment and policy framework, and for resilient social
enterprises as they are the most vulnerable enterprises in the
chain in most cases as their top priority is not profit but
community/destination benefit.
The most important factor is your business plan. It needs to be SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound). It needs to work for you as an
entrepreneurs, but as a social entrepreneurship model, it also needs to create value for the
community, region, destination, the planet and the target group. There are various standards
that your target groups will seek, and you can consider at the business plan stage. You do not
need certification from day one, but aiming at certain minimum standards and certification will
ensure the resilience of your enterprise, competitiveness in the region, and help you keep the
promise of sustainability. There are multiple sustainability standards and certifications. Some
are more credible then others, some are more realistic for social enterprises, and others are
helpful if you aim for attracting international guests. To identify the correct certification for
you, networks will be the first option. Destination
management agencies, or if there is none available, local
tourism councils, public bodies, business/occupational
NGOs, digital communication groups will provide a
supportive network. A key factor here is your position
as the social tourism entrepreneur: you need to
adopt the values you promote for your business in
your life. Ownership of the ideas you promote by
you and your team will give the guest an honest and
genuine experience, and encourage them to come
back.
In your business plan, a financial feasibility study and
concrete figures will help you identify your limits, and
keep the feet of your business
on the ground. Aiming higher
than you can achieve usually
results in unsuccessful
businesses – knowing the limits of your financial
figures, the business environment you will operate in, the
market conditions and (potential) demand for your products
and services will help you succeed. Funding helps you start, but
what will enable you to stay resilient and relevant is financial

28. 6
literacy from pricing to purchase, from investment to cash flows. A good business plan is
accompanied by a good story that is well told, and has to clearly and briefly explain your
innovative tourism business concept, product/service description, your value proposal, target
and potential market analysis, operational plan, a financial projection and a brief cash-flow
analysis. Your evidence base needs to come from a trustworthy resource, has to have real
numbers and realistic projections, and visually self-explanatory. Investors or funding agencies
like a clear and concise presentation with numbers and charts that help them listen to and
understand your idea pitch. Make sure your financial projection comes from a very good pricing
analysis of the product/service package you offer. This is the pedestal your financial plan will sit
on or fall from.
What is entrepreneurial activity?
Entrepreneurial activity is the enterprising human action in pursuit of the generation of value,
through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new
products, processes or markets. Entrepreneurship is the phenomenon associated with
entrepreneurial activity.
Activity in social entrepreneurship requires strategies that
provide solutions for cultural, social, or environmental
issues while making a profit. Along with the revenues
generated to keep the business afloat, to ensure the
entrepreneur and possible partners in case of
cooperatives or joint social initiatives; a social
enterprise measures its success by the level of
awareness raised in the community and target group,
change made for the better for the tangible and
intangible assets, the value created for the local
communities in terms of job opportunities and cultural
exchange. The key difference between social
entrepreneurship and non-profit organizations is that the
second mobilises resources for a cause, i.e. raise funds for an environmental foundation or a
children’s charity; but a social entrepreneur has an innovative idea and has to make a profit as
they are operating a business while generating social value and positive impact using this idea.
The social entrepreneurship mindset is important for local and regional development and
poverty reduction as it helps generate employment opportunities and livelihoods for local
vulnerable communities, prioritizing women and youth in ideal cases. The social
entrepreneurship model nurtures the employer in gaining and
using new skills. The model also connects with the customer
segment/target market on an individual level unlike the
traditional business. In terms of doing business, the social
entrepreneur looks at new ways of doing business to
generate decent jobs for women or poorer segment of
society, practices that have less to no impact on the
environment, methods that build the resilience of
communities against shocks, networks that connect good
practices with local initiatives. That is why the social
entrepreneur does not refer to a single person – it is a group, a
cooperative, an initiative by nature that acts in harmony with a clear

