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WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
16 September 2016 
(16-4923) Page: 1/11 
Committee on T rade and Development  
Thirty -Second Dedicated Session    
 
  
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 12 JULY 2016  
Chairman: H.E. Mr. Christopher Onyanga Aparr (Uganda)  
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGEN DA ................................ ................................ ....................  1 
B. CHALLENGES A ND OPPORTUNITIES EXP ERIENCED BY SMALL EC ONOMIES 
WHEN LINKING INTO GL OBAL VALUE CHAINS IN  TRADE IN GOODS AND 
SERVICES (WT/COMTD/S E/W/31)  ................................ ................................ ..................  2 
(i) Value Chains in Tourism Services (Section 3.2.1) - Introduction by WTO Secretariat  ..........  2 
(ii) Tourism Linkages and Value -added in Small Economies – Presentation by WTO 
Services Division  ................................ ................................ ................................ .................  2 
(iii) Trade and Tourism: the Policy Dimensions – Representative from the World 
Tourism Organization (UNWTO)  ................................ ................................ ............................  3 
(iv) Good Practices for Successful Tourism Development – Representative from  USAID  .............  4 
(v) Export Strategies for Tourism – Representative from the International Trade Centre 
(ITC)   ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................  5 
(vi) Presentation by a Representative of the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism, Instituto 
Guatemalteco de Turismo (INGUAT)  ................................ ................................ ......................  6 
(vii) Presentation by a Representative of the South Pacific Tourism Organization 
(SPTO)   ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  7 
C. MINISTERIAL DECISION  ON THE WORK PROGRAMM E ON SMALL 
ECONOMIES (WT/MIN(15 )/40 – WT/L/975) – REDUCING TRADE COSTS  .....................  10 
D. OTHER BU SINESS  ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 11 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGEN DA 
1. The Chairman  said that the draft agenda for the meeting was contained in 
WTO/AIR/COMTD/SE/4, circulated on 23 June 2016. He indicated that there was a slight change in 
the airgram me. U nder sub -item 7 of item B , a representative from the South Pacific Tourism 
Organization would be making the presentation and not a representativ e from the Pacific Island 
Forum, as was indicated.  Under "Other Business ", the representative of the Internation al Trade 
Centre (ITC)  said that she wished to make a statement regarding the upcoming Trade for 
Sustainable Development Forum.  The Chairman said that the ITC statement would be added under 
"Other Business ". 
2. The agenda was adopted . WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  B. CHALLENGES AND OPPOR TUNI TIES EXPERIENCED BY SMALL ECONOMIES WHEN  
LINKING INTO GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS IN TRAD E IN GOODS  AND SERVICES 
(WT/COMTD/SE/W/31)  
(i) Value Chains in Tourism Services (Section 3.2.1) - Introduction by WTO Secretariat  
3. The Chairman explained that the Secretariat document had been the f ocus of the last three 
meetings  held on 1 June  and 29 October in 2015 and on 9 March 2016 . The report had generated 
much discussion  and a t the last meeting there had been a good session on global value chains 
(GVCs) in the textiles an d clothing sectors. Presentations had been given by the Japan Exter nal 
Trade Organization, the ITC and a former member of the International Textiles and Clothing 
Bureau  (ITCB) . Some governments also made short presentations. The minutes of the meeting 
had been circulated on 27 M ay 2016 in document WT/COMTD/SE/M/31. He said that today's 
meeting  would focus on tourism services.  
4. Introducing the document, the Secretariat indicated that the study showed that tourism was 
of major importance for many developing co untries , and in particular for small economies . He 
explained that there were strong differences  amongst small economies, however,  in the 
contribution that tourism makes to gross domestic product ( GDP). For example, in Suriname and 
Paraguay, the share of to urism to GDP represented only 1%, but reached 48% in the Maldives . 
There were also important commercial sectors at work in tourism . For instance, the agro and fish 
industries, the construction  business and other  supportin g industries  helped feed , house and 
entertain tourists. He said that the study also explored the direct and indirect c ontributions of 
tourism to GDP which , once added together, could contribute up to 25% of GDP in the case of 
Barbados. It was explained that tourism could also be a driver fo r development  and that the sector 
had played a  key role in helping three former least developed country  (LDC)  to graduate, namely 
the states of Cabo  Verde, Maldives and Samoa . It was also important to remember that different 
countries have  different assets  in the tourism sector. Some had  cruise ships or ecotourism facilities 
or were better suited for cultural tourism. In building up tourism in any of these areas, it was 
important to ensure coope ration with the private sector. This could help mainstream tour ism into 
national government policies and development strategies.  
