ASSESSMENT OF NATIONAL STRATEGIES AND  POLICY OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN YEMEN

 

 TOURISM POLICY AND STRATIGIC INITIATIVES

The Ministry of Tourism has adopted a National Tourism Strategy and Tourism Development Plan in 2010-2015. The NTDS has set out a series and key initiatives for the development of tourism sector in Yemen over the next five years.   

ASSESSMENT OF NATIONAL STRATEGIES AND POLICY OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN YEMEN

Considerable attention for the  development of the ecotourism and Nature-Based Tourism in the strategy, through “Diversifying the product, including  such elements are: ecotourism, particularly on protected areas; mountain tourism; rural tourism; (sub) diving rural tourism; handicraft industries; local activities and events.  

The Tourism Development Plan (TDP) identified current and potential impacts on biodiversity as a potentially serious issue that needs to be managed.  

Special attention was paid to the legal and institutional framework for the management of protected areas and other national parks. Efforts at central and regions’ level aim inter alia at extending the length of visitor stay, and diversifying the tourism market by building upon the regions’ assets and specifically ecological assets.  

The Government of Yemen (GOY) recognizes the strong emphasis on ecotourism development is required for the advancement of the protected areas to promote sustainable development and to reduce poverty, although, significant progress has been made on biodiversity conservation, little has been achieved in tourism development, nor have the local people in the protected areas benefited sustainability from the small amount of tourism development that has occurred. There remains a wide disparity between actual and tourism potential opportunities on the protected areas and there are still significant challenges ahead to ensure sustainable tourism development in the region.

 It is important to highlight that economic leakages at regional and local levels are probably quite high. It appears that the tourism supply chain has not been studied much in Yemen and there is little evidence of action to strengthen this at a local level.

 Strengthening links between tourism and agriculture sectors has been identified in national policy in Yemen but specific initiatives in this respect have been drawn to our attention. Primarily this would require dedicated projects to be established at a local level, but this could be facilitated nationally.