The distinction between divergent and convergent thinking was introduced by J.P. Guilford, president of the American Psychological Association, in the 1950s. Guilford and his colleagues defined divergent thinking as the ability to generate multiple alternative solutions to a given situation or problem (Runco, 2014). It is a useful technique for answering open-ended questions during brainstorming. Meanwhile, convergent thinking leads us to find the right answer as a consequence of previous logical steps and does not require much creativity.
In simpler terms, divergent thinking answers questions like “How can a brick be used?” whereas convergent thinking answers questions like “Who won the 1988 World Series?”
Strategy planning is a process that requires considerable thought from stakeholders. During the strategy formulation stage, executives may consider many possible options. A lot of information and data relevant to accomplishing the strategy have to be gathered, too. SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, or PESTEL analysis are used in the external and internal environmental scan, and multiple scenarios can be drafted before reaching a conclusion. All types of information relevant to the analysis are gathered: historical information as well as internal and external data.
During strategy planning, the opportunity to innovate emerges. Broad research, asking relevant questions, considering multiple perspectives, and generating new ideas all require the use of divergent thinking. Brainstorming sessions are examples of techniques where divergent thinking is applied and can be used to gather as many options as possible while exploring many paths, some of which may be unusual. Divergent questions may be asked, such as what happens if factor A does or does not occur.
Divergent thinking answers the questions with an open-ended task “How can we do this?” followed by multiple possible answers. Convergent thinking is then used to narrow down the “right” answers until a single answer is found. This is done by correctly diagnosing a problem, making the decision to adopt the most cost-effective strategic objective, and selecting the best strategy by weighing the pros and cons.
Both divergent and convergent are useful for the strategy planning process, as the former fosters creativity to generate original ideas and new possibilities while the latter enables concrete solutions to be identified. Ideas from divergent thinking are transformed into structured, feasible plans with convergent thinking. In a complex strategy planning process, it is best to adapt both—divergent thinking for creativity and innovation and convergent thinking for efficiency and structure.
Nancy Samir Ibrahim Khalil, who worked as aStrategic Planning and Performance Management Expert at the Ministry of Health and Prevention in UAE from December 2016 to November 2020, laid down the best practices in strategy planning for government agencies and tools that can improve performance in the public sector.
Trends
What are the key trends that have shaped the public sector in recent years?
The key trends in the public sector have been shaped in several domains, such as sustainable development in energy, transportation, education, high priority healthcare topics, and services.
Add to that big data resources, digital economy, innovation, artificial intelligence, smart government, and space discovery. There is also advanced research in science, society, economy, and policy.
What do the public services of the future look like?
Public services have been developed much in recent years, especially in terms of time management, quality assurance, well-trained staff, customer satisfaction and happiness meters, and smart applications that save time, effort, and money.
Public services will step up ahead new horizons through managing and designing variety, reachability, availability, efficiency, and interacting services. Add to that the digital and robotics services.
What role will strategy planning and KPI usage play in this futuristic scenario?
Strategic planning and KPI usage are the mechanisms of every improvement that can ever be desired. In fact, what is not measured can not be managed. Entities need to track and evaluate very closely the efficiency and outcome of their plans, objectives, initiatives, programs, projects, services, processes, and activities by designing different types of KPIs with ambitious targets.
Good analysis, auditing, statistics, reporting of the performance of the plans, and using different systems and portals empower entities to accelerate and excel in futuristic scenarios.
How is technology impacting the performance of government entities?
Well-built designed systems and smart apps can help maintain an excellent framework to easily manage entities’ strategic and operational plans, contents, and requirements.
Systems provide graphs, live charts, statistics, historical data, comparison, and performance status, which helps handle gaps, take relevant decisions and actions, and optimize resources. Technology saves time, effort, and money.
Practice
What are your recommended best practices in strategy planning for government agencies?
There are many best practices government agencies can adopt. Some of them are fundamental for every entity, and some of them can be much related to the specialization, culture, or work environment of the entity.
Periodic performance management revision meetings for strategic and operational plans with concerned departments
Periodic analysis reports of the performance and KPIs results
Periodic top management steering committee meetings to discuss the status of the performance on a higher level
Visits to the entities that won excellence awards
Workshops and presentations
Training of strategy coordinators to follow up closely with their departments.
The use of a project management system
What key performance indicators should be reported for the successful delivery of public services?