(ii) Tourism Linkages and Value -added in S mall Economies – Presentation by WTO Services 
Division   
5. A representative from the Trade in Services and Investment Division  spoke about tourism 
linkages in small economies and  GVCs . He said that generally, there wa s a lack of research on 
tourism value chains at the national level in small economies.  In his view, more statistics and 
better data were needed to measure export diversification, employment  creation (especially for 
women and youth), rural development and the participation  of micro - and medium -sized 
enterprises.  
6. He said that the same was true for measuring value -added in tourism value chains. In this 
respect, he explained that there were measu rement constraints  and that more detailed s tatistics 
were often not available.  Although the  Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) used input -output tables 
and mad e heavy use of statistics, only v ery few countries actually used them  to their full extent.  
He said  that other value chain analysis consisted of using surveys to help determine some of the 
economic effects of value chains and also the regulatory infrastructure im pediments. Such surveys 
constituted one of the best ways of analysing  impediments in tourism  value chain s. 
7. He also addressed challenges associated with expanding and deepening tourism linkages. He 
said that there were v arious ways of increasing value -added from tour ism. One was simply 
geographic and involved adding more visitors, whether high -paying or high volume visitors from 
other countries. Another aspect was broadening the number of activities on offer for tourists and 
going beyond sea, sun and sand  to offer higher , value -added tourism  such as cultural or medical 
tourism. Another aspect conce rned deepening these linkages. For example, how much revenue 
were governments losing by not pursuing e -commerce  and making use of its marketing and its 
sales potential. For example, i f a tour operator is located abroad, value -added and other taxes go 
to that country  instead of the country which the tourists are visiting.  He explained that since small 
island states especially were not able to provide all the goods and serv ices in the tourism value 
chain, it was important for them to try  to capture the highes t value -added activities possible.  As WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  examples , he mentioned the development of local services involved in advertising, construction or 
shopping.  There were also other services which small economies could provide which were 
considered to be forward linkage s, such as medical tourism, second ary homes  or retirement 
settlements , music festivals , conference services, meetings and conventions.  
(iii) Trade and  Tourism: the Policy Dimensions – Representative from the World Tourism 
Organization (UNWTO)  
8. A representat ive from the World Tourism Organization  (UNWTO ) said that as an economic 
activity, tourism was defined as being demand driven.  In 2014, tourism had been the world's third 
export earn er and , in 2015, it represented 10% of world GDP . The importance of the se ctor was 
underscored by the fact that one out of every 11 jobs in the world related to the tourism sector. 
She added that tourism was also reflected in at least three (8, 12 and 14) of the 17 Sustainable 
Development Goals  (SDGs) , part of the U N's Agenda 20 30 initiative.  
9. The representative of UNWTO said that in 2015 , there had been 1.184 billion tourists . The 
highest growth in the sector was observed in the Caribbean, Oceania and Central America n 
regions.  She explained that b y 2030 , the UNWTO expected  there to be 1.8 billion tourists, 
measured in  terms of international arrivals. In order to take advantage of this growing market, she 
suggested that small economies address some of the specific obstacles which they face, including, 
addressing l ow labo ur skills, complicated business environment s, problems with access ing finance, 
sufficient airport or port capacity and infrastructure and, in the case of island states, accessibility. 
She explained that the UNWTO had devised, together with the European Union (EU) , a 
methodology for maximizing the positive impacts of sustainable tourism . The methodology  looks at 
the tourism sector , governance and policy  issues , trade  policy , investment and a country's 
competitiveness.  
10. She added that in order to unlock the potential of tourism , it was necessary to strengthen 
the specific institutions  which dealt with the sector. It was also necessary to enhance 
public -private dialogue  and cooperation , develop tourism export strategies, maximize tourism 
value chains and advance tourism st atistics.  
11. Another important aspect concerned the greening of tourism. She explained that 
technologies and issues related to green trade offer ed lots of development opportunities, such as  
the possibility of creating renewable e nergy and resource efficient technologies.  This required the 
trade and tourism communities to understand each other better . Sound and effective trade policies 
were needed in order to build a competitive tourism sector.  
12. The representative of Guatemala  asked whether backward linkages in the tourism sector had 
to be in place before establishing forward linkages or whether the  two evolve d at the same time. 
She also asked whether any of the presenters' institutions would be able to help small economies 
obtain better statistics.  
13. The represent ative of Chinese Taipei  said that it was important to promote tourism through 
better marketing, including through a presence at tourism fairs. He said that Chinese Taipei  had 
also made big efforts to facilitate visa requirements and in some cases waived th e visa 
requirement in order to attract more tourists . 
14. The representative of Sri Lanka  said that his country, an island and a small economy, 
considered tourism as one of its main industries . The sector represented as much as 5 to 6% of 
the country's GDP and was expanding rapidly . He said that by end of 2016, his government 
expected 2.5 million tourists, up from 620,000 visitors in 2010. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka faced 
challenges, such as the lack of infrastructure and other socio -economic considerations  such a s 
economic volatility and epidemics and even terrorism . This was impacting the industry  and had led 
to a shift in the origin of tourists from Europe to one which now included visitors from China and 
India. He said that it would be interesting to examine ho w the Trade Facilitation Agreement (FTA) 
could help countries further develop the tourism sector.  
