Tourism as a development option: perspectives from the World Bank.

Abstract This chapter reflects primarily on the supply-side issues and on the reality of successfully harnessing tourism and achieving desired impacts in developing countries. Specifically, drawing on the experiences of the past three decades as well as a cohort of over 80 World Bank Group tourism-related lending and advisory projects between 2000 and 2019 in 62 countries, the chapter highlights lessons and ex-post evaluations and observations drawn from these projects and the consequential dialogues with governments and the private sector. It also suggests some guiding principles for tourism development activities going forward. In addition, the demand-side is examined from the perspective of the influencers of changing demand patterns and distribution channels, such as global value chains and disruptive technologies, and the effects they are having on destinations and their ability to respond.