29. 7
definition of tasks and goals to their entrepreneurial activity can bring about the aimed change
or positive impact in a SMART manner.
Who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is by nature an innovator who seeks for market opportunities and uses
innovative approaches to make the best use of these opportunities. They are facilitators of
change in the market by introducing new or improved goods or services, new and innovative
methods of service provision, introducing new markets and new customer segments, exploring
new resources, and changing the operational or management processes of doing business.
An entrepreneur however is different from a self-employed person. By nature, they are
expected to take risk and create a business with an innovative and competitive edge, whereas a
self-emloyed person is a micro enterprise in basic terms, who takes
part in the existing practices with no added value needed. So
not any person who starts a new business is an entrepreneur.
Another difference is that an entrepreneur is on constant
lookout for further growth opportunities, new markets
and target groups, production or service provision
methods to keep their competitiveness. On the other
hand a self-employed person does not have any urge to
improve their business and/or the model as long as it
provides the livelihood they aimed for.
Maybe the most important difference is the creation and
addition of value. The primary purpose of the self-employed
person or the micro-enterprise is not the generation of value
for themselves or others, but mainly sustenance/subsistence. The
entrepreneur does create value. If the significant value is created for the
market system, this type of entrepreneur is a traditional entrepreneur with physical presence. If
value generation targets common good and social value, this group is categorized as social
entrepreneurs, and they generally operate on social capital as a main asset. Social
Entrepreneurs look for different and unique business ideas which are
connected closely with society and provide cultural and social solutions.
The group that generates value, provides services or products from
anywhere with the availability of a computer and internet
connection with no necessary physical presence are the digital
entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur can choose digital means whether
they are traditional or social by category – and in today’s tourism
market, digital entrepreneurship skills are more important than
ever for any entrepreneur.
Question: what is the value proposition or unique selling point of
entrepreneurial activity?
Tourism is a popular, fast-growing industry that is
interesting for many entrepreneurs. Traditional
businesses, worn-out ideas and self-employment is very
common in tourism sectors such as accommodation,
restaurants, transportation, entertainment or
gastronomy. We all have that one friend who opens up

30. 8
another B&B in a town that already has saturated demand for accommodation, turns their
apartment into an AirBnB, opens up one more traditional home-made food restaurant, rents
out their van in tourist season. None of them are entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur adds value,
creativity, innovation and risk and provides a product or service with an edge.
A social tourism entrepreneur is a creative thinker who provides the guest with a product or
service they will not find locally. You need to be resourceful to solve problems quickly and with
a positive attitude, hunt for information from various sources, think strategically and plan
ahead to always have plans B and C ready, have room for unexpected changes, and be able to
convince people to get their buy-in for new ideas.
Question: What is the value created by sustainable tourism activities?
Section 2: Entrepreneurial entities
This section will look into entrepreneurial entities by their nature.
Commercial organizations
A commercial enterpreneurship seeks a niche and a need where there are opportunities for
economic value creation in market systems to the ultimate goal of profitability, increased
market value of the organization, business development and growth. The needs commercial
entrepreneurs focus on rise as a result of a chain of changes, and this requires foresight and
horizon scanning skills. The need can also be an immediate one that creates business
opportunities for the entrepreneur to exploit. Some examples of commercial entrepreneurs:
A commercial organisation is a legal entity, i.e. an organisation, institution or corporation that is
a limited liability company, a partnerships or a sole proprietorships that operates for the profit
of its shareholders or other owners. The commercial objective is the reason why a company
exists. It defines the brand image including sustainability, commercial goals, and how the
company serves to its target groups. Commercial organisations can use funds to support social

31. 9
benefis for various reasons including corporate social responsibility.. Some examples for
commercial organization are:
Non-Commercial Organisations
A non-commercial organization is established by individuals and (or) legal entities for
community or member interests rather than provision of commercial services or products, and
their reason for existence is not for commercial profit. Some examples are public schools,
public hospitals, political parties, professional associations, research institutes, legal aid
societies and labor unions.
Social Enterprises
Social enterprises or social businesses exist mainly to serve a specific social or social objective
that arises from a long-standing need such as gender equity, poverty reduction or
environmental protection. Social enterprises use some of their profits to fund their cause. Some
examples are:
Question: Can you give social enterprise examples from your region?
Section 3: Social Entrepreneurship
There are four types of social entrepreneurs to be taken up in this section.
A social enterprise bases its success on People, Planet and finally Profit.
The people base of the helix prioritizes the ability to change human lives
and initiate social change. The planet base looks into the environmental
impact and the contribution towards lower carbon and water footprints
of business and customers. As for profit, a social enterprise has to have
financial gains and profit to be able to sustain itself, increase its
impact, grow and be able to afford the provision of decent jobs.
Social enterprises come in many shapes and colors. A non-profit is a tax-
exempt entity that raises funds for its founding objective. A cooperative is
a business entity run by and for its members, and the profit usually
goes to business development and sharing a fraction of the profit
among members is not uncommon. Social firms generate
employment for the vulnerable members of the community
including women, youth, persons with disabilities and refugees.
Municipalities’ soup kitchens are a good example of this. As it
comes to the types of social entrepreneur, we can observe the
activity based on their approaches.

