ILO to help create jobs in LDCs thru' tourism

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Nizam Ahmed
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched a programme to create employment opportunities in the least developed countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh through promotion of sustainable tourism industry, officials said on Tuesday.
"Designed as training course, the programme is expected to alleviate poverty through creating decent job opportunities in rural areas of tourism in the developing and the LDCs, an official of the ILO in Dhaka, told the FE.
The programme was adopted at an international tripartite experts' workshop at the ILO's International Training Centre in August, 2011, which incorporated suggestions from Bangladesh, Gambia, Laos, Lesotho, Nepal and other international tourism bodies.
However, the ILO did not say immediately how many people could get their employment in Bangladesh and how long would be the training course.
The programme is oriented towards small and medium enterprises and local communities in rural areas, following recent growth in tourism, gradual reduction of poverty in bids to achieve UN millennium goals in poor countries.
"Tourism is increasingly recognised as a major source of economic growth, especially in poor countries," Alette van Leur, director of the ILO's Sectoral Activities Department said in a recent statement from the Geneva headquarters of the organization.
"The importance of tourism for job creation and poverty reduction in rural areas of the developing and the LDCs should not be underestimated," the statement said.
The significant connections of the tourism with other sectors such as agriculture, construction, utilities and transport can contribute to poverty reduction, it said.
"One job in the core tourism industry indirectly generates 1.5 additional jobs in the related economy," the statement said.
In Bangladesh local tourism has been rising fast in sea resorts of Cox's Bazar and Kuakata and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) over the past last one decade, officials of state-managed Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) said.
"Over two million local people now undertake travelling across the country annually, as their financial conditions improved following improvement of law an order in tourists spots including CHT over the past years," Pervez A. Chowdhury, a senior official of state-managed Bangladesh Tourism Board told the FE.
Meanwhile, thousands of people including hotel owners to cleaners and tour guides to transport operators have engaged themselves in promotion of local tourism.
"One who visits tourists spots like Cox's Bazar and Kuakata can have an idea how fast the local tourism is increasing," said Faisal Ahmed, chief executive officer of the South Asian Tourism.
According to BPC, some 200,000 people, mostly Bangladeshi origin visit Bangladesh from abroad annually and the authorities earn around Tk 5.5 billion from the visitors annually.
"Visit of foreign tourists to our country in real term is still insignificant," said an official of the BPC.
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation (WTO), in 2010 the sector's global economy accounted for more than 235 million jobs, equivalent to about 8.0 per cent of the overall number of jobs or one in every 12.3 jobs.
In 2010, travel and tourism were estimated to have generated about 9.3 per cent of global GDP, while tourism investments were estimated at 9.2 per cent of total global investments.
The ILO's Decent Work Agenda directly relates to poverty reduction through an integrated approach that has four pillars comprising rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue.
To be implemented through local administrations of the relevant governments, non-governmental organisations, employers and trade unions, the programme has five modular chapters, which can be used together or independently according to the needs of participants and trainers.
Some parts of the programme can also be used for other purposes for advocacy, awareness raising and information, and as a background source.
Tourism experts say HCT (hotels, catering and tourism) sector is now one of the fastest-growing economic sectors worldwide.
HCT is very labour-intensive and is a significant source of jobs, especially for women, youth, migrant workers and rural populations.
The HCT sector has significant potential to contribute to poverty alleviation by developing a value chain approach to sustainable tourism development and reducing leakages by building linkages with other sectors," the ILO statement said.