TRIPLE P TOURISM PROJECT

Transcription

1 TRIPLE P TOURISM PROJECT Open Call for Consultancy Services Culture and Adventure Tourism Development and Promotion Reference number: Terms of Reference: Support to RCC Secretariat and the Triple P Tourism Project Team in establishment and development of regional routes in cultural and adventure tourism and their successful promotion in the international market(s) through both regional and international promotional and marketing efforts. The project activities involve a variety of natural and cultural resources to be mobilised and utilised towards increased sales and higher number of visitors to the Western Balkans Six. Title: Contracting Authority: RCC Department: Reporting to: Application Deadline: Roster of Tourism Experts Regional Cooperation Council Secretariat Programme Department Project: Triple P Tourism in SEE: Promotion, Policy and Pilots RCC Secretariat 17 September at 12 noon Timeframe: 24 September July 2019

2 I. BACKGROUND Purpose The purpose of this consultancy call is to establish a roster of experts (group 1) in tourism development and related fields that will enable the Triple P Tourism Team and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretariat Programme Department (Competitiveness) to successfully lead the development and promotion actions with efficiency and flexibility required both by product and the market. Background information Tourism is one of the priority sectors of the SEE 2020 Strategy, with its significant potential for regional cooperation as direct and indirect contributor to the employment, export and GDP growth. However, due to many challenges, such as sector fragmentation, underdeveloped infrastructure, burdensome administrative procedures, lack of diversified market offer, etc., the SEE economies have agreed to prioritise tourism and address those challenges through joint, regional action. RCC s Triple P Tourism Project, a three-year initiative funded by the EU, focuses on the 6 IPA II beneficiaries in the Western Balkans. The project aims to improve the quality of the tourism offer by: creating joint offer/product(s) to foster regional integration in the tourism sector and its joint global promotion; diversifying tourism offer of the region; alleviating policy barriers to development of tourism industry and easing of administrative procedures; improving the level of services related to tourism; and supporting small-scale infrastructure projects to support the development of regional tourism offer/product. The Project intervention aims to: foster regional cooperation in tourism industry leading to joint activities in promotion; increase the number of foreign tourists to the region as well as intra-regional tourist connectivity; extend the length of stay as well as season shoulder periods; and positively influence income and employment generated from tourism. Furthermore, the development of joint regional tourism offer will attempt to address some of the specific policy areas pertinent to development of tourism sector. Through a small grant mechanism the Project will support projects on small-scale level, so as to enable smoother flow of tourists along regionally developed routes. The Project team implements the action under the supervision of the RCC Secretariat s Programme Department (Competitiveness). The coordination that guides the activities, verifies and endorses the results is achieved through the RCC Tourism Expert Group (TEG), comprised of relevant national stakeholders from the six governments, the private sector and the civil society active in tourism development and promotion. The national TEG Coordinators are also responsible for coordination of relevant stakeholders from tourism or other relevant fields within their own economies.

3 II. DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES Objectives and scope The Triple P Tourism in SEE project seeks to establish a roster of experts in tourism industry and related fields to best be able to support the regional tourism industry in development of new and expansion and improvement of existing regional products (routes), develop and lead the promotional and marketing actions as well as discuss and seek solutions to key policy issues that currently act as obstacles to faster and full growth of the industry as a regional economic power. The roster will act as a pool of knowledge and experience that will enable efficient and targeted response to specific needs, some visible from the start of the engagement while others are expected to be identified as the interventions are under way and new product segments are identified and mobilised. The roster model provides high flexibility to reach for specific expertise as well as, where necessary, bring together knowledge across more than one industry (i.e. tourism and cultural heritage for preparation of heritage sites and storytelling; tourism and environment for sustainability and responsible management of resources; tourism and policy or law for regulatory solutions; or tourism and security for visitor friendly travel across borders within the region). The expertise within the roster is guided by the TEG endorsement to provide support to the following regional tourism route efforts: o The archaeological sites of the Roman period: to be pursued through support to integration of archaeological localities with existing Roman heritage certified Cultural Routes of Europe (i.e. Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route). o Explore and develop the concept of Crossroad of Civilizations as a shared, overarching regional identity. The concept will seek to, to the best of the opportunity due to market readiness, integrate the rich heritage that effectively communicates the diversity of legacies (i.e. fortifications communicate Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian, and Austro-Hungarian heritage) present across the region. The proposed approach will aim to develop guidelines on how individual sites can receive recognition, and then perform a review of sites and locations against those guidelines to establish a group of those ready to be promoted and valorised. o The Art and Design of the WWII Monuments (Spomeniks) to be pursued as a new joint regional route, a niche product that will focus on the attractiveness of art and design, and in particular in situ design, of the WWII monuments and buildings as a unique heritage of the specific period. As the route is developed it will also receive its market identity including the lead slogan. The route will be developed so as to also build the foundations for necessary management functions that will enable full certification once the route is adequately developed. o Via Dinarica is the theme that has been put forward as the adventure travel regional route. Via Dinarica has received this status due to its already recognised market success and the ability to serve the role of an economic growth generator for adventure and related programmes in remote areas of the region. The Trans