32. 10
Community social entrepreneur
This type seeks to address the needs of a community within a limited geographical area, i.e. a
village. The entrepreneurship initiatives taken up by the community social entrepreneurs aim to
restore livelihoods, improve market access, generate employment, protect cultural and natural
assets or the environment. The community social enterprise is managed by members of the
local community and aims to establish long-term benefits to this community. Some good
examples are Nar Women’s Cooperative in Edremit, Turkey; the Spitak Greenhouse in Armenia;
and the Temi Community in Kakheti, Georgia.
The community social entrepreneur works within the community in destination management
agencies, town councils, etc and takes proactive part in decisionmaking processes for solutions
that already are on the table.
Question: Who is a role model in your community for social entrepreneurship?
Are there any success stories you can share for a community social entrepreneur?
Non-profit social entrepreneur
They are volunteers who invest their time and effort to organize an institutional set-up for the
benefit of the society in a certain area such as education or neigborhood community building
for societal well-being. The operational structure is based mainly on membership, and the
voluntary structure raises funds to achieve goals or solutions, such as sponsorships from public
or private donors. Types include public charities and private foundations, and any profit made is
used for the solution offered/promised by the organisation.
Transformational social entrepreneur
Transformational social entrepreneurs aim at socio-
economic and behaviour transformation. through
entrepreneurial activities. They are impact-driven
entrepreneurs and accelerators who aim at positive
change. Their ultimate aim is to create solutions for
larger challenges with long term societal impact. This
type seeks for a gap or a need yet unaddressed by
public or private bodies. AKUT and İpekyolu Kadın
Kooperatifi from Turkey are two examples for
transformational social entrepreneurship.
Global social entrepreneur
This type of entrepreneurship needs larger scale organizational
abilities and available resources as the aim is a large-scale
change to address major global (social) needs globally. It is a
part of corporate social responsibility when larger
enterprises are able to drive positive societal change, and
usually foundations of large-scale global businesses are
implementors of the activities. The issues range from food
security to reducing the climate impact and business
footprints, from the access of the girlchild to education to
creation of livelihood opportunities for vulnerable members

33. 11
of society in green industries, through cash programs. The method of delivery or
implementation is usually through different institutions from international organisations
including the UN country offices to other social enterprises.
Section 4: Social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction
Within 185 countries and 25 regions, travel and tourism sector contributed 10.4% to global GDP
and 10% of total jobs in 2019 with 334m individuals employed in travel and tourism. The share
of tourism jobs decreased to 11% with the travel restrictions due to Covid-19, costing 62m job
losses. Although the market is expected to halt its recovery in Eastern Europe and Western Asia
due to the ongoing Russian crisis and related uncertainties, gradual recovery is expected in 2022
with easing and lifting travel restrictions. ILO expects tourism to continue to grow due to
changing demographics, gaining affluence of the middle class, globalization, better
communication (more exchange, interaction, migration) and increased promotion resulting in
stimulated growth past 2022. Let us look into different socio-economic outcomes possible via
tourism.
Pursuing greater social inclusiveness through tourism
To enable equitable growth that eventually leads to reduction of poverty and decent
livelihoods, management of tourism locally, regionally and across borders through
destination/corridor approaches in an orchestrated, participatory and inclusive
manner is a rule of thumb. As a vessel that supports social inclusiveness, UNWTO
describes the needs towards this outcome as
“Pursuing greater social inclusiveness through tourism, with a focus
on women’s empowerment, youth engagement, tourism
opportunities for all and support for local communities;” The
World Bank defines social inclusion as “the process of improving
the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—
improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those
disadvantaged on the basis of their identity”.
As a labor intensive industry, tourism facilitates social inclusiveness via
provision of employment to those with little or no formal training, from
vulnerable and poorer communities. This is a risk in terms of skills,
specifically in smaller sustainable tourism businesses. Tackling the skills gap
will be possible via multiple pathways, from formal certificate programs provided
by public agencies to on the job training schemes, in return increasing the resilience and
employment prospects of employees. The good news on employment in tourism is, women
make up almost 70% of the tourism labor force. With significant women, youth and indigenous
people involved through employment across value chains, tourism also facilitates inclusive rural
development and provides livelihoods for migrant workers.
Sustainable tourism businesses and social enterprises are among the best positioned actors to
bring about change in enabling skills development, capacity building, access to decent jobs by
the vulnerable communities and populations.
Question: How is the tourism industry structured in your region? Is it inclusive?