15. The representative of Pacific Is lands Forum  reminded Members that tourism is second only 
to fisheries in the Pacific region, reaching close to 50% of GDP in s ome countries. She asked how 
value added in tourism activities could be measured. She also asked how tourism could be made WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  more resilient in the face of constant natural disasters and specific challenges posed by climate 
change . She asked how climate polic ies could be integrated in to the tourism sector to make 
tourism more sustainable?  
16. In response to the question from Guatemala,  the representative from the Trade in Services 
and Investment Division  said that forward and backward linkages could evolve  at the same time, 
but added that the more evolved the  backward linkages were, the better the forward linkages 
could be. In regard to the question about statistics, he said that the WTO Secretariat offered help 
in obtaining and understanding service s statistics, w hich were the basis for arriving at tourism 
statistics. Also, the Economic Research and Statistics Division (ERSD) of the WTO worked with the 
UNWTO . Research could be conducted to examine small economies specifically.  In response to a 
question raised by Sr i Lanka,  he said that in order to address the infrastructure issue, certain trade 
policies could be deployed to foster investment . This could entail taking on more GATS 
commitments  and/or signing on to more bilateral or regional commitments. He added that it was 
also possible for Members to improve their GATS commitments unilaterally.  
17. In regard to Vanuatu's question, he said that the WTO maintained a database with the 
Organisation for Economic Co -operation and Development (OECD ) that could be consulted on the 
WTO's website under the Statistics section which concerns the " Made in the World Initiative ". He 
explained that when examining trade in value -added terms, the share of trade in services is larger 
than that of trade in goods. However, he added that meas uring value -added in services was not 
easy and that so far only one LDC and one small economy had been examined.  
18. Responding to the representative from Chinese Taipei , the representative of UNWTO  said 
that the UNWTO had done extensive work on visa and trave l facilitation  requirements . Regarding 
Vanuatu's comment, she said that there was a sustainable tourism program me which was closely 
associated with the UN's SDGs  initiative. The latter addressed such issues as how governments 
could  devise policy framework s on sustainability, address climate change and build more 
resilience.  
(iv) Good P ractices for Successful Tourism D evelopment – Representative from USAID  
19. The representative from the United States Agency for International Development  (USAID ) 
discussed good p ractices for tourism development  and said that tourism was  a top export  earner 
for a large number of developing countries . He explained that g iven its capacity to generate 
income and create employment , tourism could  encourage governments and communities to  
protect the resource base on which tourism depends. He added that USAID had engaged 
specifically on s ustainable tourism development and that s ince 2000, it had supported more than 
150 tourism projects in 75 countries  such as  Brazil, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Namibia, 
Kenya, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines. However, in recent years , the emphasis on 
tourism projects had decreased  mainly because of other trade priorities.  
20. Drawing on USAID's experience on sustainable tourism, he presented six fa ctors for success. 
The first was conservation  of the natural resources. Nature -based assets may present a country 
with one of the few livelihood options available. It was, therefore , crucial that countries which have 
such assets conserve the natural resour ces on which their tourism depends.  
21. The second factor concerned strong and well -coordinated public sector support . This was 
necessary to protect natural resources, enforce laws and policies and ensure that local 
communities captured the gains from tourism.  The third was an en gaged and active private sector . 
He explained that it was important to have a n inclusive, multi -sectoral, private sector tourism 
association or working group in place in order to advance the private sector's goals and to 
communicate its  needs to the public sector.  
22. Another factor was establishing a secure access to markets. Internet and social media 
provide d an inexpensive option for small economies to promote themselves as tourist destin ations . 
He suggested that small economies move away  from the traditional means of advertisement such 
as magazines and television advertisements and invest instead in human resources to update 
social media sites. A sixth factor concerned the need to invest in support staff  since tourism was 
such a labo ur-intensive industry. Countries were encouraged to invest in training to professionalize 
staff and increase public awareness of what travellers like and dislike. He explained that successful WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  examples have included establishing vocational centres and schools to  conduct such training. He 
acknowledged, however, that this could be a challenge for many small economies because of their 
small populations and limited resources.  
23. Finally, he underscored the importance of sequencing. If there was too much pressure for 
rapid tourism development without having key pieces in place, there could be important damage 
to natural resource assets, a region's cultural assets and to the country's reputation among 
visitors.  
