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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

FOR EUROPEAN

SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT

Managing Tourism with Success


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Project Management for European

Sustainable Development


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Project Management for European Sustainable Development

First printing: 2011

All rights reserved

Foundation for European Sustainable Tourism (FEST)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without

permission in writing. Permission must be obtained through:

FEST c/o [email protected]


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Contents5 Foreword

7 Silvia Barbone9 Carlo Fidanza

11 Christiane Dabdoub Nasser

13 Acknowledgments

17 Acronyms

21 1 Introduction23 1.1 Background

26 1.2 The PM4ESD Model

27 1.3 The PM4ESD Manual

33 2 Project Management and Sustainable Tourism35 2.1 The Importance of the Tourism Industry and the Sustainable

Tourism Context

38 2.2 Sustainable Tourism Principles and Indicators

41 2.3 Governance

42 2.4 The Project Life Cycle

in the Tourism Sector

47 2.5 The Management Context

49 3 The PM4ESD Approach51 3.1 Introduction

52 3.2 Success of a Project:

Explanation of the 6+1 Variables

56 3.3 Success Factors, Lessons Learned,

Best Practices and Principles for Projects

61 3.4 The PM4ESD Structure

63 4 Components65 4.1 Business Case

68 4.2 Risk, Issue and Change Management

75 4.3 Organisation

79 4.4 Quality

82 4.5 Planning

86 4.6 Progress Control

89 5 Processes91 5.1 Project Direction

99 5.2 Project Initiation

107 5.3StageDenitionandPlanning

111 5.4 Stage Control & Product Delivery

117 5.5 Project Closure

121 6ReviewingBenetsofPM4ESDProjects123 6.1 Introduction

124 6.2BenetRealisationManagement

131 7 Annexes133 7.1 The Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

138 7.2 Vesevo Case Study

159 8 Bibliography


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Foreword


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Silvia Barbone,

PM4ESD Coordinator


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Project Management and Sustainable Tourism. This combination forms the basis of

PM4ESD Project Management for European Sustainable Development, a new approach

for designing and managing tourism and cultural projects.

In order to achieve sustainable tourism it is crucial to consider governance and management

key factors of success and competitivness. Tourism is one of the largest industries in the

world. It can make an important contribution to economic, cultural and social development

of destinations, if attractions and initiatives are managed looking beyond short-term

benets, and with a new sense of coherent partnership between the private sector and

public authorities.As tourists and as citizens, we all have visited places asking ourselves: Why is such a

beautiful place not well maintained and promoted? Why is it not well connected?

Each time I go to visit Pompeii, I cannot stop thinking why the local community seems not

to live in one of the worldest visited attractions. There is a border between the archeological

site and the town. This happens in many destinations.

We do believe it is time to take actions, to use tourism as a force for social and cultural

change, and let host communities be part of this process.

Through PM4ESD we would like to contribute to achieve this change.

PM4ESD supports to deliver successful projects in a way that ensures benets for everyone:

visitors, local communities, stakeholders.

It is based on PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments), a structured methodfor eective project management, the de facto standard used extensively by the UK

Government and widely recognised and used in the public and private sector, both in the

UK and internationally. We have innovated and adapted PRINCE2 to the tourism sector,

combining management aspects with sustainable tourism criteria and principles.

PM4ESD aims to become a recognized methodology at international level to be used both

by local, regional and national governments, by companies and all stakeholders operating

in the tourism and cultural sectors.

The manual is available in English, Italian, German, Polish and Turkish, and training courses

will be launched in 2012.

We have set up FEST, the Foundation for European Sustainable Tourism, which will

disseminate, maintain and certify PM4ESD.

This is the rst release of our publication.

We would like to thank all the international experts, institutions and organizations which

have supported us in transforming PM4ESD from a project idea into a concrete result.

Silvia Barbone


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Carlo Fidanza, Member of the European

Parliament Committee on Transport

and Tourism, Rapporteur for the

European Parliament on the new political

framework for tourism in Europe


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Tourism, as the third major socio-economic activity in Europe, along with its related sectors,

accounts for 10% of the EU GDP and represents 12% of the total EU employment. It is

therefore an area of upmost importance because, it contributes both to the development

and the integration of less advanced areas in Europe, and it manages to combine growth,

sustainable development and ethics in the dierent Member States. Tourism is also an

essential tool in order to enhance, disseminate and promote our image in the world,

safeguarding Europes prime position as number 1 destination.