34. 12
Strengthening “Decent work”
Tourism is a major catalyst that contributes to growth and all the SDGs in
developing countries. Still providing employment and livelihoods for
272m people across the globe, tourism is a major economic sector.
Posing opportunities to individuals and communities across its
value chains, it is an agent to facilitate inclusive and sustainable
growth aligned with UN Global Goals, the “leave no one behind”
initiative and the EU green deal. As an agent of growth and
poverty reduction, livelihoods across tourism value chains can
create decent and sustainable jobs, promote inclusivity towards
segments of society with lower access to capabilities and resources prioritizing women, youth
and people with disabilities as well as other vulnerable groups. Decent and sustainable work is
a challenging concept across the world in multiple sectors and value chains. There are
various measures including provision of training and capacity building to
build skills and expand career prospects, facilitating better policies and
legal framework to encourage tourism businesses regardless of size
to provide decent working conditions, defined by ILO:
“has boosted informality, detracting from the values of decent work.” As
such, supporting skills development, transition to formality and supporting
entrepreneurship will potentially provide pathways towards decent
employment in tourism.
Advancing an “Inclusive growth” approach
As one of the largest and fastest-growing socio-economic sectors of our times, tourism can stimulate
economic growth, create decent jobs and business opportunities, helping millions of people to escape
poverty and improve their livelihoods. Tourism is also one of the most resilient sectors to crises
situations and can further act as catalyst for environmental and cultural protection and strengthen
peace and reconciliation.
Being a powerful industry with abilities to boost poverty reduction and inclusive growth, tourism, and
specifically sustainable tourism and social entrepreneurs are able to reach the local communities
directly, facilitate the employment of or directly employ people in poverty, women, youth, people with
disabilities and migrants. They are also able to include local makers, artists, other entrepreneurs and
communities in their networks so the guests know about and make use of services provided by these
groups.

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Section 5: Enhancing Capacities for Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable tourism is an agent of change, social inclusion, protection of environmental,
cultural, natural and historic tangible and intangible assets and heritage. It
also is an agent in poverty reduction, decent jobs, increased (social)
entrepreneurship.
Enhancing local and regional capacities for sustainable tourism, such
as carrying capacities, cooperation structures, mobilisation of social
capital, organization of resources, establishing inclusive
management structures require a certain approach.
For destinations of all sizes and locations; a
tailored destination management approach is
possible and necessary to be able to plan and get
the most out of different types of sustainable tourism – i.e.
adventure, culture, heritage, religious, agro, gastro, etc.
This section will look into the planning structure and methodology
under 5 stages.
Assessing the situation
The feasibility of the local context in the region or country for
sustainable tourism and entrepreneurship involves situation and
resource assessment. The process can be held through public-private
dialogue mechanisms led by the government through stakeholder consultations. An
alternative option is the utilization of international development funding through donor
agencies, undertaken in cooperation with the host government and by internal and external
consultants.
The aim of the assessment is to gather as much information, knowledge and data to set the
grounds for informed decisionmaking and sustainable planning by mapping exercises. The
situation assessment is usually a hybrid study based on desk research, KII or FGDs. Desk study
looks into national, regional, local and thematic development and sector plans and strategies
on tourism, trade and investment, education, human capital as well as tourism assets such as
nature or culture. Other frameworks to look are international
agenda commitments such as the SDGs and the EU Green Deal,
and national legislative framework on tourism, labor,
environment. A very critical element is the available data
and statistics on tourism infrastructure, superstructure,
structural set-up of the industry on public, private and
local levels, tourism performance and visitor ratings
available.
The desk study is followed by consultations to identify the
actors, stakeholders, network relationships, available tourism
products, carrying capacities, current and potential markets and