(v) Export S trategies for Tourism – Representative from the In ternational Trade Centre (ITC)  
24. The representative  from the Internation al Trade Centre  (ITC) spoke about export strategies 
for tourism and about how fulfilling tourism's potential required strong and coordinated action 
around a specifically designed tourism  export strategy. He explained that there was "a disconnect" 
between trade and tourism. Tourism was not understood by government officials as being 
essentially about trade. According to the ITC's trade strategy database, tourism is the second 
highest prior ity for development after agriculture. However, only 10% of the strategy initiatives 
which aim to mainstream trade into economic development included a tourism focus. The reason 
for this was that tourism was often not considered as being u nder the responsi bility of the Trade 
Ministry. Furthe rmore, many countries did not have institutional links  between the Ministries of 
Trade and Ministries of Tourism.  
25. He said that tourism should be better understood as being an export that helps increase 
national output an d foreign currency earnings. The sector was also subject to the dynamics of the 
international marketplace. Tourism was inextricably linked with the communities where it takes 
place and depended on the facilities and services that tourist destinations provi ded. It also plays a 
significant accelerating effect on economic and social development.  
26. He added that countries had to make a choice between devising a strategy or letting the 
sector evolve on its own. However, if governments wished to develop the sector in a particular 
direction, a strategy was needed. He explained that strategy design was a combination of a 
process and a methodology. In regard to the process, there had to be an inclusive and 
participative approach that included policymakers, the relevant  authorities, the private sector and 
civil society. The process also had to be formalized into a mechanism so that informal 
consultations would not give rise only to informal commitments. In regard to a methodology for 
developing tourism, one had to take a  very comprehensive view of the sector. Competitiveness 
depended on the ability of countries to provide a product which people wished to buy. This 
included the quality of the business environment and the ease of travelling to the country. These 
were factor s which went beyond promotion, marketing or branding.  
27. It was also important to focus on the development goals of the country in question. Tourism 
should be an instrument to help improve the lives of citizens, so any tourism development strategy 
should focu s on employment generation, the engagement of rural communities, the protection of 
the environment and regional integration. The strategy should also try to address any avoidable 
leakages and consider possible forward and backward linkages.  
28. He said that si nce tourism was such a broad sector with diverse activities, the strategy to 
develop it should address specific subsectors. Each of these had different value chains, different 
imports and different consumers. Such a strategy should also look at the support  service areas 
that enterprises need to operate successfully, such as finance, information and intelligence , and 
marketing and promotion services. He explained that the value chain diagnostics could help 
identify opportunities to build efficiencies, to dev elop new competencies and also to address and 
overcome constraints. The ITC had been using such an approach for the past 14 years. It included 
five value options: value acquisition, value retention, value addition, value creation and value 
distribution. He  added that once the diagnostic was finished, the ITC used it to come up w ith a 
future value chain for national  tourism sector s. 
29. He admitted that small economies faced many challenges. Coordination among the key 
stakeholders was very important. At the poli cy level it had to be understood that the development 
of the sector was not a competition but more of a collaboration. Political commitments had to be WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  long term. The strategy should not be considered as something static. It had to be managed, 
monitored and  updated.  
30. The representative of Côte d'Ivoire  asked the ITC about the importance of cooperation 
amongst various Ministries and wondered what kind of solutions he would suggest to make sure 
that the  necessary levels of awareness we re raised with the  authori ties so that trade worked for 
tourism and wa s in the general interest of the country.  
31. The representative of St. Lucia  said that the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States  
(OECS ) has a comparative advantage  in tourism. The sector provided  income, generat ed foreign 
exchange and revenu e and wa s a substantial source of employment. Since the 1990s the tourism 
sector ha d helped to offset the decline of agricultural  exports. Tourism -led growth had  proven to 
be a viable strategy for the OECS. In 2011, the OECS i nitiated a common tourism policy which 
increas ed collaboration across member S tates in order to improve the competitiveness of the 
region and to increase the value which these S tates derive d from tourism. There we re a number of 
challenges (which c ame from being small economies), such as small local markets and very limited 
resources, challenges in terms of competitiveness , which limits the region's ability to market 
tourism assets, high transportation costs and limited economies of s cale. Securing effective  
linkages between tourism and other e conomic sectors wa s a major challenge. For example, 
securing locally prod uced goods on a regular basis was  difficult. External challenges include d 
economic and currency fluctuations, rising input prices, distortion effe cts of government taxation 
and other regulations. In light of the challenges, a common strategy for the region included  a list 
of priorities, mainly a focus on investment, product developm ent, human resource development 
and tourism awareness . Others includ ed better research and statistics, access and transportation, 
regional facilitation and environmental and cultural sustainability, marketing communications and 
addressing crime invo lving visitors. These policies we re reviewed annually.  
32. The representative o f Vanuatu  asked about tourism and links to e -commerce and why none 
of the speakers addressed this important aspect.  
33. The representative of USAID  said that e-commerce is surely important as are regional 
aspects of work in tourism so that tourist s will actual ly spend more time in a region visiting a 
number of countries.  