KPIs should report the current situation of performance, whether it is good or needs more effort or bad. They should be coded with related colors (green, yellow, or red), along with solid analysis reports of the strength, weakness points, improvement areas needed, and recommendations with a timeframe to achieve. Dashboards also help a lot in generating quick results, important graphs, trends, and directions.
What are the key performance management tools that any government entity should use to ensure performance improvement?
SWOT and PESTEL Analysis
Scenarios Planning
Stakeholders Matrix
Methodologies
Questionnaires
Mind Maps and infographics
Benchmarking
Cause and effect analysis (ex. Ishikawa)
Workshops and Presentations
Systems and Dashboards
Work forms
What are the biggest challenges that government entities face during the implementation and usage of a performance management system? Please provide your suggested solutions.
Among the challenges are:
The deadlines and the delay of submitting results and documentation,
Resistance to change
Poor strategy culture and knowledge inside the entity
Inflexible administrative hierarchy
The delegation of mandates and responsibilities of the concerned department (strategy development) to other departments
Limited strategy team members
The solutions can be implemented by empowering the strategy department and giving them the needed authority, having enough specialized team members, using electronic systems in tracking and alerting, working closely with the management, addressing challenges and finding proactive solutions, raising strategy awareness, supporting and guiding other departments, and developing initiatives issues through accelerators.
What are the crucial success factors in building performance and data-driven culture in the public sector?
Teamwork
Trust and Confidence
Knowledge and Specialization
Time management
Decentralization
Accuracy and documentations
Numbers and Facts
Collaboration
Addressing Needs and Priorities
Flexibility
Evaluation and Monitoring
What are the key competencies of a successful business leader in a government entity?
The competencies of a successful business leader are a reflection of the corporate values itself, such as transparency, commitment, credibility, integrity, trust, and teamwork. There are many examples of values that every entity adopts to control and organize corporate behavior and the work principles of employees and leaders.
Moreover, the leader should have a good vision, management competency, communication skills, and ability to build teams and solve problems. Besides, the leader should be a good listener, have an open-door policy, and be ambitious and positive. The leader must be empowering, encouraging, and decisive.
What processes and tools do you look at when differentiating a successful performance management system from a superficial one?
There are some processes and tools that can be used:
The mechanism of building strategy document, strategy, and operational plans
The level of engagement of other teams of departments in designing and creating components of strategy
Methodologies of tracking and implementing a strategy
Mechanism of reviewing and evaluating plans, performance, and auditing results
Periodicity presentations and meeting minutes of the strategy and performance
Questionnaires’ results about strategy concepts and understanding.
Other departments’ satisfaction rate towards the effort provided by strategy teams
Proof of closing gaps and addressing recommendations within the deadlines suggested
Project management system.
About the Expert
Bachelor’s Degree, Double Majors in Econometrics & Social Statistics University of Khartoum – Faculty of Economic and Social Studies | Khartoum, Sudan – 2006
Strategic Planning and Performance Management Expert | Ministry of Health and Prevention, UAE – Strategy and Future Department | December 2016 to November 2020
Head of Strategic Planning Section | Ministry of Justice, Sudan – General Directorate for Development and Strategic Planning | April 2016 to December 2016
Strategic Planning Specialist | Ministry of International Cooperation and Development | Corporate Development Dept. | April 2012 up to Dec 2015
Customer Support Executive | Emirates Telecommunication and Corporation Company -.Etisalat, Dubai, UAE | June 2010 – December 2011
Courses & Training: Creativity & Innovation, Strategic Planning and Strategic Thinking, PMP, Six Sigma, Change Management, Excellence Leaders, Institutional Excellence, Economic Analysis, Integration Strategies in Trade, Business English, TOFEl Course
This interview was first published in the 24th printed edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine. You can get a free digital copy from the TKI Marketplace here or purchase a print copy from Amazon for a nominal fee here.
The public sector and government entities, especially in the UAE, tend towards excellence and global pioneering through participation in various excellence programs and awards and participation in measuring global competitiveness indicators. It has also become competitive with the private sector in the quality, efficiency, and excellence of providing services comparable to the quality and efficiency required by the highest international standards. The goal is to reach the highest levels of customer happiness,
Key trends
The public sector has gone a long way. Among the main directions it is treading are the following:
Future shaping. It is what is related to the possible and the preferred in the future, along with expectations and trends that have few possibilities but have significant impacts that can occur. There is a need to analyze the extent of their impact on government work, build future models, seize opportunities, and ensure strategic ability that will affect the operations and services of government entities as they work towards achieving customers’ and society’s happiness.
