What do associations, ecotourism, and Uzbekistan have in common? Let me tell you the story.
I met Jon Bruno, executive director of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), sometime back in one of the gatherings of association leaders worldwide. TIES is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting ecotourism globally.
Founded in 1990, the organization strongly contributes to the development of ecotourism while providing guidelines and standards, technical assistance, training, research and publications. It lists over 15,000 members in 190 countries.
Recently, I got an unexpected email from Jon, requesting me to be in a panel for an online discussion with representatives from the State Tourism Development Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan through their Tourism Development Institute (TDI). The agenda was to provide ideas and suggestions to the central Asian country’s desire to develop ecotourism.
The other invited panelists were US-based Art Krebs, a property development expert, and Jason Banks, an investment banker. From the TDI side were Zarina Valieva and Madina Jabborova. I was invited because of my development banking background, my international network, and my general knowledge of sustainable tourism.
The virtual meeting was to be held in five days—a reason for me to panic but excited at the same time to contribute to the country’s aspiration. I was also confident because of my background and the fact that I have been to some places in Uzbekistan because of my work in managing a development banking association.
Since Uzbekistan is starting its ecotourism initiative from zero, I thought of coming up with a conceptual framework of a sustainable tourism development and presenting the case study of the Philippines. As it turned out, my contribution was one of the bases for further discussions to craft a sustainable tourism vision in Uzbekistan. Below is a summary of my contribution:
- There are at least three essential components in developing a national sustainable tourism framework: government policy support; a national development plan; and, a conducive investment environment.
- Government policy support may come in the form of a policy directive from the tourism authority and/or a law enacted by the legislative branch of government as in the case of the Philippines’s Tourism Act of 2009 and the National Tourism Development Plan, 2011 to 2016.
- The national development plan design can include tourism asset inventory, cluster approach, coordination mechanism, training and capacity building, among others.
- Investment or financing will follow if the three components above are present and if there are viable and bankable projects.
- There must also be a national champion to take the lead in ascertaining that the above components are in place, implemented, and carried through.
Association Man 