What can tourism concessions do for protected areas? Andy Thompson
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A presentation made by Andy Thompson on tourism concessioning in protected areas, at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, 2014
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What can tourism concessions do for protected areas? Andy Thompson
- 1. What can tourism concessions do for protected areas Andy Thompson To help determine the most important objectives for a concession system and how to prioritize their importance, government leaders must consider what is imp
- 3. USNPS Parks Canada New Zealand Department of Conservation Ministry of Environment and Tourism Namibia Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Australia No concessions: 600 contracts plus 6000 commercial use authorizations 2752 leases, licenses, business licenses 3700 concessions of which 43% are tourism related 45 940 (approx) tourism Income concessions: US$74m US$7.4m US$12m (from tourism and other concessions) US$1.7m US$7.3m (approx) through environ. mgmt charge Staff (FTE): 200 (40 in HO) 30 25 3 22 Structure (centralised or decentralised): Centralised admin for contracts over the value of US$5m Centralised for large issues, decentralised for smaller contracts, relationship mgmt & monitoring Regionalised processing centres Centralised Centralised processing & contract mgmt, field staff do compliance Preferred allocation mechanism: Tender for contracts, application for commercial use authorizations Tender Receive applications from the private sector Direct award to communities, tender, auction and some direct awards in special circumstances Application on a first come, first served basis. Capped opportunities through EOI
- 4. Benefits Income Visitor services & facilities Managing overuse & impacts Economic (USA) & rural development Interpretation (Tasmania) & conservation advocacy, marketing & promotion Regional security (Columbia) Economic empowerment of people living near the protected area (Namibia) Biodiversity conservation (wilderness safaris) To help determine the most important objectives for a concession system and how to prioritize their importance, government leaders must consider what is imp
- 5. 4 key elements to success
- 6. Element 1: Principles of good process 1. Well defined, transparent and consistent processes 2. Explicit, clear and transparent criteria 3. Decision-makers must be identifiable and independent from the process 4. Conflicts of interest need to be avoided 5. Natural justice principles need to apply 6. Processing and decision-making separation
- 7. Element 2: Systems approach Organisational support Transparency Clear & fair decision making Continuous improvement Law & Policy Database Web info applicants /public EIA, monitor, compliance Staff Standard contracts Planning Process & procedure Fees, cost recovery, incentives
- 8. Element 3: PAM Plan Allocate Monitor
- 9. Element 4: Concession lifecycle Application or tender Assessment Decision Management Expiry
- 10. conclusion Income Visitor services & facilities Managing overuse & impacts Economic & rural development Interpretation & conservation advocacy, marketing & promotion Regional security Economic empowerment of people living near the protected area Biodiversity conservation – individual concessionaires
Editor's Notes
- Despite significant progress in recent years, the scale of the global conservation effort required to protect biodiversity and ecosystems is still phenomenal – much larger than protected area agencies can achieve on their own. To be successful, conservation needs to become more mainstream and not just the domain of rangers and other protected area staff. One way for protected area agencies to extend their conservation influence is by working with partners, communities and business. By establishing a protected area tourism concession system and creating opportunities to work with concessionaires, agencies can do more for conservation and visitors to their protected areas and help produce a range of financial, economic and social benefits which help to make conservation more viable in the long term. Through this presentation and the ones that follow we will see that concession can deliver many benefits – including conservation benefits. The image of this kiwi chick comes from one of our largest concessionaires in New Zealand – Ngai Tahu Tourism. One of our biggest four concessionaires. Eggs are taken from the wild, where if they are left they the eggs or the chicks will be eaten by introduced pests such as cats, possums and stoats. Instead they are taken from the nest raised until they reach 1.2kg and then rereleased into the wild. This concessioniare raises over 100 kiwi annually and has created a tourism product around this to help pay for the operation.
