Dominican Republic: building a futureproof Tourism Portfolio
By: Undp Innovation
Tags: Sustainable Development, Systems Thinking, Dominican Republic, Tourism

To help us understand the underlying dynamics in the tourism sector, we visualized it through a 3D model. This model helps us and partners visualize and articulate how different elements in the system (governance, i.e. how and how takes decision, Information: who holds it and how it flows; and Market: how resources are allocated) interact with each other to produce a certain set of outcomes. Understanding where the energy is in the current system and who and how allocates resources within it helped us identify “pressure points” (areas of interest) for interventions. If harnessed through a continuous process of sensemaking, learning from these interventions can generate options to shift to a new paradigm based on social inclusion, gender equality, management of natural capital and data use.

Since our last blog post, we have identified three areas of interest what we intend to engage with as a way to create opportunities for transformation. We think these areas are where most of the energy of the tourism sector is concentrated:

Diversifying the tourism model beyond the massive market by promoting and supporting a new local offer. New models of assets management that support a new economy for sustainable tourism. New mechanism and information systems that allows to harness data to create incentives towards behavioral change in order to support new economic models.

If you compare to our previous blog, you’ll see that these areas have gone through a refinement process and they are now more related to the intent of diversifying the sustainable tourism offer in the country. We refined the areas based on additional research and information (e.g. from our office’s regular engagement with the government), as well as by revisiting the process that go us here, iterating our problem analysis, etc. Furthermore, we have since our last post in March begun to identify specific interventions in each of these three areas of interest that can help us “probe” the system to understand its underlying dynamics:

Good practices and incentives to improve the quality of the MSME that works on the tourism sector Economic circular models to be used in tourist businesses. Inclusion labor schemes for disabled people and other collectives within tourism related activities. Demand for new unique offers (experiences) in the tourism sector that allow the sector to responsibly take advantage of the various natural assets in the country. Financial mechanisms to protect biodiversity in the context of tourism. Alternative natural protection ecosystems that at the same time bring access to tourism services. Developing a national ecocultural route experience all over the country. Designing an ecosystem for digital nomads

At this point, we already have what we call a “seed portfolio” where some of the options that composed the whole portfolio are developed. Our intention is to continuously revisit these as we deepen our understanding of the tourism sector and what keeps it stuck in its current paradigm. In the short run, these probes can help us generate new frames for different actors in the system. In the long term, we want to help build an ecosystem that can induce change through a comprehensive, dynamically managed portfolio of interventions that can generate new options for the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic.

Supporting the local ecosystem of stakeholders

At the end of September, to further the above, we convened a session with key stakeholders from the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic. Stakeholders included representatives from the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants, Ministry of Tourism, the National Central Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, researchers, as well as other organizations. At the session we presented the portfolio approach to tourism that we have been working on. This included describing the logic behind the process and the initial analysis of the sector, allowing participants to appreciate the systems analysis underpinning the portfolio as well as the possible entry points (areas of interest). We intended this session to be a conversation starter for different stakeholders in the Dominican Republic’s tourism ecosystem to come together and co-create a new vision for the sector.

The work was well received. Participants stated the value add of this process as it, in the words of one participant, shows “in one place an analysis that includes all the elements of the tourism sector in the country”. This type of analysis allowed participants to see the links between different elements of the vast and complex tourism sector. Furthermore, a participant also highlighted the importance of this type of analysis as a way to generate insights as inputs to the country’s economy recovery plan: “the National Government has a series of policies that must be prioritized to successfully reopen the economy after the pandemic caused by COVID-19. All this analysis you are presenting in which we are starting to work together, should be included in the Economy Recovery Plan to enable investment policies and job creation processes.”

We are delighted that this work has received attention and interest, and we plan to continue building on it and the initial systems analysis described above. We intent to officially establish a team composed of UNDP CO staff and key stakeholders from the tourism sector ecosystem and use this as a vehicle and forum for co-creating options for a portfolio that can help generate transformative change within the tourism system. In this connection, one of the session’s participants noted: “we think it is important to continue building on this platform, so we all together can have common vision on where to allocate resources and efforts to improve the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic”.

If you are interested in learning more about this process or to participate please don’t hesitate to keep in touch. Either way, we’ll also keep you posted through this blog series!