All these aspects have been the focus of the new framework of the European policy

on tourism following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and they represent key

priorities within the work of all European Institutions in this eld.

Among the actions proposed by the European Commission and further developed bythe report of the European Parliament, I had the honour to draft, there are some core

topics in line with the objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy: educational and professional

training to stimulate mobility and create new high quality professional opportunities, the

development of ICT to create new synergies between tourism enterprises of all sizes, the

issue of de-seasonalisation to overcome and tourism for all, the debate on quality tourism

in Europe and the controversial question of adequate funding.

In order to develop all these ideas and to strengthen our tourism industry and its

competitiveness, it is important to invest further on the concept of sustainability, which

is a common element within all aspects of the new tourism policy: a broad approach on

sustainability is needed, that holds together the valorisation of European cultural heritage,

the protection and safeguard of European territories and of its environment, the aspect of

the economic development and the social cohesion of the system as a whole.Sustainability is a concept, a value which must be incorporated in the consciousness

of all European citizens, politicians, administrators, entrepreneurs or tourists. All projects

in the eld of tourism should take sustainability into account and make it integral part

of their content. Sustainability is and can be achieved with networking and the ability of

creating synergies and cooperation at dierent levels: networking between the EU and

the dierent Member States, between Institutions and operators of the sector, between

national and regional governments (which often have direct competence and powers with

regards to tourism policy), between tourism industries and the transport system, and

between services suppliers and customers.

In conclusion, institutions at all levels and operators of the sector must work all together

in order to develop a tourism policy at the EU level, which is competitive, sustainable,

modern, socially responsible and accessible to all citizens. Furthermore, it is crucial tocooperate, facilitate and complement the activities of the various actors and of national

and regional authorities through all available means and that is why all projects in this

direction, allowing exchange of best practices in the eld and awareness raising activities

are to be supported and further developed in a constructive perspective for an integrated

EU tourism policy.

Carlo Fidanza


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Christiane Dabdoub Nasser,

Team Leader

Euromed Heritage 4


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After many tourism and cultural projects have run short of achieving substantial results,

in Europe and elsewhere, a proper methodology for project management in two keysectors of sustainable development - tourism and culture - is long overdue and therefore

a welcome development. Because tourism represents the third largest economic activity

in the European Union (EU) and its contribution to the GDP and employment is substantial

and still growing, the methodology will certainly briaddng new and interesting results if it

is properly and widely applied.

Within the Euromed Heritage Programme, a regional programme funded by the EU within

the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)1 and currently running its fourth phase, we

are trying to instil a fresh perspective on tourism management in Mediterranean Partner

countries which, according to recent statistics, are showing an 8.4% increase in number of

nights spent by tourists2. The programmes primary concern is the preservation of cultural

heritage resources, both tangible and intangible, including their proper management; but

in as much as these resources contribute substantially to tourism activities, they becomeof major concern particularly where it comes to the use of these resources.

From my perspective, the economic value of the physical heritage is of primary concern

and goes beyond the need for increasing the access of paying tourists to heritage

places to preserving the lifespan of the heritage: it is about how tourism revenues are

distributed, particularly where it concerns the owners of the heritage; about using part of

these revenues for conservation purposes; and nally about raising the awareness about

the heritage value of the site and the need for its sustainable use and conservation. This

perspective stems from the logic that a well protected and presented heritage brings

additional indirect returns to the community and economy that surround it, and a reputed

heritage site increases the reputation and hence the market value of the local production

that benets from the reputation of the site. As such, tourism development becomes an

enormously complex endeavour.

Through the programme, we have tried to establish that management and sustainable

development cannot be exclusive of each other; that cultural management and

tourism management require inter-disciplinary interventions based on a multiplicity of

competences; that stakeholders analysis and denition of their roles and responsibilities

are prerequisites to any planning and implementation of a project; that public awareness

and participation are key factors in securing sustainability of projects. As valuable as they

are, all these eorts would be enhanced by a tourism management methodology.