4 Dinarica, as a mountain bike option complementary to the Via Dinarica hiking programmes, has been recognised as the next product that is in expansion. Similar sub-programmes are expected to be identified and development launched during the implementation period. In addition to the product development effort, the Project will provide tailored support that will enable development of a regional structure for long-term cooperation and coordination of Via Dinarica. For the purpose of providing the above described support the RCC Triple P Tourism in SEE project seeks expertise in the following areas: Product development with specialisation in cultural heritage based tourism or adventure tourism, or both; Promotion and marketing of individual travel products and destinations through utilisation of traditional and online travel media; Marketing in tourism; Strategic planning and business development; Tourism policy and regulatory framework; History and utilisation of historical material through tourism; Archaeology and utilisation of archaeological material through tourism; Production of visual promotional materials. Where available and appropriate, more than one expert will be selected for each of the noted areas. The experts selected to the roster will work as part of the team that will cooperate across the expert pool to best respond to the requirements and needs of each specific site and attraction as well as promotional efforts tailored for each event and audience. The expert pool will be coordinated by the Triple P Tourism Team and in particular by the Expert on Cultural Tourism, the Expert on Adventure Tourism and the Project Leader, and guided by the decisions endorsed by the RCC TEG. The experts on the roster will be invited/engaged by the Project to provide their services per needs of the project. Specific Focus Areas Product development with specialisation in cultural heritage based tourism or adventure tourism, or both RCC Triple P Tourism project aims to provide product development support for the selected 4 themes, and in particular the themes that include strong route development aspects such as Crossroad of Civilizations, The Art and Design of WWII Monuments (Spomeniks) and the Via Dinarica with sub-programmes (i.e. Trans Dinarica). The product development support will need to look at the route development in a holistic manner to facilitate that the respective route is developed so that it meets market needs and requirements, provides attractive and quality sites and facilities and mobilises the local population in ways that establish the route and its segments as economic growth generators for the local communities. The product development support entails close coordination with the RCC Triple P Tourism Team, and in particular the responsible expert on the team (cultural tourism and/or adventure tourism). The expert(s) engaged for this focus area will act as lead expert for a specific theme/route and will

5 together with the project team coordinate and mobilise experts in other fields on an as-needed basis. Promotion and marketing of individual travel products and destinations through utilisation of traditional and online travel media Responding to the shift in the developed markets and the increase of individual travel, as well as the ease of arranging travel through online availability of information and booking tools, the travel media has become probably the most effective communication of new destinations and new products to a wide market audience. At the same time, the paid advertising in travel media has become a costly model for such communication. The project seeks to establish, through the expert support, a cooperative relationship with targeted travel media, including leading outlets such as National Geographic Travel, Wanderlust, Outside, Lonely Planet, and others. The goal of the support is to manage presence and place stories of sites and new product elements of the themes developed under the project auspices into the listed and other relevant travel media. To this goal it is foreseen that the expert engaged will lead development and implementation of travel media FAM trips (familiarisation visits to sites in the region) delivered as part of the project support. The task will also deal with development of written material for the promotional materials and actions developed and implemented under the project support, as well as online presentation of the product overall. Finally, the expert will be expected to review the ability of the regional industry to independently cope with travel media communication and together with the Project team and product development experts seek innovative solutions to building such capacity within the region. Marketing in tourism RCC Triple P Tourism project aims to develop the selected regional routes in the way that will secure increase in sales and employment related to tourism industry in the region. Respectively this means higher number of visitors, lengthening of visitor stay in the region, extension of season period, and higher spending at locations. In order to achieve this, innovative marketing actions need to be carefully planned and timed to facilitate income generating activities from the earliest possible time in the product development process. This entails development of marketing plans and leading implementation of such plans including planning and organisation of presentations at trade fairs and other travel trade events, organisation of travel actions such as, but not limited to, trade visits and/or FAM trips for travel trade (international tour operators). The task will also seek to improve the communication of attractions and sites within the region in order to foster increased intraregional travel. Strategic planning and business development The RCC Triple P Tourism project is developing regional routes through either improvements to existing or development of new products that include at least 3 and up to 6 economies of the region, while some are, in their entirety, including even more areas and regions beyond the WB Six (i.e. Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route or Via Dinarica). For three of these routes: Via Dinarica with sub-programmes, the Art and Design of WWII Monuments (Spomeniks) and the Crossroad of Civilizations the regional structure and the business model

