_The Creative Wealth of Nations_

# **7) On Tourism**

Since the area of niche tourism is largely understudied, one possible strategy for the WBG is to:

- Start with soliciting and funding research proposals on performing arts-related tourism.

In the meantime, this could be an area where citizen voice may play a greater role, especially on matters of cultural purity. As Sen suggests,

- it is up to the society to determine what, if anything, it wants to do to preserve old forms of living, perhaps even at significant economic cost. Ways of life can be preserved if the society decides to do just that, and it is a question of balancing the costs of such preservation with the value that the society attaches to the objects and the lifestyles preserved. There is, of course, no ready formula for this cost-benefit analysis, but what is crucial for a rational assessment of such choices is the ability of the people to participate in public discussions on the subject.<sup>215</sup>

Even so, there are other lingering considerations beyond the discussions on cultural purity. Let us reflect on Haiti, a republic now seeking a grant of USD$45 million from the World Bank to support its cultural heritage preservation and tourism sector.<sup>216</sup> Haiti already has community participation mechanisms in place; they include the _Table de Consultation_ or the Communal Consultation Table (CCT). But Haiti’s tourism attraction problem, it turns out, is instead attributed to the issue we discussed earlier: Nation Branding. (See Box 14.)

|| Box 14 || Haiti: Tourism and Image

- “Haiti’s tourism development is stifled by a recurrent image of Haiti as a politically unstable, unsafe and violent country. However, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC]’s 2011 Global Study on Homicide revealed that homicide rates in Haiti were much lower than in other neighboring countries” [— there were “6.9 per 100,000 people in Haiti versus 52 for Jamaica, 35 for Trinidad, 28 for the Bahamas and 24 for Dominican Republic.”] This homicide rate has not deterred tourists to visit these countries [— in “2012, 4.3 million tourists visited the Dominican Republic, 2 million Jamaica and 1.3 million the Bahamas.”]

- “Therefore, there is much work to do in terms of sensitization and the promotion of a different image for Haiti. The [Ministry of Tourism] takes the security of tourists seriously, and the 2014 budget included new funds for a tourist police force. While an initiative called “Brand Haiti” has already generated positive results, there will be a need for more aggressive and targeted campaigns.”<sup>214</sup>

**Source:** The World Bank, Report No: PAD610

This evidence further underscores the need for the WBG to consider nation branding in its development strategy. Since the performing arts can powerfully shape mindsets or perceptions, they should be closely tied to development discourse. On culture leading and trade following, “music and other visual images surrounding that music can be used in tourism campaigns to promote locations and attractions. Music then becomes a powerful soundtrack to television campaigns, a potent way of constructing authenticity.”<sup>217</sup> While the raised expectations could

> 214 World Bank Group. 2014. Report No: PAD610. The Republic of Haiti. “Cultural Heritage Preservation - and Tourism Sector Support Project,” accessed May 22, 2014, http://www <u>wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/05/01/000350881_20140501092443/Rend ered/INDEX/PAD6100P1446140B00PUBLIC050101400SD.txt.</u>

> 215 Amartya Sen, _Development as Freedom_ , 241-242.

> 216 The grant proposal is now publicly available prior to Board consideration, but this “does not imply a presumed outcome.” (As of May 20, 2014.)

> 217 Chris Gibson and John Connell, _Music and Tourism: On the Road Again,_ 72.

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