RFPMUS2021-005 - Prepare a Strategy Paper and Priority Action Plan on repositioning the Mauritian Tourism Sector

Background Information and Rationale, Project Description
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism was one of the fastest growing sectors fueling economic growth and creating jobs and business opportunities in Mauritius. The sector had registered steady growth with visitor arrivals increasing from 1.15 million in 2015 to 1.38 million in 2019, only to collapse to about 300,000 in 2020 on account of travel restrictions. Due to the pandemic, the sector is expected to have shrunk by 70% in 2020 and may not recover to the pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024. Despite the shortfalls encountered, the sector remains pivotal to the Mauritian economy given its strong link to the wider economy. As the country considers options for rebuilding the economy, the discourse has expanded beyond narrow strategies for reinvigorating tourism to include improving its competitiveness to contribute to development at scale. There are at least two key emerging opportunities that the Government wishes to tap into.

First, the share of the aged population is growing fast, and the pre-occupation of governments is with the structural investments required to build a competitive economy able to tap into the nascent silver tourism market. In 2020, over 727 million people, accounting for more than 9% of the global population was aged 65 and above, compared to 526 million (7.6%) in 2010. There is potential to tap into this demographic of a combined population of 519 million people above 65 years in high income and upper middle-income countries as a significant proportion of tourists. While most economic investments have traditionally focused on younger people, the silver economy is turning out to be lucrative. In the America’s alone, the total annual spending power by the elderly could increase from $4.6 trillion in 2020 to $6.3 trillion in 2030. In the European Union, the silver economy has the potential to expand by approximately 5% per year up to 2025.

Second, the pandemic has changed the future of work, presenting opportunities for economies that can demonstrate the capacity to establish investments that respond to the new order. The possibility of remote working has enabled freelancers, entrepreneurs, and self-employed people to join the digital nomad crowd. Globally companies are investing in technologies, improving management practices, and creating a culture that will reduce the barriers to an effective teleworking ecosystem while fulfilling organizational commitments, which may increase the potential for longer stays in convenient tourism destinations. In the US for example, about 37% of work can potentially be executed remotely, and companies like Google, twitter and Facebook are advanced in setting convenient environments to accommodate remote working for permanent staff. Given the envisaged efficiency gains, 83% of US company leaders planned to encourage remote working after the lockdown. To capture this market, countries such as Iceland have designed quality-over-quantity strategies to attract high-earning professionals to stimulate their local economies. Mauritius could position its tourism by investing in structural adjustments at scale that will attract such high value markets.

As Mauritius looks to advance a resilient economy, it is inclined to reimagine the tourism sector as an anchor of its development path. As stipulated in the National Budget for 2021-2022, this will be, in part, by initiating a discourse on a transformation agenda that will strengthen the country’s competitiveness as a destination for high value tourists.

Specific Objectives

Services of a consultant are required to prepare a strategy paper and action plan that will guide the Government of Mauritius in undertaking planning and investments to effectively harness the above opportunities. Overall, the assignment will deliver on the following objectives:

Objective 1: Identify mechanisms for increasing earnings from tourism through focus on high value tourists.
Objective 2. Identify high value markets/segments and develop products that will position Mauritius as leading tourist destination.
Objective 3: identify capacity needs and mechanisms for building/strengthening capacities in the public sector and private sector (different levels) to ensure agility in responsiveness to the envisaged reorientation of the industry.
Objective 4: develop an action plan for an agile and re-imagined tourism sector, with practical priority actions to be implemented across sectors, in the immediate term (3 months), medium term (one year) and long term (two years).

Expected duration of work

40 working days over a period of 04 months (August 2021 to November 2021)

Qualification of the Consultant

Overall qualification
The consultant shall be a reputable firm or research institution with demonstrate experience in provision of similar policy advisory services to governments. The firm must possess:
(a) Expertise of firm/Organisation: (350 points)
     - At least 10 years of relevant experience in the subject area
     -Specific experience in at least 2 projects
     -At least 8-10 years of experience working with governments and multilateral institutions on related assignments
(b) Proposed Methodology, Approach, and Implementation Plan (250 points)
     -Sound approach for undertaking the assignment
     -Workplan
(c) Management Structure and Key Personnel (400 points).
     -A team of experts necessary to effectively deliver the outputs listed in the terms of reference, in accordance with their proposed approach and methodology.

Team composition and qualification requirements
The team may include the following (with possibility to combine tasks)

(i) The Team Leader/ expert in integrated planning- must possess: a master’s degree in tourism development, hospitality management, economics, or any related field; at least 10 years of experience in tourism strategy and policy, regional tourism planning and product development, and institutional development; familiarity with Small Island Development States; ability to supervise a team of experts and address contract execution issues as they arise, and ensure timely delivery of contract outputs; excellent command of English language; ability to deliver oral presentations and produce high-quality written reports.

(ii) Tourism development/promotion expert: Must possess: a master’s degree in tourism development/management or related fields, at least 10 years of professional experience in developing innovative programs or projects that support the tourism sector at country level; at least 7 years in tourism demand analysis and market research, tourism promotion and marketing; excellent oral and written communication skills in English; experience of SIDS will be an added advantage.

(iii) Social development expert: Must possess a master's degree or equivalent in Social Sciences/development studies or other related fields; at least 8 years of relevant professional experience in social development or related areas; at least 7 years of experience in designing strategies and responsibilities mentioned above at the national level; excellent oral and written communication skills in English; international experience working on development in several countries; experience working in SIDS contexts.

Proposals may be submitted on or before 18th August 2021 at 16:00 (Mauritian Time) via email to Procurement Unit at [email protected].

In the course of preparing your Proposal, it shall remain your responsibility to ensure that it reaches the address above on or before the deadline. Proposals that are received by UNDP after the deadline indicated above, for whatever reason, shall not be considered for evaluation. If you are submitting your Proposal by email, kindly ensure that they are signed and in the .pdf format, and free from any virus or corrupted files.

Please submit technical and financial proposals in two separate pdf documents. The financial proposal should be locked with a password that would be provided upon request.