Moving mountain economies to transform tourism

About the workshop

This consultative workshop for the co-creative scoping study ‘Moving mountain economies to transform tourism’ aims to generate evidence to guide policy actions, inform decisions, and encourage the uptake of solutions for sustainable and resilient mountain tourism in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. The workshop aims to gather insights from various decision makers responsible for and contributing to fostering sustainable and resilient mountain tourism in the HKH.

This is a joint initiative developed in collaboration with the government, private sector, local communities, and research and academic institutions of ICIMOD’s regional member countries (RMCs).

Objectives

• Bring together a variety of stakeholders, including policymakers, practitioners, academia, private sector, and investors and facilitate a collaborative exercise for richer, comprehensive, and contextualised policy review
• Co-create a conceptual and methodological framework for policy review, assessment, and strengthening in the four RMCs – Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan
• Develop better understanding of broader policy issues, barriers, and opportunities in the four RMCs
• Solicit recommendations on policy revisions and priorities to promote greener, more inclusive and climate-resilient mountain tourism in the four RMCs

Expected outputs

• A revised and improved methodology for the scoping study
• Broader policy issues, barriers, opportunities, policy priorities and actions identified
• A way forward to conduct a detailed sector and destination-specific assessments in Bhutan and Nepal

Background

In the last four decades, mountain tourism in the HKH region has seen a tremendous change. The region is affected by various global and local climate and non-climate related shocks. To address global and regional sustainable development and climate action commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Paris Climate Agreement, HKH Call to Action, and ICIMOD’s Strategy 2030: Moving Mountains, ICIMOD is committed to promoting a greener, more inclusive and climate-resilient HKH, in support of the mandate of the RMCs.

Mountain tourism is an important service sector, contributing to revenue generation, GDP growth, destination development, and attracting investments. It is an important source of livelihood for women, youth, and marginalised groups, leading to job creation, income generation, and financial independence. This gives mountain tourism the power to address global and regional commitments to the SDGs. The potential of mountain tourism is also recognised in building resilient livelihoods against climate and non-climate shocks.

However, there is inadequate understanding and analysis of mountain tourism policy to inform decision makers of the potential of and pathways to transform mountain tourism. Such transformations need to be informed by a sustainable and climate-resilient tourism framework and strengthened by the economies while also integrating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI)-responsive and Nature-based Solutions to achieve a just transition to climate-resilient economies and societies.

Further, there is an urgent need to recover and revitalise mountain tourism economies and livelihoods, informed by the global and local policy provisions. This provides an opportunity to review, rethink, and repurpose the existing enabling environment to make future-fit policies in tourism and other relevant sectors. This is important in developing greener and more inclusive mountain tourism and to direct the economy and livelihood towards a sustainable and climate-resilient future.

Agenda