Project Management for European Sustainable Development (PM4ESD) would be a

valuable addition to our eorts because it addresses all the above mentioned issues

and more: it draws on the principle that sustainable development must be planned from

the outset and incorporated within the business case; and it starts with the assumption

that to make destinations sustainable, it is necessary to adopt a management stylewhich ensures that the activity is sustainable. It would therefore be an ideal management

tool to be considered for Mediterranean Partner countries: adapted to local needs of

both public sector authorities and private organisations, it could complement what has

been accomplished through the Euromed Heritage Programme and instil a practice of

participatory, transparent and virtuous management.

Christiane Dabdoub Nasser

1 The European Neighborhood Policy targets nine countries from the South Mediterranean basin: Algeria,

Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia.

2 Sprel and Tube, Tourism Trends in Mediterranean Partner Countries. Industry, trade and services, Eurostat

Statistics in focus, 95/2008.


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Acknowledgments


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CoordinatorSilvia Barbone

Jlag

Authoring teamJacobus GrootQRP International

Roger Horam

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce

Serena Liuni

Jlag

Silvia Barbone

Jlag

Vincenzo Imerti

QRP International

PM4ESD international expertsAlfonso Vargas Sanchez

Full Professor, University of Huelva, Management

and Marketing Department

Andy Taylor

Programme Manager, Central Government

Department, UK

Anne Gibb

Principal Consultant in Programme and Risk

Management, Agba

Aye Nur Ersun

Istanbul Commerce University

Christiane Dabdoub Nasser

Team Leader, Euromed Heritage Programme

David Crowford

Principal Consultant in Project, Programme and

Risk Management

Dilek Unalan

Bogazici University

Julie Scott

Senior Research Fellow, London Metropolitan

University

Kleopatra Theologidou

Senior Consultant, Municipality of Veria

Leah Radstone

New Qualifcations Project Manager, Apm Group

Martha Mary Friel

Adjunct Professor, Iulm

Mauro Vanni

Adjunct Professor, University of Teramo

Rebecca Hawkins

Research and Consultancy Fellow, Oxford

Brookes University

Stephen John Page

Senior Professor in Sustainable Tourism

Management, London Metropolitan University

Valentino Izzo

Project Manager, European Commission DG

Enterprise and Industry Tourism Unit

Graphic DesignNicola Marra de Scisciolo

Jlag

PM4ESDs partnership

Municipality of Frigento (IT)Lead Partner

JLAG ltd (UK)

Coordinator Partner

AHE (PL)University of Humanities and Economics

Auxilium (AU)

pro Regionibus Europae in Rebus Culturalibus

Camigliati (IT)

Destination Management School

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce (UK)

Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (TK)

QRP International (IT)


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Acronyms


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CR Checkpoint Report

CS Controlling the Stage

ENA European Needs Analysis

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GSTC The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

MSP Management Successful Programme

NECSTouR Network of European Regions for a Sustainableand Competitive Tourism

PB Project Board

PCM Project Cycle Management

PD Product Description

PID Project Initiation Document

PM Project Manager

PM4ESD Project Management for European SustainableDevelopment

PRINCE2 Projects IN Controlled Environments

SD Sustainable Development

SP Stage Plan

ST Sustainable Tourism

TM Team Manager

TP Team Product

TSC Tourism Sustainability Council

UNCED United Nations Conference on Environmentand Development

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UNWTO World Tourism Organization

WP Work Package


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1 Introduction


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1 / Introduction

1.1 Background

1.1.1 Policy scenario

PM4ESD is linked to the variety of sustainable tourism policies,

guidelines and programmes of action set up by international

organisations and European institutions such as the World Tourism

Organisation (UNWTO), United Nation Educational Scientic and

Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP), European Commission and European

Parliament.

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED) - The Rio Earth Summit - dened Travel

Tourism as one of the crucial sectors of the economy to achieve

sustainable development aims. As a result of The Earth Summit, 182

governments adopted Agenda 21, a comprehensive programme

of action for achieving sustainable development objectives. Travel& Tourism is the rst industry sector to have drafted an industry-

specic action plan based on Agenda 21 but further action is

needed to involve every tourist operator, government, private/

public partnership, international body, and company to incorporate

sustainable development principles in their management structure.