- The Hollyford Valley in New Zealand and other sites such as the Milford and Routeburn Tracks demonstrate how park agencies and concessionaires can work together to provide a better product for visitors. On the Hollyford Track, the concessionaire (Ngai Tahu Tourism) runs a successful high end guided walking operation with lodges style accommodation, while along the same track the Department of Conservation has unguided freedom walkers who use hut style accommodation. Photo Ngai Tahu Tourism
- In many countries concession management involves many businesses, significant income for the park agency and many staff. Some agencies run decentralised systems some regionalised and some centralised and there are many different perferred ways of allocating concessions. My point with this slide is that concessions is often big business but is often as very overlooked and undervalued function in a park agency
- Here are some of the benefits that I have seen concession systems deliver – the top three are relatively common to the stated goals of most concession systems. Some countries go as far as stating the economic benefits that derive from their concessions. The last four goals are less common but achievable. To help determine the most important objectives for a concession system and how to prioritize their importance, government leaders must consider what is important to them. The more focused a concession system is on its objectives; the more likely it is that the system will achieve its desired outcomes.
- Concession work is fundamentally about the allocation of commercial rights over a public or state resource – a protected area. In New Zealand out state services commission review the governments allocation mechanisms including the rights to access airwaves (allocated via auction), fishing rights (which are based on a quota system) and concession rights. They found that no matter what the legislation said or what allocation mechanism was used there were some fundimental principles that should sit behind any government allocation. As an example I was asked to investigate two situations where staff held tourism concessions or had obtained tourism concessions. The public and other concessionaires were concerned that these staff had an unfair advantage. My investigation showed that no confl;ict of interest had taken place however their was cause for a perceived conflict of interest – which in New Zealand is a breach of our code of conduct. The two staff were asked to make the decision about whether they want to remain as staff or become concessionaires. I’m not sure what it says about our organisation but they both decided to become concessionaires. We now have a policy that states that staff cannot own or hold a concessions or even have a shareholding in a concession. One of our top four largest cocnessionaires is a company called Real Journeys. They primarily operate out of Fiordland National Park. Each passanger on
- The operation of great concessions should not happen by accident. The aim is to have a concession system that produces many great concessions over and over again. There are many components to a successful concession system and here are a few. When developing and improving your concession function it helps to think from a systems perspective so that all of the components work together and support each other. As a small example I just want to touch on one of the most overlooked componts of ,ost concession systems – staff. Whether there is an issue with capiability, or capacity, recruitment, training or staff retention your staff are the most important aspect of any concession system. Some years ago in New Zealand we conducted a review of our concession function. We asked many managers and stakeholders what skills they needed their cocnession staff to have – relationship management, communication and an understanding or empathy with the tourism industry they said - some technical skills would also be useful. When we looked at the staff we were employing and at their job decriptions were found we were employing people with technical skills but not relationship skills. No wonder we were having some problems! Use a systems approach to ensure you can consistently produce concessions that meet your desired outcomes
- Concessions work falls into three key areas and anyone here from the USPNS will recognise this. Concessions need to be planned, allocated and monitored. There is also a natural feedback loop in these activities. Its important to recognises this because when we monitor concessions, and it may be monitoring the impacts or the fee returns or even the economic benefits, - its here we learn whether the outcome we wanted to achieve has been achieved. If not we may be able to take corrective action or at the very least apply the lessons learned to the next concessions we plan and allocate. There needs to be some balance across theses three activities. I once looked at all the systems and processes we had in the Department of Conservation in New Zealand and found that we had many systems and put lots of investment into our allocation work. However we had almost no systems or processes, investment or even effort going into monitoring and planning – until this point I thought we were doing reasonably well... Too much attention on planning and not enough will be allocated will be done and therefore benefits may not be realised I often see concession systems that have allocation and planning but monitoring is a luxury most cannot afford Have a look at the concession system you manage or are part of through these lenses. How do you stack up? Where are your strengths and weaknesses? Are your goals clear and how do you know what success looks like? Is your system over engineered or are there gaps? Do you have balance?
- Have a look at the concession system you manage or are part of through these lenses. Are your goals clear and how do you know what success looks like? Is your system over engineered or are there gaps? Do you have balance? Where are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you stack up? What benefits are you getting from your concession system?