Government innovation in services and processes. When services are provided innovatively, it reduces the time of their provision and measures the added value from them. Innovation is the actual translation of creative ideas and transforming them into products, services, processes, and systems that interact with and serve society. It is necessary to measure the global innovation index, which measures the level of innovation at the level of different countries by studying a number of indicators that make up the overall index. It includes seven main criteria categories that represent innovation inputs and outputs at the state level: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market development, business environment development, innovation outputs of knowledge and technology, and creative outputs.
Digital transformation. This refers to providing electronic and smart government services with a high degree of excellence, pioneering, comprehensiveness, and integration among government entities and interrelated and integrated systems to achieve the “one government” concept.
Metaverse and government use. This is a system that will provide many virtual spaces on the Internet and will also allow the integration of everyday life into virtual life. Metaverse will provide immersive and exciting experiences in various fields, such as education, health, tourism, travel, service provision, shopping, transportation, and others. This involves using advanced technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, 5G network, and other technologies. Such technology can make government administrative services efficient. For example, people can meet with virtual officials without visiting municipal offices or any government department.
Sustainability in the social, economic, and environmental fields. Programs, initiatives, and policies that support sustainability are implemented, such as applying and measuring performance indicators of the extent of the impact of operations on health, safety, and the environment. This should ensure minimizing negative impacts on society and the environment and contribute to the rationalization of energy, water, and other resources consumption.
The future of public services
Government services in the future will depend heavily on the provision of digital services that will be more efficient and will also rely on the standards and requirements of a single platform for customer data. An example is the digital identity (UAE PASS) adopted in the UAE. It is used as a primary and unified mechanism to obtain digital services for all categories of customers.
The future of government services as stated in the global star system for rating services, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the future in the United Arab Emirates, represented by the Emirates Program for Excellence in Government Service, as this integrated system is the first of its kind in the world. The Emirates Program for Excellence in Government Service was launched [2] in the United Arab Emirates, it sets a world-class standard that helps government and private entities measure, improve and transform the field of service delivery. This program aims to improve the quality of government and private services by focusing on customer-centric services, employee happiness, and operational efficiency to provide services at a seven-star level.
Strategic planning will play an important role in assessing the quality of government services. This happens through the awareness of senior leadership, in participating in strategic planning that focuses on developing services, linking it to strategic objectives, and supporting the government entities’ strategy to improve customer experience. In addition, these strategic goals related to services must be measured and monitored through efficient and effective performance indicators, such as: the percentage of services’ customer happiness, the average time taken to provide the service, and the average waiting time to obtain the service.
The most important characteristic of government entities is how they provide services quickly and efficiently. For this purpose, they must proactively adopt advanced technologies, such as chatbots, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things, to support the provision and management of services to continue improving customer experience and reaching the highest levels of happiness for them.
In this field, government entities should provide a central database for all customer data. It should be possible to securely access the central database for customers from all service delivery channels and to manage the security of this data. There should be special security measures to deal effectively with data breaches if they occur and training for employees on how to proactively reduce security breaches. In addition, government entities must evaluate their electronic and digital security and build a culture of enhancing the importance of data privacy and security, recognize the possibility of using the Secure Sockets Layer (TLS) protocol, and ensure secure access to service and electronic payment procedures through digital channels.
Best practices
One of the best practices that we recommend in strategic planning for government entities is strategic planning based on the Balanced Scorecard developed by Norton and Kaplan: It is a framework for translating the organization’s vision into a set of performance indicators covering the following four perspectives: financial aspect, customers, internal process, learning, and growth. Through this system, the organization monitors its current performance (financial, customer satisfaction, and business results) as well as its efforts towards developing operations, motivating and educating employees, enhancing information systems, and honing their ability to learn and develop.
It is considered an administrative system that enables the organization to clarify its vision and strategic goals and translate them into reality. It is an auxiliary tool used to measure the performance of organizations in order to lead them to continuous development and improvement as it focuses on gaps in performance and alerts work teams and senior management.
The Norton and Kaplan methodology for managing and executing strategy consists of six main steps:
Preparing and developing the strategy: This includes benchmarking with best practices, formulating the vision, mission and values, conducting internal and external analysis, identifying the value gap and defining the vision, defining the change agenda, and formulating the strategy.