6 selected are of utmost importance for long-term survival and sustainability as marketable and income generating vehicles. The strategic planning and business development expertise will aim to support the stakeholders in defining their strategic outlook and identify and develop the business model that will enable them to exist and operate beyond the project life. Similarly to the product development and the travel media outreach support, this entails identification of the main gaps in skills and knowledge base currently available in the region, and, together with the Project team development of actions and training programmes to remedy such gaps and increase the capacity of the route leaders to lead the development and promotion and marketing in the future. Tourism policy and regulatory framework RCC engagement in regional tourism industry, led by establishment and coordination of the Tourism Expert Group and now the implementation of the Triple P Tourism in SEE project, has identified a wide range of tourism policy issues that act as obstacles and challenges to the industry itself to grow at the pace allowed by the market and become a much more reliable contributor to the economic growth for the region. The range of policy gaps is extremely wide, stemming from having reliable statistics on the tourism industry, to needed interventions in education and training and certification programmes, to establishing standardised quality guidelines for products and services delivered across the region, to promoting responsible investment and management of resources utilised for tourism activities, or to daily operation issues such as ease of border crossing, visa needs and processes, access to rescue services and similar. Additional complexity is added by the fact that these policy gaps and expected recommendations for their resolution need to take into account the coverage and applicability in six economies of the region. The Project aims to review the identified challenges and develop recommendations for solutions that will lead to easier operations for regional tour operators and better industry information for government and other public sector institutions dealing with tourism that would enable them to better advocate the needs of the industry within their own economies. History and utilisation of historical material through tourism RCC Triple P Tourism in SEE project provides support to development of regional tourism product based on the diverse heritage of the region. The historical material linked to sites and locations, as well as overall heritage of the region thus become the key ingredient for the product development actions. The task will seek to identify the most prominent and relevant moments in history as well as their correct and innovative interpretation. The task will further facilitate development of storytelling around the defined sites, locations and attractions. It is also foreseen that the task will both receive and seek new locations and sites as the routes are being developed, and will aim to provide historical material for such sites as needed. Archaeology and utilisation of archaeological material through tourism The archaeological heritage of the Roman period has been identified as a significant shared heritage of the Western Balkans Six economies and as such received endorsement from TEG to be developed as one of the supported themes. The mobilisation of the Roman heritage is foreseen in partnership with the existing certified European Cultural Routes, led by the

7 Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route. The task will seek to identify the most prominent and relevant sites and coordinate with the management of partner routes on their readiness and ability to be included into the route itself. For this purpose justifications will need to be developed as well as storytelling material for quality promotion and interpretation of the heritage for sites selected. Production of visual promotional materials Promotion and marketing is not only integral, but crucial segment of the Triple P Tourism in SEE project effort to grow the number of visitors to the Western Balkans Six, their length of stay and their local spending as tools to increase sales and income from tourism as well as related employment. The current trends in promoting travel destinations put visual materials at the forefront as one of the most effective tools that are able to communicate multidimensional imagery and in formats that are easily accessible to different audiences, where both content or format can be easily tailored. To enable promotion of the region to meet the trends it is foreseen that visuals will be developed for specific sites (cultural tourism) and/or themed by activity or route sections (adventure travel). The visuals developed will include, but not be limited to, videos for trade fairs and other trade events, short clips that can be used in promotions or positioned as information source on product s own or other promotional online tools. The visual material development will be closely coordinated with the respective expert on Project team and the product development and marketing experts engaged in the specific product segment. All materials thus developed will remain the property of the project. Core Competencies Strategic vision, understanding of fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty Strong analytical capabilities and writing skills Ability to work in the team, develop and establish effective working relations with a multitude of diverse stakeholders Sensitivity and adaptability to cultural, gender, religious, and nationality considerations Flexibility to change and openness to receiving/integrating feedback Strong interpersonal and communication skills, resourcefulness, initiative, tact and negotiation skills Ability to work under pressure and in stressful situations Ability to manage heavy workload and solve complex problems with limited supervision Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity Demonstrating basic knowledge of the organisation and sound judgment Treats all people fairly without favouritism Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively Successfully managing conflict Learning and sharing knowledge and encouraging the learning of others Informed and transparent decision-making

8 Education and Experience Educational requirements will differ based on the specific assignment, but as a general rule, advanced university degree (Master, PhD) is welcomed for all key or senior experts. Requirements concerning work experience and skills will differ based on the specific assignment, but as a general rule, candidates with the following experience (as a minimum) are encouraged to apply: At least 7 years of demonstrable work experience in the related field (corresponding to the selected area); Theoretical and practical experience in designing, implementing, and/or monitoring and evaluating interventions with specific focus on the above mentioned areas; Excellent and demonstrable drafting and formulation skills, with a track record of producing and publishing reports or papers/studies in specified areas; Excellent presentation skills; Experience in capacity development and training; Fluency in spoken and written English is a must; knowledge of other SEE languages is an asset; Knowledge of the SEE region and experience in working in the region is considered an advantage. How to apply: If you have extensive experience in one or more of the requested fields, have worked as a consultant with international organisations and have interest and drive to contribute to the quality presentation and valorisation of the Western Balkans regional natural and cultural heritage through tourism, and would like to be added to our roster of consultants, please send your application comprising of the following documents: 1. Cover Letter specifying areas of expertise that are being applied for (max one A4 page) 2. CV 3. Three (3) references testifying your experience and expertise in the requested areas. 4. Please indicate your proposed expert daily rate/fee. All applications should be sent to tourism@rcc.int. When applying, please indicate that you would like to be included in the RCC Triple P Tourism Consultants roster in the subject line of , stating the area of expertise.