34. The representative of ITC said that his organization has been promoting e-commerce and 
providing technical assistance since 2000. E -commerce is a means for reaching potential 
customers and is also a means for internal coordination. This is an element which is not given 
enough importance. Linkages, for example, between a hotel and transport facilities and resale 
outlets and cultural sites have to be established. There is an important role for e -commerce within 
the tourism sector. It could serve as one of the functional strategies within a national tourism 
export strategy. In regard to St. Lucia's question, he said that the country was one of the first to 
engage in a tourist strategy wi thin a nati onal export strategy. The ITC would  again engage with 
authorities there la ter this year. In response to Cô te d'Ivoire, he said that it was important that a 
partnership be forged between different stakeholders, both public and private. Such a partnership 
should be formalized and it should be given "teeth and backbone" by instituting the partnership in 
the law of the countries. This had  happened in Côte d'Ivoire and other countries where the ITC 
helped to facilitate th ese strategies. The backing of the H ead of State in such an effort was vita l so 
that the various ministries understoo d that this strategy wa s a priority for the country. When there 
is this high level of political commitment and across ministries then links between trade and 
tourism begin to happe n. Key actors look  beyond th eir immediate affairs and takes  a longer -term, 
national development perspective.  
(vi) Presentation by a Representative of the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism , Instituto 
Guatemalteco de Turismo (INGUAT)  
35. The representative of the  Instituto Guatemalteco de Turismo (INGUAT)  said that she wished  
to address three issues which we re important for Guatemala. The first was that tourism was 
contributing to the economic development of the country. The second concerned the challenges 
Guatema la faced in terms of building better linkages to GVCs and the third was increasing the 
country's competitiveness. Tourism had recently grown in terms of income and the number of 
visitors. It was one of the three main income sources for much of the populati on. In terms of WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  measuring the impact of tourism on the country, Guatemala was working with the UNWTO to 
further develop the sector. The Government had been working with the public and private sectors 
in shared efforts which would help Guatemala show the im pact that tourism has had on the 
national economy. She said that tourism had an impact on all regions of the country and involved 
21 different ethnic groups in seven different tourist regions. A small country with a population of 
15 million, Guatemala had modern infrastructure but also faced many challenges. The linkages in 
tourism concerned mainly handicrafts and the involvement of women. Other linkages concerned 
agriculture and some very good agricultural export products. Communications and transport 
infrastructure was good but there was a gap concerning connectivity which the government was 
trying to address. In touristic services, Guatemala had been working on certification and on 
improving the supply of services throughout the country.  
36. She explained th at Guatemala had 13 different ethnic communities living in a very beautiful 
part of the country. They offered tourist products which in turn provided them with an income. 
There were some difficulties, however, in regard to meeting the various demands. Some  tourist 
operators and businesses needed to attract more tourists through marketing and the promotion of 
specific sites and this was being looked at. Work was also under way to help these small tour 
operators to improve. This was a priority for Guatemala a nd, since 2015 the country ha d been 
working on a ten -year master plan, which was part of a planning tool that sought to integrate the 
visions for the public with the private sectors.  
37. In regard to meeting the tourism competitiveness challenge, the World Ec onomic Forum 
(WEF) ranked Guatemala as being in 80th place. The country wished to move up in the rankings 
and this was proving to be a challenge. In this regard, I NGUAT , the country's tourism board, had 
been made the leader for coordinating all the activit ies to improve competitiveness in tourism. It 
would provide the guidance to ensure that the private and public sectors collaborate d. State 
leadership in coordinating the sector was vital, both in larger cities and in communities at a local 
level. Another p oint was to ensure that Guatemala could be promoted as a country with a 
favourable image as a destination, and not one as a dangerous place or one with high risks. The 
perception was made worse because of the various travel warnings issued in some of the k ey 
tourist origin markets. She said her country was making more investments in preserving cultural 
heritage and the conservation of archaeological sites. It was also examining which institutional 
products it should focus on and which investments could have  an impact on the tourism sector. 
Other competitiveness program mes had to do with the quality of infrastructure within the country, 
especially in the area of telecommunications, airports and internal connectivity within the country. 
In terms of facilitatio n, she said that Guatemala was focusing on improving links to the Central 
American market, especially via land transport communications. In terms of security, there was 
now greater cooperation with the P ublic Ministry for the Protection of T ourists and an assistance 
programme for helping tourists before and during their visits. There was also an effort to work 
more closely with consulate offices and embassies so that their travel warnings didn't just focus on 
a single incident which could damage the percept ion of the industry in the country as a whole. In 
conclusion, it was key that there were measurements in place to assess the impact that tourism 
could have on the economy. She said that there was a need for numbers and corresponding 
indicators to assess pr ogress. The figures would help present the govenrment's case. She 
explained that Guatemala was very interested in having international support to further build this 
sector and in strengthening capacity and service quality.  