Translating the strategy: It refers to defining the strategic pillars and objectives, the indicators and targets, the strategic initiatives, the responsibilities, and the general framework for the process of translating the strategy.
Cascading and alignment of the strategy: This is about distributing objectives according to roles to the main and supportive organizational units, communicating the strategy for all employees, aligning the strategy with the individual performance of the employees, aligning with incentives, aligning the strategy with external parties and partners.
Developing the main processes and linking the strategy to the institution’s budget and operations to ensure implementation: This involves defining priorities for strategic operations, using processes and driving models to activate the strategy, creating an operations dashboard, integrating financial planning and resource capabilities, managing initiatives, integration with and planning for intangible properties.
Institutional review and learning by transforming the strategy into a continuous process and establishing a formal performance-based follow-up to the strategy: This is achieved by conducting strategy review meetings, and conducting operational processes review meetings).
Testing and adaptation: This means monitoring and evaluating the strategy and adapting to the strategy based on the results achieved. It includes testing cause-and-effect relationships using data analytics, testing the robustness and solidity of the strategy, and using business intelligence and big data).
Challenges and successes
Among the biggest and most important challenges that government entities face during the implementation and usage of a performance management system are:
The inability to obtain the information needed by government entities from the performance measurement process. The solution is to adopt performance indicators that are closely related to the strategic objectives. Measuring performance indicators that are not linked to the objectives is a waste of time.
Lack of results and data to help make decisions. The solution is to establish a reliable database to obtain the data based on which accurate performance is measured to help make sound decisions at the right time.
The inability to take effective measures to achieve goals. The solution lies in the use of analysis and improvement tools that lead to the root of the problem, based on which effective measures are taken to improve performance and achieve goals.
Not knowing what exactly is important to measure. The solution is to measure a few indicators that serve the purpose of achieving the goals.
Not knowing the purpose of the measurement and that the indicators are meaningless. The solution is to adopt the performance indicator card. From the outset, the purpose of its measurement are determined.
Employees refuse to be held accountable for performance. The solution is not to punish employees for bad performance. Motivate and honor outstanding performance and good results.
No improvement in performance. The solution is to measure performance indicators over long periods of time to follow up on the improvement in performance in a phased manner. Acknowledge the possibility of taking improvement measures before the end of the performance management cycle.
Indicators are imposed on employees and are not discussed with them. The solution lies in the participation of employees in setting performance indicators and defining the responsibility of each of them for the details of the indicator, such as collecting data, monitoring improvement, measuring the indicator, and developing improvement initiatives.
In terms of building performance- and data-driven culture in the public sector, it is necessary to develop a culture of reliance on shared and open data and to measure indicators of the extent of the participation of government departments.
For the success of any performance management system:
Performance must be monitored, evaluated, and adapted to the strategy based on the results achieved;
The testing of cause-and-effect relationships must use data analytics;
Artificial intelligence and big data must be employed.
To succeed as a leader in a government entity, he or she should have behavioral competencies, the set of knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to achieve effective performance. These competencies play an important role in employee performance and work teams for the tasks assigned to them and often appear when employees interact with each other and with clients.
Behavioral competencies include core and leadership competencies. Successful leaders must have leadership spirit, futuristic, achievement, and influence. The leadership spirit refers to empowering employees and delegating powers, promoting accountability and responsibility, setting a role model, and opening up to the world. The efficiency of the future requires the leader to see the future, be an innovator and a catalyst for radical change, be familiar with advanced technology, and be a continuous and lifelong learner. Meanwhile, achievement and impact competence means being flexible and quick, making smart, effective, and efficient decisions, and being focused on the higher goals of the government and achieving results.
This article was written by Dr. Hisham Ahmad Kayali and was first published in the 24th printed edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine. You can get a free digital copy from the TKI Marketplace here or purchase a print copy from Amazon for a nominal fee here.
Image source: Gilaxia from Getty Image Signature | Canva
The COVID-19 pandemic has produced disrupted governments while altering levels of public trust and underscoring the importance of strong digital government foundations. On the positive side, this has created an opportunity for governments worldwide to revisit their strategic approaches to using digital tools and data to improve the delivery of public value.