Originally sustainability issues referred mainly to the natural

environment but subsequently they aected also the social,

economic and cultural spheres. Nowadays, most governments,

international development agencies, trade associations, academic

institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are

aware that sustainability is vital to achieve development that benets

all stakeholders, by reducing extreme poverty and preserving theprecious natural and man-made resources.

The tourism sector has to face the great sustainability challenge

that sustainable tourism is not a discrete or special form of tourism.

Rather, all forms of tourism should strive to be more sustainable. It

must be clear that the term sustainable tourismmeaning tourism

that is based on the principles of sustainable developmentrefers

to a fundamental objective: to make all tourism more sustainable.

Thus, sustainable tourism should:

1. Make optimal use of environmental resources

2. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities

3. Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providingfairly distributed socio-economic benets to all stakeholders1

The active participation of all relevant stakeholders is necessary

to achieve sustainable tourism development. As highlighted by

UNWTO and UNEP planning for the long term, working together,

checking on outcomes and adapting to change are crucial steps

towards a sustainable approach to tourism development and

management. Thus, UNWTO focuses on policies, guidelines,

management techniques and measurement instruments that

support national and local governments, as well as the tourism

1 Making Tourism More Sustainable: a Guide for Policy Makers, UNEP-UNWTO,

2005


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1 / Introduction

industry, to include sustainability principles into their decision

making process and day-to-day operations; and UNEP has

launched a programme aiming to integrate environmental

sustainability into decision making in the tourism industry. As

outlined by UNESCO, the lack of good management and planning

in tourism causes environmental degradation, the destruction of

heritage resources, and social alienation, and UNEP adds that

improperly managed tourism damages the resources fundamental

to its survival. Thus, to minimise tourism pressures on natural,

social, economic and cultural resources and to maximise the

positive impacts of tourism activities, an integrated management

approach, and the development of related tools to support the

integration of sustainable management in tourism business

practices are required2.

PM4ESD aims to support the process of making European

tourism more sustainable. PM4ESD is linked to the EU Sustainable

Development strategy and policies. At EU level, the EuropeanCommission through its Communication: Europe, the worlds No 1

tourist destination (2010)3, identied the achievement of sustainable

tourism as a priority. This latter, together with the Communication

Agenda for a sustainable and competitive tourism (2007)4 and

A renewed tourism EU policy: towards a stronger partnership

for European Tourism (2006)5, directly support the aims of the

Lisbon Treaty and the EU 2020 strategy which are to stimulate

competitiveness in the sector and to support environmental

sustainability in the process. The EU tourism ministers approved

the Madrid Declaration, which denes recommendations on the

implementation of a consolidated European tourism policy. Three

of the four priorities identied by the Madrid Declaration areperfectly in line with PM4ESD:

1. Stimulate competitiveness in the European tourism sector

2. Promote the development of sustainable, responsible and

high-quality tourism

3. Consolidate the image and prole of Europe as a collection

of sustainable and high quality destinations

While recent policy developments aim to increase the sustainability

of tourism, progress has been weak because of an inability

to transform policies into action. The challenge is to combine

competitiveness with sustainability and to implement it.

1.1.2 RationaleforPM4ESD

PM4ESD addresses the need to develop a project management

approach applied to the tourism sector, used by local authorities

and various tourism stakeholders as a tool for the implementation

of the sustainability principles dened by the international and

European institutions described above. Project managers, policy

makers, and entrepreneurs need to acquire certied project

management skills and competences to better manage tourist

2 A three-year journey for sustainable tourism, UNEP

3 CO M(2 01 0)3 52 na l

4 CO M(2 00 7)6 21 na l

5 COM(2006)0134


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1 / Introduction

and cultural sites, enterprises, and special initiatives. Whether

managing a public or a private initiative, sustainable development

must be planned before starting a project, and must be incorporated

within the business case. The tourism industry is of great socio-

economic importance for the development of the territories, and

contributes to their economic growth in terms of employment

and social services. In order to achieve these objectives, tourism

and cultural initiatives require planning and management with a

sustainable approach embracing both methodology and content.

Funding for delivering tourism and cultural projects has been spent

without achieving substantial sustainable results for the territories

where these projects were implemented. The reasons behind

this failure are very often related to a lack of a robust territorial

needs analysis, poor planning and bad project management due

to vague objectives, roles and responsibilities, bad stakeholders

involvement within the process (particularly the local communities),

inadequate monitoring and evaluation of results and benets, toomuch emphasis on administrative control, not enough timescales

and cost control, scarce awareness and/or exploitation of the

knowledge and tools available to implement sustainable tourism

principles (guidelines, indicators etc.)6.

