Sri Lanka's ten-year development framework aims at accelerating economic growth while ensuring a path of sustainable development and prioritizing conservation of the country's natural heritage. It is in this context that this policy note seeks to examine the scope for enhancing protection of Sri...

The Functional Review of the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MRDT FR) assesses the key functional strengths and weakness of MRDT with respect to its mandate and recommends actions that can help strengthen its efficiency and effectiveness. The review covers the main general...

Tourism has become the leading economic sector of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) islands, thus expanding linkages with the local economy seems crucial going forward. Tourism has replaced agriculture as the main economic driver within all the islands comprising the OECS. In...

"A tradable development rights (TDR) program focusing on biodiversity conservation faces a crucial problem defining which areas of habitat should be considered equivalent. Restricting the trading domain to a narrow area could boost the range of biodiversity conserved but could increase the...

"This paper presents a case study of willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimation using random valuation models. A contingent valuation survey was conducted in Yerevan, Armenia to estimate people's WTP for the protection of Lake Sevan. Three elicitation formats - open-ended, closed-ended, and the...

"There exist legal channels for informational lobbying of U.S. policymakers by foreign principals. Foreign governments and private sector principals frequently and intensively use this institutional channel to lobby on trade and tourism issues. This paper empirically studies whether such...

Malawi sits amid a vibrant Travel and Tourism (T&T) region that is growing rapidly and increasing its world market share. Proximate to countries with thriving T&T sectors, Malawi has a relatively underdeveloped diversity of natural, cultural, and man-made attractions. It is challenged to embrace...