(vii) Presentation by a R epresent ative of the South Pacific Tourism Organization ( SPTO) 
38. The representative of  the South Pacific Tourism Organization (SPTO)  spoke about the 
tourism sector in the Pacific. His presentation focus ed on the SPTO 's activities, why tourism was 
important for the P acific islands, what some of the constraints were to further growing the sector, 
what the SPTO had done to address the challenges and what the future of tourism in the Pacific 
looked like. He explained that the SPTO was an inter -governmental organization f or tourism 
marketing with a vision to inspire sustainable growth and empower Pacific people. It had a 
mandate to market and develop tourism in the 17 islands in the region – from American Samoa to 
Vanuatu.  
39. Total arrivals to the Pacific had grown from 1.6 million in 2011 to 1.9 million in 2015. The 
majority of visitors travelled to Fiji. He said that since the entire region only recorded 0.16% of 
global arrivals, there was a lot of potential for growth. Average annual regional growth over the 
past five year s had been 3.7% with key markets being Australia and New Zealand, followed by the WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  United States, Japan and China. Strengths included the people of the region, the culture and the 
environment. There were also weaknesses which included vulnerability to natur al disasters, a lack 
of planning and enforcement. Opportunities included regional synergy, marketing, research and 
product development. Unsustainable and poorly planned development and also climate challenge 
was seen as a hardship for the region.  
40. He expla ined that there were different tourism development cycles in the Pacific and that 
one model of tourism cannot be simply applied to all the islands. There was the advance group of 
countries which included the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledo nia, Samoa and 
Vanuatu. A nother middle level group  consisted of Tonga, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau 
and Papua New Guinea. And the nasce nt group was composed of Kiribati , Tuvalu, Niue and Nauru, 
the Marsh all Islands and Timor -Leste. 
41. In regard t o cruise ships in the region, this was a growth sector and had grown by 7% 
yearly since 1990 with 23 new ships being delivered between 2013 and 2016. In the Pacific region, 
there was a positive trend of growth in the number of cruises and passengers which now totalled 
nearly US$640 million per year in direct expenditure. New Caledonia and Vanuatu accounted for 
the majority of the cruise visits.  
42. Tourism was important for the region because it was the only sector which showed growth 
compared to all the other s. It was the largest economic sector, provided the much needed foreign 
exchange earnings and created substantial employment opportunities especially for women and 
youth. It had many linkages to other sectors of the economy such as agriculture and transpor t and 
was beneficial for micro and small and medium -sized enterprises (MSMES).  
43. Some of the constraints faced by the sector in the Pacific included the vast geographical 
spread and the small population base affecting all countries. They too had limited dom estic capital 
for investment, low levels of critical mass, high costs of infrastructure and services and complex 
land tenure systems. For less developed countries, it was limited international air services, less 
capacity for developing public sector  touris m and a general lack of skills in the private sector. 
There were limited training opportunities, inadequate conservation of marine and land resources 
and a lack of awareness and engagement at the community level.  
44. Through the European Development Funding ( EDF), the SPTO had been able to implement a 
regional capacity -building programme. This focused on institutional capacity building and 
strengthening the SPTO as well as the national tourism organizations of the member countries. He 
said there had been posit ive impacts on this programme. According to a recent report of the World 
Bank, extended forecasts for the future of tourism in the Pacific was estimated to be worth about 
US$1.8 billion in 2040. There would be 3 million tourists at that time, the sector  w ould grow at an 
annual rate of 3% and 125,000 jobs would be created. He identified four fundamental areas which 
needed attention in the  region: improving connectivity,  especially for long -haul markets,  attracting  
higher numbers of new tourists,  building pu blic sector support and linkages to enable an improved 
business environment and improving linkages between the tourism sector and the local economy. 
He said that through the EDF funding, the region was able to set out on a strategy for the next five 
years.  This was endorsed at high -level by the Council of Ministers in October 2014 and has led to 
an agreed vision as well as a focus on addressing regional constraints and regional cooperation on 
sustainable tourism growth. The regional focus was on increasing economic benefits, conserving 
the environment and culture, ensuring business experience (including a safe environment and 
offering a unique Pacific hospitality) and establishing an effective collaboration between the public 
and the private sectors and the local communities. He added that there were seven components of 
the strategy. They ranged from marketing the region to key markets to focusing on cruise ship 
sector development. Also funded by the EDF was the Pacific cruise development strategy for the 
next five years. The vision was a unified Pacific region which sees steady growth in cruise tourism 
in a sustainable fashion. He explained that with more cruise ship destinations, there was a need to 
build more capacity, to address impediments to growth and t o increase promotional activities. 
Awareness had also to be raised about the potential of cruise tourism in the Pacific and also about 
enhanced cooperation between the region's stakeholders.  