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segments. These consultations should involve national and local government and public
tourism ministries and bodies, private sector representative organisations and associations,
destination management organisations, city or rural councils, NGOS, and related line ministries,
agencies and authorities on investment trade, exports, environment, culture, nature, heritage,
development, employment poverty reduction, inclusivity and social cohesion, and of course
tourism academics.
Identifying the Areas for Intervention and the Selection of Interventions
A thorough assessment can take up to a year, and the outcome will be a masterplan or an
industry strategy, whereas a rapid assessment process will still give an overall impression of
strengths and weaknesses, competitive edges, entrepreneurship and sustainable tourism
opportunities, employment and livelihoods prospects, current and projected footprint of the
industry. Most importantly, the assessment will “relate identified needs and challenges with EU
development priorities”. The output will be an intervention strategy towards diversification or
re-organisation of the tourism offer towards sustainable tourism. The needs and areas of
intervention identified will then be scored and eliminated towards a realistic intervention
strategy.
In selecting the most feasible and impactful interventions for planning and implementing
sustainable tourism with a number of social enterprises in the actors map, we need to use
public-private dialogue mechanisms once more. Regional priorities will be considered as well as
priorities of public, private or international development donors for access to funding. It is
advisable to look at available funding and the areas they address in designing the intervention.
The shortlisted and selected interventions should also be aligned with development and
tourism policies and strategies, and should address the challenges in decent employment,
climate impact, poverty reduction, protection of assets, etc.
UNWTO identifies the selection criteria as:
• The likely impact of a specific intervention - its ability to achieve development goals and
make a difference.
• The amount of time it may take to implement the relevant actions
• The level of resources required, both financial and human
• The availability of existing “services” that could be used in the implementation
• The visibility that the intervention will bring to the agency. This may be particularly
apparent from marketing and other public facing interventions.
Formulating Actions
Selected intervention areas will require the inclusive design a set of feasible actions.
Stakeholder involvement is key not only for feasible and realistic action design but also for
sustainability of implementation, ownership of the process and results and scalability of impact.
The set of actions are listed below as they have been suggested by the UNWTO and have been
widely implemented. However, but this selection is not conclusive. There will be different, less
or more suggested actions depending on the local context where we are designing this
sustainable tourism destination plan for.

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• Strengthening governance structures and processes
• Policy development
• Preparing or improving strategies and plans at different levels, both geographic and
thematic
• Implementation of policies, strategies and plans
• Reviewing and strengthening legislation and regulations
• Undertaking research, studies and reviews to improve knowledge
• Improving the collection and dissemination of data
• Identifying needs and removing barriers
• Developing linkages and networks between stakeholders
• Designing and undertaking specific projects, including pilot projects
• Establishing or strengthening management systems and policy instruments, including
incentives
• Raising awareness and strengthening communications of all kinds
• General and specific capacity building and training.
Implementation and Evaluation of Actions
The starting point will be the design of an implementation plan with sub-actions, deliverables,
outputs, outcomes/impact and risks for each action, responsible institutions similar to using the
PCM model. Three very crucial resources need separate planning: human resources (actual
workforce to be involved in the process) / human capital (skills needed to be developed along
the way; financial resources (the cost of each action and its source), and time (a timeplan
setting milestones and deadlines).
Two other plans that you need all along are the M&E plan and the communication plan. A clear
task and role definition and ownership will ensure successful implementation. Then, the
implementation by these parties needs to be reported on a timely, systematic, transparent
manner. How will you know if the action succeeds? What are your indicators, and are they
measurable? Do you have the necessary measurement tools? Upon evaluation, have you found
flaws with the design, or did some risks become an actual obstacle? What is your strategy to
adapt and cope? What is your communication structure within the team? How will you tell your
story to then outside world? How does your target group choose to consume information?
It is normal and expected for the implementation
planning to take time, but it will save time in the
long run. Implementation of each task in return will
take up resources according to its size and content.
When the implementation begins, it is usually
carried out by the designated institutions,
agencies or consultants. It is essential to use
a certain methodology, PCM is advisable, for
successful implementation and monitoring.

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Citations
OECD – Defining Entrepreneurial Activity
UNCTAD – Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development
UNWTO – Sustainable Development
UNWTO – Tourism in the 2030 Agenda
European Comission – Social Enterprises and Their Ecosystems in Europe
ILO – Sustainable Tourism for Development
ILO – Toolkit on Poverty Reduction Through Tourism