Digital government in the post-pandemic age is recently understood as “the use of digital technologies as an integrated part of a government’s modernization strategies to create and deliver public value,” according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The article hereby intends to gaze upon some of the best practices in strategy execution as far as the enablement of a digital government in various countries around the globe from perspectives as important as a framework for strategy execution, initiative management, strategy implementation costs, and communication strategy for results strategy.
1. A Comprehensive National Government Data Strategy (the Netherlands)
Data Agenda Overheid is the Netherlands’ national government data strategy developed and led by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The strategy aims to accelerate the ethical use of data within central and local governments to foster better policy-making and resolve social challenges, paying specific attention to legislation and public values, data management, knowledge sharing, and investment in people, organizations, and cultural change. Below (see Table 1) are some of the main costs for action points in the Data Agenda Governments:
2. Communication Strategy on the Outcomes of the Digital Government Agenda (Colombia)
Part of becoming more proactive is having a well-equipped public sector capable of responding to citizens’ requests before they are submitted. For this process to function, the public sector must have in place referential strategies or policies to anticipate future scenarios, prepare for the next steps and guide civil servants in their actions.
For example, the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications of Colombia (MINTIC) has developed a communication strategy called Estrategia de Comunicaciones 2018 that functions as a policy lever to inform citizens about the outcomes of the digital government strategy and initiatives of the Colombian government.
The strategy consists of general and specific messages and communication channels targeted to the respective relevant audience. It specifies available tools and communication toolkits that public servants can draw on to communicate proactively with the public. The strategy also includes a detailed action plan with information on the topic, content, and channels to convey the government’s message.
The existence of a communication strategy enhances the anticipatory and organizational capacity of the Colombian government to engage with citizens and guide public servants to promptly communicate with the public once outcomes from the digital government strategy or initiatives emerge. Ultimately, this approach enhances public trust by fostering transparency regarding the result of projects and improving contact with citizens, thereby reinforcing the legitimacy of the government’s actions
3. Initiatives for a Secure Cloud Strategy Execution (Australia)
The Secure Cloud Strategy has been developed to guide Australians through the digital change brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and make sure everyone has the opportunity to make the most of what the cloud has to offer. The strategy is based on several key initiatives designed to prepare agencies for the shift to the cloud and support them through the transition:
Initiative 1: Independent cloud strategy for government agencies. Australian agencies are encouraged to develop their journeys to the cloud based on the following: value case, workforce plan, “best fit” cloud models, service readiness, and transition approach.
Initiative 2: Layered certification model. Sharing information and assessments through a Common Assessment Framework to help improve security practices while at the same time reducing the burden on agencies to recreate material.
Initiative 3: Redeveloped Cloud Services Panel to align with the procurement recommendations for a new procurement pathway that better supports cloud commodity purchases. Streamlining the current cloud strategy arrangements in alignment with the implementation of the ICT Procurement Review will create a commodity procurement pathway that will ensure the government can procure and access a wider range of innovative cloud services for use by the government.
Initiative 4: Dashboard to show service status for adoption, compliance status, and services panel status and pricing. The cloud dashboard capability seeks to provide enhanced transparency of cloud usage and compliance cross-government and support clearer guidance regarding the costs, service suitability, and government status in a cloud environment.
Initiative 5: Cloud service qualities baseline and assessment capability. A cloud qualities baseline capability and assessment framework were developed to enable assessments for the new and existing cloud. This framework includes a baseline and measurement criteria to assess the cloud service. Once complete, assessments are published to provide greater visibility of how services can meet requirements and enable the re-use of assessments across the government.
Initiative 6: Cloud responsibility model supported by a cloud contracts capability. The approach will include evolving ICT contracts to articulate the responsibilities across the different deployment and service models and strengthen these baseline contract provisions.
Initiative 7: Whole-of-government cloud knowledge exchange platform. Deliver a platform for agencies to better collaborate and reuse common capabilities for their cloud adoption and use. The development of the platform considers how users interact with the service, accessibility, governance, operations, and technology.
Initiative 8: Building a Digital Capability program to include cloud skills. A long-term approach to developing a cloud skills capability to ensure the value and opportunity of the cloud is harnessed.
4. Digital Government Roadmap, Strategic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Maturity Model to reflect on a High Commitment to Digital Transformation (United Arab Emirates)
The UAE is among the world’s leading countries in various digital life indexes, including The KPI Institute’s Government Services Index (GSI) 2022 due to the significant advancement of its information and communication technology sector.