45. He explained that the 11th EDF project was under way and concerned  a Pacific island private 
sector and empowerment programme. Its objective was to increase the participation of the private 
sector in economic integration and to enhance private sector competitiveness and optimize the 
quality of customer service. The projec t focused on marketing the Pacific, developing the aviation WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  sector, human resource development and work on building further statistics. Future opportunities 
for the region, as forecast by the World Bank, was to attract an additional one million tourists, 
mainly from the growing Chinese market, placing an additional four cruise ships in the Pacific, 
expanding the number of high -end resorts and capturing the retiree market. In addition, the SPTO 
believed efforts could also focus on providing more niche servic es such as health tourism, building 
linkages between agriculture and tourism and other sectors, and providing more cultural and 
marine -based tourism. Priorities for the future were to build strategic partnerships with the private 
and public sectors and wit h specific donors and to secure technical assistance especially in the 
area of cruise ship development. He said  that it was also important to diversify donor sources and 
lessen the region's dependence on the  EU. 
46. The representative of Ecuador  said that her country understood the importance of tourism 
as a key instrument for social and economic development in the long term. She said that tourism 
authorities had been workin g to enhance tourism in order  that it could become the main source of 
non-oil based rev enue. To achieve this end, her G overnment had put in place program mes to 
improve tourism services, strategies to promote and position the country as a prime tourist 
destination and to provide tax and environmental incentives. There had also been public 
investments with the construction of four new international airports in addition to the two existing 
ones and the refurbishing of 12 national airports. Air and sea connections had been improved and 
more than 9,700 km of roads had been built. However, there had  also been many barriers to 
developing the sector. One of these concerned legal rules and standards in the industry. It was 
necessary to update some 32 standards. Another area was improving skills training. Offering 
quality services required continual upda ting to generate an impact over the long term. Service 
providers should also make the time available and invest in the required resources. There was also 
the question of cultural and language difficulties. These had to be addressed, especially in rural 
areas where a lot of tourist sites are located.  
47. She said that tourists could also be classified into different age groups which require using 
differentiated marketing techniques as well as o ffering a range of different on -site services. It wa s 
important to un derstand that e -commerce played a large role but was largely lacking in a country 
like Ecuador, especially in rural areas. The usual tourist profile showed that they plan and reserve 
their holidays well in advance and use credit cards to confirm arrangemen ts so that they can avoid 
making large payments in the tourist destination. Since many of the service providers in Ecuador 
did not have web sites with adequate payment systems in place, they are overlooked by tourists 
wishing to secure advance services. Sh e added that as many as 80% of internet service providers 
in the country cannot charge for their services online. The airline and cruise ship industries had 
similar problems. The international airlines and ships which came to Ecuador earned the revenue 
and not Ecuador. This showed that tourism required long term significant effort amongst various 
sectors and various stakeholders to address very important issues.  
48. The representative of the Dominican Republic  said that the topic of tourism was a 
fundamental to pic for his country which began to develop tourism 35 years ago w hen the World 
Bank granted the G overnment a loan. The central bank played a key role in the national 
development of the sector. He explained that the public sector was not the one that made l arge 
efforts but it was mainly the private sector which had been responsible. It was important to have 
direct coordination. He said that t ourism was  important because it represented  an area from which 
you can actually export many different services and pro ducts. He said the sector had grown in  the 
last 25 years and that about  5 million tourists came to his country each year. In this regard, there 
had been major investments made to date. His was one of the first countries to carry out a 
tourism satellite acc ount (TSA) - a statistical framework for measuring the economic impact of 
tourism. This same method was then used in different Caribbean states. He explained that this had 
helped the country gain better knowledge of the impact of the sector and how it coul d be 
improved. This was particularly important because tourism is so fragile given the sudden negative 
effects on visits , because of natural disasters or political upheaval. He spoke about the 
employment generation aspects of tourism and the important lang uage skills children should 
acquire at an early age to be able to benefit from the sector.  
49. Foreign direction investment (FDI) also played a key role in developing infrastructure for the 
tourism industry. In the Dominican Republic,  there are now eight inter national airports, 30 golf 
courses and a motorway that goes around most of the island. The tourism sector has further 
developed and the country was now growing its health tourism and golf services sectors. 
Environmental tourism was also key given the islan d's interesting flora and topography.  WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  50. The representative of the United States  said that tourism could play an important role in 
boosting economic and sustainable development in small economies, since there is a connection 
between tourism and other sectors  of the economy, including agriculture, construction, 
communications, energy utilities  and transportation. It was mentioned that imported goods and 
services are often needed in the related sectors where local options may not exist or are 
inadequate. This s peaks to the importance of market liberalization as an element of building a 
successful tourism sector.  
