Tourism-led agribusiness in the South Pacific countries

Year of Publication: 2019

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Description

In South Pacific countries, tourism is an essential element of the economy, and one of the sectors with the biggest potential for growth. As example, in Fiji, tourism accounts for more than 25% of the country gross domestic product (GDP), and in the Cook Islands, for over 60% of GDP. At the same time, agriculture is still the major employment sector, and while it contributes to a small part to the GDP (e.g. <13% is Fiji), it represents the biggest part of the labour force in the country (e.g. 70% in Fiji).

Given these figures, there have been many researches and investigations by regional agencies, development agencies, international organisations and academics to explore how to increase the benefit of the tourism revenue to all parts of the economy, and in particular the poorest segment of the population that includes farmers, but also all actors along the value and the deliver chain including traders, agribusinesses and exporters. This domain is designated under different names such as pro-poor-tourism or sustainable tourism. Each denomination, while covering largely overlapping concepts, has also some differences. As part of this working paper, we use the term tourism-led agribusiness which has a particular focus on increasing the use of locally produced commodities by hotels and
restaurants.

This working paper, is based on a study12 commissioned by The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), conducted from April to June 2015, exploring how an information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge platform could support the development of tourism-led agribusiness and all the involved stakeholders in the South Pacific countries. It resumes the findings of the various investigations and a series of recommendations, and potential requirements in this field.