Public-Private Partnerships in Tourism Development: An Analysis of the Kuwait Experience

Tourism and recreation has become one of the important and influential sectors in most of the modern economies. This sector has been accepted as one of the alternative sources of national income, employment, and foreign exchange. The state of Kuwait has many potentialities in tourism and recreation, and exploitation of this leads to more diversification of the economy besides augmenting its contribution to the GDP. Because Kuwait is an import oriented economy, it requires hard currencies (foreign exchange) to meet the import cost as well as to maintain stability in the international market. To compensate for the revenue fall stemmed from fluctuations in oil prices—where the agriculture, fisheries, and industrial sectors are too immune and inelastic—the only alternative solution is the regeneration of the tourism and recreation to surface. This study envisages the characteristics of tourism and recreation, the economic and social importance for the society, the physical, and human endowments as well as the tourist pattern and plan for promoting and sustaining tourism in the country. The study summarizes many recommendations including the necessity of establishing an authority or a council for tourism, linking the planning of tourism development with the comprehensive planning for economic and social development in Kuwait, and to encourage the investors to develop new touristic and recreation projects.