These conclusions have been backed up also by the European

Needs Analysis (ENA) research. The ENA has been carried out

through both desk research in Austria, Italy, United Kingdom,

Poland, and Turkey (the ve PM4ESD partner countries), and

an online survey with the aim to investigate the state of the

art concerning the implementation of sustainable tourism

policies through projects, and the use of project management

methodologies in the eld. The research conrmed the importanceof tourism in the ve mentioned countries, its complexity and the

variety of stakeholders involved such as ministries, tourism boards,

municipalities, nancial institutions and funding agencies, which

will be better detailed in Chapter 2.

Most importantly the research highlighted the lack of a standard

project management methodology applied to the eld together

with a strong need for support in the implementation of this specic

methodology. Project Management can be the vehicle to move

from sustainable tourism knowledge to action.

In this context indicators play an important role in supporting

tourism businesses and destinations to become more sustainable.

Many indicators have been developed in the eld of sustainabledevelopment and tourism but the Global Sustainable Tourism

Criteria dened by the UNEP, UNWTO and the Rainforest Alliance,

and the ongoing project of key indicators dened by the European

Commission are denitely worth mentioning and they will be

explained better in Chapter 2.

6 A talk with... Silvia Barbone, Giuliano Salis, Euromed Heritage Newsletter n4,

March 2010


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1.2The PM4ESD Model

1.2.1 From PRINCE2 to PM4ESD

PM4ESD is the combination of Project Management and Sustainable

Development. It is a specic model of approach of the PRINCE2

method tailored to sustainable tourism. Tailoring PRINCE2 to the

tourism eld means to develop a project management approach

which can be used as a tool to implement sustainable development

principles in the tourism and cultural sectors. It is based on a collection

of techniques, methods, practices and procedures that contribute

to the ecient and eective management of initiatives (projects,

programmes, strategies) for sustainable development in Europe.

PM4ESD is based on PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled

Environments), a structured method for eective project

management which is the de facto standard used extensively by

the UK Government and widely recognised and used in the privatesector, both in the UK and internationally. This method originated in

the British public sector and is widely used in the Dutch and Swedish

ones, as well as in the private sector of the European Union7.

PM4ESD has chosen PRINCE2 for the following key features:

Its focus on business justication

A dened organisation structure for the project management

team

Its product-based planning approach

Its emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and

controllable stages

Its exibility to be applied at a level appropriate to the project

The advantages for an organisation which decides to adopt

PRINCE2, and hence PM4ESD are listed below:

It is a exible method applicable to every context

PRINCE2/PM4ESD can be taught

It is a method based on project best-practice experience

It focuses on quality for the entire duration of the project

It denes roles and responsibilities

It includes risk management techniques

It is a method which involves all stakeholders and motivates

them to be proactive It is an internationally recognised method

It focuses on the objectives and results to be achieved

It is a low-cost but high impact procedure8

PM4ESD is a management approach, it applies whenever an

organisation, whether public or private, needs to plan and manage

a project in sustainable tourism. It provides a guarantee for public

authorities that the project will be transformed into concrete

actions with clearly dened roles and responsibilities and that

7 Ibid.

8 Management School, Silvia Barbone La rivista del turismo, Centro Studi Touring

Club Italiano, 4 2009


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1 / Introduction

these actions will have a real impact on local communities. It helps

local authorities and companies to govern transparently and not to

forget that every action must have corresponding benets. It is a

practice to be adopted for participatory, transparent and eective

management.

1.3The PM4ESD Manual

The manual is based on the de-facto project management standard

PRINCE2, including where necessary, elements of the programme

management standard MSP (Managing Successful Projects)

especially for the analysis of the project benets. The starting point

is the Projects Life Cycle, thus the PM4ESD approach refers also

to the Project Cycle Management, and to the Logical Framework

as a suggested method for project planning.