The United Arab Emirates is the top performer in the Middle East as far as digital transformation, consistently moving towards a data-driven and paperless government. The Strategy for Government Services states that 100 percent of government services will be accessible from anywhere and 24/7 by 2030. The UAE Strategy for Government Services aims to boost its competitiveness in the services sector and position it as the best in the world in rendering government services.
As far as digital “content provision” is concerned, the UAE is ranked high on the availability of basic public information and resources online. The UAE Institutional Framework reveals a strong focus among other things, on digital government strategy, organizational structure, legislation on access to information and privacy, and open data policy.
The UAE Digital Strategy may be one of the most comprehensive in the world, built on a well-designed digital government roadmap with enablers, a results-measurement framework based on strategic KPIs, and an institutional maturity assessment model to guide successful digital transformation. The UAE Digital Government Roadmap comprises six main pillars encompassing 64 national digital enablers.
The Digital Strategy Measurement framework reveals four areas of measurement, such as public satisfaction and digital capabilities, and 10 strategic KPIs, which all exhibit 2025 targets for achievement of digital government transformation results (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Strategic KPIs | The UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025
The UAE Digital Government Maturity Model aims to assess the UAE government organizations on both federal and local levels against a framework that helps create clarity about the UAE digital government capabilities and to inform investments in new capabilities. The maturity model comprises eight main dimensions (See Figure 2). Each dimension has a set of sub-dimensions that guide enabling actions that each government entity might take to increase its maturity along each dimension. Each sub-dimension has a set of specific items to be used by each UAE government entity to determine their level of maturity for each sub-dimension and dimension.
Figure 2. The maturity model’s eight main dimensions | The UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025
The five levels of maturity range from Level 1 representing a very low level of maturity to level 5 representing a very high level of maturity (See Figure 3). The assessment responses provide an outline for a roadmap for a successful digital government transformation.
Figure 3. The five levels of maturity | The UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025
The objective is 100 percent a very high level of maturity for all UAE government entities on both federal and local levels by 2025.
This article was first published in the 24th printed edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine. You can get a free digital copy from the TKI Marketplace here or purchase a print copy from Amazon for a nominal fee here.
“The pandemic and its impact on tourism, jobs, and revenues offer an unprecedented reminder of the need to rebalance our relationship with people, planet, and prosperity. The green transformation of the sector is needed, not just for the planet, but also for tourism itself, boosting competitiveness and increasing resilience.” – UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili
While the world is seeking to adapt to the “new normal” set by an ongoing pandemic, the future of the tourism industry remains highly uncertain. According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer released in January 2022, global tourism registered an increase of 4% in 2021, with 15 million more international tourist arrivals compared to 2020. Still, these levels remain 72% below the pre-pandemic year 2019. Meanwhile, the latest UNWTO Panel of Experts survey reveals that most experts (64%) agree that international tourism will not reach the 2019 levels until 2024 or later.
Beyond the economic and social disruption, the pandemic crisis has disclosed existing structural weaknesses in the tourism sector, along with breaches in governmental and industry preparedness or response capabilities. Fragmented sectors and differences in the nature of tourism; seasonality; consumption of natural resources; impacts on climate change; and relative importance of tourism in the economy are only some of the shortcomings, as shown by the OECD Tourism Paper in 2021.
Moreover, recent studies indicate that the demand for tourism is undergoing significant behavioral changes towards more sustainable travel patterns that were amplified by the pandemic. For instance, a 2021 Eurobarometer survey showed that 82% of European citizens are inclined to include more sustainable practices in their travel habits, such as consuming locally sourced products, reducing waste and water consumption, traveling off-season or to less-visited destinations, and choosing transport alternatives based on their ecological impact. These results are supported by another survey conducted by Booking.com across 30 countries worldwide that gathered insights from 29,000 travelers. Seventy-three percent of the participants in the survey would be more likely to choose an accommodation if it has implemented sustainability practices.
Such studies prove that there is an increasing need for developing more sustainable and resilient models of tourism, supported by policymakers and service providers. In other words, a change of paradigm is needed, and green transformation policies and strategies seem to be the approach that will bring resilience and balance between “the needs of people, planet, and prosperity” in the tourism ecosystem.
