Naslov
The OECD Tourism Committee

Autori
Krešić, Damir

Izvornik
Tourism : an international interdisciplinary journal (1332-7461) 57 (2009), 1; 84-85

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, prikaz, stručni

Ključne riječi
tourism; OECD Tourism Committee

Sažetak
In this number of Tourism, a section of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) web site, dedicated to the OECD Tourism Committee, will be briefly presented. OECD was established in 1961 in Paris and for more than 40 years has been committed to development of market economy around the world. The OECD Tourism Committee is an international forum for tourism policy coordination among OECD member countries. It evaluates the importance of tourism industry for the overall world economy and it also advocates development of sustainable tourism. The Committee activities are aimed at: promotion of sustainable economic growth, increase in national and local government capabilities to measure long-term tourism impacts (e.g. Tourism Satellite Account), improving tourism policy and programme effectiveness, enhancement of education and training policies that support excellence and innovation in tourism ; development of reliable data analysis for business and policy decision making, support of increased awareness, understanding and use of OECD standards in the design of tourism policies, promotion of exchange between member and non-member countries and encouragement of international exchange in tourism (2009-10 Programme of work oft he OECD Tourism Committee). The OECD Tourism Committee also co-operates with World Tourism Organization, the European Union and the International Labour Organization. It fosters dialogue and provides forum for discussion between different tourism stakeholders such as tourism industry, academia, NTO’s and other groups through consultation and seminars. In 1971 the Committee created a Statistical division, called Statistical Working Party, whose main goal is to provide Member countries with appropriate informational basis for decision making purposes. Statistical Working Party meets once a year. Information about all the activities undertaken by OECD Tourism Committee is presented on their web site. The OECD Tourism Committee web site is in fact a subsection of the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development web site. This web site is available in English and French language and it is divided into several categories which are accessible by hyperlinks located on the top static sections of the web site. Those sections are “About OECD Tourism Committee”, “Statistics”, “Publications & Documents” and “Information by Country”. The initial home page of the web site, titled simply “Tourism”, is intended to provide latest tourism industry related news from the OECD Member countries. Even though the information presented in this section of the web site are very useful the major disadvantage is that those information, at the moment of writing this review, were not very recent. The page named “About OECD Tourism Committee” of OECD Tourism Committee web site is very informative and it briefly describes the importance of tourism industry in the OECD countries as well as the role of OECD Tourism Committee within the OECD organization. Here it can be found out that currently most important activities of the OECD Tourism Committee are improving the performance of the Member countries tourism policies and understanding of the socio-economic significance of tourism in OECD and non-OECD countries. Web page named “Statistics” provides information related to the tourism statistics, and especially about Tourism Satellite Account. The content of this page provides useful information about harmonization of tourism statistics in an environment that strengthens co-operation between governments, the private sector, researchers, academics and international organizations. Information about development of common conceptual framework for a Tourism Satellite Account can also be found on this web page. The web page named “Publications & Documents” provides access to a number of useful documents and research papers which are additionally divided into several categories: Case Studies, Country Surveys/Reviews/Guides, Events/Conferences/Meetings, News Releases, Newsletters/Brochures, OECD Legal Instruments and Related Documents, Other OECD Documents, Policy Briefs, Proceedings, Publications, Reports, Statistics/Data and Indicators and Websites. This page is most useful and most informative section of the OECD Tourism Committee web site from the standpoint of tourism researchers and academics since it provides loads of useful information that can be of assistance in tourism research activities. The only disadvantage of this web page is that not all documents are available for download. By browsing this section of the web site a visitor can get very detailed insight in the wide range of research and publication activities carried out by the OECD Tourism Committee. The web page named “Information by Country” provides similar information as the previously described web page (“Publications & Documents”) and the only difference is that those information are catalogued by specific countries for easier browsing and navigation. Very useful feature of this web page is the “List of tourism web sites by countries” which provides links to the web sites of tourism authorities and NTOs of OECD Member countries which can be very useful ¬¬and time saving during information search on the Internet. The information is available for 34 countries. The web site design is clean and simple and it is thematically in accordance with all other sections of the OECD web site. The web site is easy to navigate since it has a number of quick links on the left and right side of the browsing window. The links on the left static section of the web site provide access to other sections of the OECD web site and access to the topics related to tourism industry. Links on the right static section of the web site provide quick access to some important topics that are covered by the OECD Tourism Committee research activities such as “The Impact of Culture on Tourism”, “Tourism in OECD Countries 2008: Trends and Policies” and “Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Approach”. A site map for easier navigation through the web site is also provided. The web sites loads very quickly, it has number of interactive functionalities such as “Contact Us”, “Help/FAQ”, “MyOECD” and “Search” which are all contributing to easier navigation and better visitor experience. It can be concluded that OECD Tourism Committee web site, although technically not very sophisticated, provides very pleasant browsing experience. The web site is very informative, logically divided into coherent sections and it provides lots of useful information for download free of charge. The only disadvantages are that not all publication are available in for download and that news about tourism related activities in the OECD Member countries, published on the home page, are not very recent.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA