BY
A few days ago the blog had
occasion to informally discuss infrastructure, PPPs and tourism with somebody
who works within the Oblast Regional Development, (read infrastructure,
PPP/FDI) and Tourism Division within the bureaucratic machinery.
It was an interesting
conversation, and of the 30+ unrealised infrastructure and/or PPP projects of
the Oblast, at some point in the future the blog will somehow (not necessarily
by way of a large block of text) feature the most promising 5.
What swiftly became apparent,
and reading between the lines of what was not said, is that there are serious
communication issues between the City and Oblast bureaucracies, and also
between those individual local governance entities and the relevant central
ministries in Kyiv.
The lack of communication
between City and Oblast governance comes as no surprise, particularly under the
current leadership of both entities which have no liking of each other
whatsoever. This something set to continue, for there is no candidate to
replace Mayor Trukhanov in any election that would beat him. In fact
there is no other candidate that is even promoting themselves as an alternative
now in order to preposition themselves with even the remotest of chances.
In short, Mayor Trukhanov will have to be disqualified from reelection
not to remain Mayor following any forthcoming elections – as poor a Mayor as he
may be. The sacking of Governor Saakashvili is a matter for the President
and seems unlikely any time soon despite the on-going attempts of the local
political class to unseat him. Ergo the communication
and cooperation impasse remains extremely likely.
That there is also a lack of
communication between ministries and oblast is also no surprise – especially so
when it comes to tourism. There are is no shortage of interest in
chjasing FDI or developing PPP infrastructure projects from any governance
entity, but tourism is clearly something of a limp add-on therefore devoid of
serious attention.
Indeed regarding FDI and PPP,
albeit such things appear slowly, over the coming two years (should existing,
if dysfunctional, stability across the political and economic arenas continue)
some (quite surprising) projects will assuredly manifest across the oblast.
Nevertheless, the result is
that there is no national, regional, nor city tourism policy worthy of the name
– and certainly none that are complementary or part of an overarching vision.
Albeit there seems to be
little likelihood of a national tourism policy worthy of the name occurring
anytime soon – let alone implemented – should Eurovision 2017 be awarded to
Odessa then there may be something akin to an Oblast and City policy that has
little choice but to force limited cooperation and implementation under the
watchful eye of Kyiv that cannot afford a political farce, large scale
corruption of invested funds, or event delivery disaster.
Having written a few lines in
the Odessa Review (pages 44-45) regarding
Eurovision as generally being an event that is a financial loss for the host
city almost every year, it is therefore imperative that it is the Eurovision
legacy in the immediate years that follow are capitalised upon in order to balance
the books – or eventually turn a profit. That means infrastructure
spending on what those “Euro tourists” expect to find – and which is in fact
what all tourists expect to find and yet remains largely absent in Odessa
despite it being a city with a reputation for tourism. Many of these
issues are cheap fixes that should have been fixed long ago, and can be/should
be fixed now, regardless of whether Eurovision is awarded to Odessa or not.
The Odessa Review article highlights but a few obvious and easily fixed
failings (of many not mentioned).
There are governance issues
relating to tourism at the best of times – even with effective communication of
which Ukraine and Odessa has none. That there is almost no effective
communication within the Oblast and City administrations or those businesses
involved in the industry makes development almost impossible. Coherence
and consistency are required.
Governance, both vertical and
horizontal dramatically and directly effects tourism. It is only
necessary to think of issues like border security, Visa issuance (for those
that need them), the regulation of the aviation industry, the control (or lack
of) it has over any attractions such as castles, catacombs, the
maintenance of public beaches, parks et al. This
notwithstanding infrastructure such as roads, rail, obligations of e-promotion
of the region, the regulation public transport, and of on-line/virtual
agents etc. (Almost everything else can and should be left to
the micro-tourism industry itself and/or its industry associations).
Is tourism best placed within
the Regional Development portfolio as it is in Odessa, where it is a footnote
to infrastructure and FDI? Tourism in Austria, Canada, Chile, Colombia,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, FYR Macedonia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the USA, falls within the economics
ministries (business, industry commerce and trade). In the UK, Italy, Turkey
and Korea it falls within the culture ministry portfolio.
Would placing tourism within
the economics ministry produce further and swifter development than within the
regional development machinery? Clearly a dedicated ministry for tourism
such as Egypt, Brazil, Israel, Malta etc enjoy is not going to
happen – and perhaps rightly, but if Ukraine has no ministry, does that prevent
Odessa having a dedicated Tourism department within the oblast machinery, and
would there be the justification for such a stand-alone department at the
oblast level?
Whatever the case, is a
regional development division clearly far more orientated toward infrastructure
and investment chasing, the right entity to also be casting a watchful eye over
existing tourism? (Does it monitor standards and safety within?)
How much effort does the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs put into promoting tourism in Ukraine? It
currently has far greater priorities and rightly so, but is any notable effort
spent? Are there nations that Ukraine would/should/could specifically
target? The USA? Canada? The Gulf States (which are seemingly
more and more inclined to look to Ukraine lately)? Israel? China?
Others?
For those that need a Tourist
Visa to enter Ukraine, how easily and how quickly does a Visa appear in a
passport? Can they be bought at the airport on arrival in Ukraine?
If not, why not, and could or should they be?
The role of government will
not remain a static one either. Even if Ukraine maximised its tourism
potential, governance will be required to create and insure conditions for
market competitors within the sector – but is government even looking that far
ahead when doing so little now?
How best to regulate and
manage eco-tourism at the stunning Danube Delta? The answer surely is
jointly with Romania for it falls within the territory of both nations.
Who should facilitate such interaction? At what level? Who
pays and for what? Is it possible to find a co-operative funding
mechanism? Should tax revenue generated by eco-tourism be redirected back
into eco-tourism – if so, in part or in full?
If promoting eco-tourism or
the few niche historical tour operators, is that time better spent than
promoting sun, sand, sea, water parks? Or wineries? Or mountains?
Diversification matters and some tourism niches require more of a
promotional lift than others.
Would the creation of a
dedicated “Tourism Investment Fund” be of benefit? For example could it
be used to put new facades in place of those crumbling where tourists regularly
frequent, or fund specific issues such as the complete lack public disabled
toilets? Or wheelchair access? Or Latin letter street signage in
the tourist areas? Perhaps it would be a pointless exercise when both the
City Council and Ministry of Culture, both legally charged with preventing illegal construction in the
historical town centre, and upon historically listed buildings
themselves, abjectly fail not only in their responsibilities of
prevention, but also enforcing the law and demolishing offending work despite
their protests if and when made.
How effectively can
internal/domestic tourism be developed? What do other nations with very
developed tourism industries do to generate internal tourism and thus industry
growth? Music festivals, language camps, sporting events, naturism, nudism,
art festivals etc? How to maximise the legacy of such events,
encouraging sustainable and repeat domestic tourism?
Simply leaving tourism to fend
for itself as currently appears to be the case is clearly failing to bring
development – and the “what to do?” and the “how to do it?” in order to change
that are questions that have been answered far more successfully by far less
developed nations than Ukraine, and in localities far less attractive than
Odessa.
There is a general perception
that tourism brings Odessa a far higher percentage of regional income than is
actually the case, but there is certainly room, and in many cases at very
little expense, to bring the reality closer to that perception. What is
lacking is policy – and the leadership that will pursue it.
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