The role of green transformation in sustainable industry recovery
Green transformation is not a new concept for the world economy, and it emerged as a trend in the tourism industry even before the pandemic. In a broad sense, the concept refers to “combining economic growth with caring about the environment to guarantee a high quality of life for present and future generations, at the level which is attainable due to civilizational development, as well as to an effective and rational use of the available resources” (Cheba et al., 2022, p.1).
In particular, green transformation involves an integrated approach that relies on combining legal regulations, innovative technologies, strategies, and clear initiatives to create sustainable and environmentally friendly markets. As the pandemic hastened the call for a green transformation in tourism, worldwide organizations and policymakers are planning strategies, key actions, and targets to achieve long-term competitiveness and sector recovery.
There is a general consensus that the industry must continue to build digital skills, implement digital solutions, create sustainable infrastructure, and address sustainable travel patterns. In early 2022, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs released the Transition Pathway for Tourism, a report that introduces a set of strategy recommendations for the tourism ecosystem, based on the objectives of the European Green Deal. Within this report, the European Commission refers to the “tourism ecosystem” as businesses that work in sectors such as food and beverage services, on-line information and services providers (tourist offices, digital platforms, travel technology providers), travel agents and tour operators, accommodation suppliers, destination management, attractions and passenger transport (pg. 2).
Some of the key strategies and their related targets are as follows:
Passenger transport companies (aviation, water, and land transport) should reduce Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) to become climate neutral by 2050.
European cities and regions should develop sustainable mobility for climate-neutral cities, by implementing mobility plans and by doubling the high-speed rail traffic by 2030.
Buildings have to become more energy and resource-efficient, and energy support must move towards sustainable renewables.
Hospitality and all tourism services should implement circular models and diminish their environmental footprint. This includes reducing by half the amount of non-recycled waste by 2030 and lower food waste, single-use plastics, air pollutants, and water pollution while increasing water efficiency.
Each destination or tourism service provider should build their communication strategy on transparency towards sustainability and environmental footprint, thus guiding and empowering consumers’ choices.
Furthermore, the World Tourism Organization considers that “transforming tourism operations for climate action continues to be of utmost importance for the sector to remain in line with the international goals.” To support that, three main goals and actionable ways for their achievement were introduced in the Recommendations for the transition to a green travel and tourism economy:monitor and report CO2 emissions from tourism operations; accelerate the decarbonization of tourism operations; and engage the tourism sector in carbon removal.
Green transformation strategies in practice
Around the world, different practices of strategy planning and ongoing actions stand as evidence for the shift to a green travel and tourism economy as a roadmap for sustainable and resilient growth.
In the recovery from COVID-19, Kyoto (Japan), “a city where history and culture give rise to hope,” reconfigured its urban development and tourism strategy in 2021. The recovery strategy aims to develop the city as a higher-quality destination for both residents and tourists while supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recommended by the United Nations.
Harmony between the life of residents and tourism, allowing the local populace to feel enriched
All actors are involved in refining the “light of Kyoto” and improving tourism quality.
Tourism industry leaders become more active, and entrepreneurship of new businesses in the fields of tourism and culture flourish, contributing to improve the vitality of the city and cultural inheritance
Ensuring flexible, strong, safe, secure and environmentally sustainable tourism that can cope with various crises, such as infectious diseases and disasters
Establishing the city’s credentials as an attractive MICE city, welcoming people from all over the world, recognizing diversity, and contributing to world peace
Measuring the progress towards achieving their vision is ensured by key performance indicators set for each of the five goals, which are meant to be evaluated on a regular basis. Several examples of KPIs included in the strategy plan are as follows:
% Full-time employment in the tourism sector
% Satisfaction level of tourism workers
% Tourism businesses whose products and unit prices have increased
% Tourism businesses contributing to the local community
% Tourism businesses that take into consideration the environment
# International conferences held
One distinctive feature of the Kyoto strategy is the Code of Conduct for Sustainable Tourism in Kyoto (Kyoto Tourism Morals), which aims to provide “guidelines for the tourism industry and its workers, tourists, and residents to work together in united efforts to maintain harmony in Kyoto, and to preserve Kyoto for future generations.”
“Rebuilding tourism is also an opportunity for transformation with a focus on leveraging its impact on destinations visited and building more resilient communities and businesses through innovation, digitalization, sustainability, and partnerships.” – 2020 Tourism Policy Brief, United Nations
This article originally appeared in the 23rd PERFORMANCE Magazine – Printed Edition. Download your free copy from TKI Marketplace or get one in print via Amazon.