1.3.1 ObjectivesofthePM4ESDManual

The main objective of the PM4ESD Manual is to be a useful and

practical reference for:

Ecient and eective management of tourism initiatives

Eective decision making about tourism programmes,

strategies and projects

Training professionals involved in one of the two above

mentioned activities (management and/or decision making)

1.3.2 TargetGroupsandTypeofProjectsforthePM4ESDManual

The PM4ESD Manual is tailored to suit the needs of everyone

involved and interested in the management of projects that developEuropean sustainable tourism. This includes:

Professionals involved in the day to day management of

tourism initiatives (projects, programmes, strategies) for

sustainable development: project managers, programme

managers, executives, project ocers, members of project or

programme boards, project stakeholders, tourist operators.

Professionals involved in decision making at a local, regional,

national or European level in the elds of sustainable

development policy, tourism and cultural heritage

management: policy makers, project evaluators.

Vocational education trainers and students in the elds of

tourism and cultural heritage management.

PM4ESD has been designed to manage Sustainable Tourism

Projects with the following features:

Duration: minimum 1 year

Budget: minimum 100.0009

Aim to implement sustainable tourism

Raise awareness on the importance of sustainable tourism

Contribute to the preservation of natural heritage and

landscape

9 PM4ESD can be easily adapted also to smaller projects in terms of time and

budget,withamoreexibleapproach.


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Contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage

Aim to promote local development

Deliver benets for local communities

Involve public-private partnerships

Involve stakeholders

Focus on tangible and intangible elements of tourism

Focus on destinations

From a thematic point of view PM4ESD refers to any form of

tourism: Eco-Tourism, Cultural and Creative Tourism, Food

and Wine Tourism, Rural Tourism, Geo-Tourism, Industrial

Tourism, Educational Tourism, Business Tourism, Medical

Tourism, Sport Tourism, Social tourism etc.

Finally it refers to the following type of projects:

1. Cooperation projects, such as the project Mare Nostrum

funded by the Euromed Heritage Programme10, whose aim isto contribute to public awareness-raising of the preservation

and promotion of the Mediterranean port-cities sites and its

archaeological sites along the Phoenician ring-thread routes

in a past-present continuum.

2. Transnational projects, such as the development and

promotion of transnational tourism products, funded by the

European Commission within the Call for proposal Promotion

of trans-national thematic tourism products in the European

Union as Means of Sustainable Tourism Development.11

3. National, Regional and Local projects, which are strongly

linked to a specic geo-political context, such as the Vesevo

project whose aim was to promote intangible heritage aroundthe Vesuvio area.

4. Maintenance Projects, such as the maintenance of an

archaeological site, for example the maintenance of Pompeii,

should be considered a project to be managed.

5. Regeneration Projects, such as the creation of a new museum

or a new infrastructure, for example the creation of the Tate

Gallery in London.

6. Marketing Projects, such as the launch of a new tourism

campaign for a destination, for example the recent

promotional campaign of the Italian Tourist Board.

7. Research Projects, such as the project Ernest12

fundedby the Seventh Framework Programme of the European

Commission. It addressed the issue of sustainable

development of the tourism sector through coordination and

collaboration among regional research programmes.

8. Educational projects, such as the Train to Ecolabel project,

whose aim was to develop and disseminate a web-based

environmental training programme for hotel managers in

10 For a full list of the projects funded within the Euromed Heritage Programme:

http://www.euromedheritage.net/intern.cfm?menuID=12

11 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=5090&la

ng=en&tpa=136&displayType=fo

12 http://www.ernestproject.eu/coalap/pages-ernest/home.jsf


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order to implement the procedure for the European ECO

LABEL scheme13.

9. Other: other tourism related projects. Such as the organisation

of a tourism public event, the organisation of educationaltours for tour operators, etc. The construction of a new

Visitor Information Infrastructure; the implementation of new

tourism structure.

1.3.3 StructureofthePM4ESDManual

The manual is organised in 6 chapters, chapter 3, 4, 5 and 6 are

the core technical chapters dedicated to the implementation of the

PM4ESD management approach:

Chapter 1

Introduction- with background information about the sustainable

tourism sector PM4ESD addresses, including the explanation of the

policy behind the sector both at international and European level,the development of the PM4ESD approach, a short introduction to

PRINCE2 (the underlying project management method), and an

overview of the PM4ESD Manual.