51. She said that harnessing e -commerce was important to capturing greater value in the 
tourism value chain. She added that , nevertheless, to take full adv antage of e -commerce, it was 
important that key building blocks were in place, including sufficient infrastructure and appropriate 
regulatory frameworks. It was also important that the private sector, especially small and 
medium -sized enterprises (SMEs ), had ready access to enabling technologies and reliable access 
to the internet. She believed that trade policies could play a key role in creating incentives and 
establishing an enabling environment for business development in the tourism sector and related 
sectors.  She said that she appreciated the issues raised during the meeting and looked forward to 
discussing more concrete examples of how trade and trade policies can respond to the specific 
development needs of developing countries . 
52. In response to some o f the co mments made, the representative  of the SPTO  said that he 
noticed that there were many similarities with what the Caribbean and the Dominican Republic had 
raised as issues. In the Pacific, of the 17 governments in the region, only Fiji had a tourism  
satellite account. Value chain analysis was still at a very early stage but was an area of work which 
should be researched further. He said that skills building and languages and e -commerce were all 
important factors which contributed to the sector.  
53. The r epresentative from INGUAT  said that it was important for countries to be fully 
integrated into the GVCs and to promote multi -destinations on a regional basis. Also of interest 
was to further develop sub -regional cooperatio n chains and to build community -based networks.  
C. MINISTERIAL DECISION  ON THE WORK PROGRAMM E ON SMALL ECONOMIES  
(WT/MIN(15)/40 – WT/L/ 975) – REDUCING TRADE COSTS  
54. The Chairman referred to the Ministerial Decision taken at Nairobi in December 2015 and 
said that it instructed the Dedicated S ession on Small Economies to continue its work on the 
challenges and opportunities experienced by small economies when linking into GVCs in trade in 
goods and services. It also requested the Secretariat to conduct work on the challenges small 
economies exp erience in their efforts to reduce trade costs, particularly in the area of trade 
facilitation.  
55. He said that the item was placed on the agenda in order to provide Members with an 
opportunity to express how they wished to address the topic of "reducing tra de costs". He added 
that it would be particularly helpful to hear Members' views about how they wished to proceed in 
the discussion on this topic.  
56. The representative of Guatemala  said that on behalf of the Group of Small and Vulnerable 
Economies (SVEs), s he wished to thank the Secretariat for its work and for the organization of the 
meeting and to the speakers for the important information they had provided. The SVEs wished to 
inform Members that they were preparing a proposal for two or three sessions of the Dedicated 
Session to be held in 2017 to discuss the topic mandated in Nairobi, mainly reducing trade costs, 
particularly in the area of trade facilitation. She said that the SVEs would be holding consultations 
with interested Members so as to include t heir inputs in their proposals. These would be 
distributed so that they can be addressed at the next Dedicated Session. She invited any Members 
that wished to participate in the consultations to please inform her.  
57. The Chairman  thanked Members for their ob servations and suggested that Members 
continue their discussion at the next meeting of the Dedicated Session. In the meantime, he urged 
Members to think in detail about how they would like to proceed and to forward proposals in 
writing, either collectively  or individually.  WT/COMTD/SE/M/32  
 
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  58. He said that for the ne xt Dedicated Session, which would  most likely be held in the first part 
of November, he suggested continuing the discussion on GVCs as mandated in the Decision taken 
at MC10. The services sector would again be disc ussed but with a focus the next time on business 
outsourcing and other IT services. Consultations would be held in due course to determine who 
should be invited to speak.  
59. He said that in keeping with the last meeting of the Dedicated Session in March 2016 , he 
wished Members to agree that they welcome the idea of having some speakers attend the meeting 
from outside Geneva. These speakers would be experts in their fields and could share their 
knowledge and experiences as well as provide examples of how value  chains in specific services 
sectors actually work.  
60. He recalled that it was important to take such decisions in advance of the meeting so that 
funds can be secured ahead o f time from the WTO's technical -assistance programme.  
61. Members agreed  to the request.  
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
62. A representative from the ITC requested to make an intervention under this item. She said 
she wished to announce the upcoming Trade for Sustainable Development Forum which would take 
place from 28 to 30 September, in conjunction with the  WTO's Public Forum. She explained that 
the annual Trade for Sustainable Development Forum was one of the leading events focused on 
voluntary standards and sustainability certifications. Speakers would be experts from the public 
and private sectors and fro m civil society. This year's focus would be on data -driven decision 
making, integration into value chains and on the importance of access to open data sources. The 
forum would  highlight innovative technical -assistance projects that facilitate communication . The 
Forum would begin with a session at the WTO Public Forum working session and would continue 
the following day with an ITC open house which would feature projects such as the sustainable 
agriculture initiative platform. She said  that the event could b e of interest to the delegates 
interested in the work of small economies.  
63. The Chairman  thanked the representative of the ITC and took note of her statement. Since 
there was no further request under this item, the Chair adjourned  the meeting.  
 
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