Chapter 2

Project Management and Sustainable Tourism - with a description

of the importance, the characteristics, and the dierent actors and

stakeholders involved in the sustainable tourism sector followed by

the related implications for the project lifes cycle, and the project

management.

Chapter 3

The PM4ESD Approach - with an explanation of the 6+1 variables

for project management (timelines, cost, quality, scope, benets,

risk, and sustainability), success factors, lessons learned, best

practices and principles which form the basis of the PM4ESD

approach.

Chapter 4

Components - an explanation of the PM4ESD structure in its

related 6 components:

Business Case

Risk, Issue and Change Management

Organisation

Quality

Planning

Progress Control

Chapter 5

Processes - an explanation of the PM4ESD structure in its related

5 processes:

Project Direction

Project Initiation

Stage Denition and Planning

Stage Control and Product Delivery

13 http://www.traintoecolabel.org/index.php


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Project Closure

Chapter 6

Reviewing Benets of PM4ESD Projects - discusses ways to

evaluate the benets of the initiatives implemented, it is of utmostimportance for the continuous improvement of sustainable tourism

projects that the success or failure of the various initiatives (projects,

programmes) is not only evaluated by using indicators based on

budget, timelines and deliverables but it should also take into

account the achievement of social, economical and environmental

benets in the period following the project closure.

The manual will refer to the Vesevo project case study based on

the idea of too much unexploited intangible heritage, which is a

good case study for quite complex tourism projects, and to simpler

case studies in the tailoring part.

The manual includes the following annexes:

The Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

Case Study: Vesevo

MS Word Templates for download athttp://www.pm4esd.eu/

manual/templates


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2 Project Management

and Sustainable Tourism


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2.1The Importance of the Tourism Industry

and the Sustainable Tourism Context

Tourism represents the third largest socio-economic activity in theEU after the trade and distribution and construction sectors; globally

it ranks fourth after fuels, chemicals and automotive products. The

contribution of tourism to economic activity worldwide is estimated

at some 5%, while it is estimated it generates 10% of the European

Unions GDP providing approximately 12% of all jobs.

Tourism is an economic activity capable of generating growth and

employment, contributing to development and economic and social

integration. It has the power to boost destinations development and

prosperity; it plays a signicant role in sustainable development.

Sustainability is a concept which inspires policy makers and

tourism planners, but it is still quite dicult to implement it.

The concept of sustainable tourism (ST) has grown out of the

concept of sustainable development (SD), with the most popular

denition has come from the World Commission on Environment

and Development (the Brundtland Commission, 1986). They

dened SD as:

Development which meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own

needs.

Literature is lled with numerous denitions of sustainability. Many

dimensions of sustainability have emerged; the tourism dimension

is given in the World Tourism Organisation denition:

Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of presenttourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing

opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management

of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic

needs can be fullled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential

ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support

systems.

According to the World Tourism Organisation three fundamental

concepts underpin current approaches to sustainable tourism:

Tourism should be more sustainable in the way that it is

developed and operated

Sustainable tourism strategies and policies should reect

a two-way relationship: Impacts on tourism and Impact oftourism1

Sustainability and competitiveness are interdependent2

1 Impacts on tourism the ability of the sector to prosper in the long term,

including the effect of economic, environmental and societal change, such as

climate change and security issues, on tourism; Impacts of tourism positive

andnegativeinuencesonprosperity,societyandtheenvironmentbroughtby

tourism development and the activities of the industry and of tourists globally and

locally. Joining Forces. Collaborative Processes for Sustainable and Competitive

Tourism, page 12, UNWTO, 2010.

2 Tourism can only be sustainable if it is competitive, otherwise businesses

willfailandwillnotbeabletodeliveralltheotherbenetsthattourismcan

bring. However, tourism can only be competitive if it is sustainable. Successful

destinations and individual enterprises must play their part in maintaining and


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Tourism is a quite complex sector, it involves many actors and

is linked to many other sectors (such as environment, culture,

transport), it relies on public-private partnerships, it strongly

impacts on host communities, and it includes intangible aspects.

We assume that the main tourism products are destinations

which oer to visitors the opportunity to experiment a variety of

experiences.

PM4ESD refers to the concept of destination dened by the World

Travel Organisation, as follows:

A local tourism destination is a physical space in which a tourist

spends at least one overnight. It includes tourism products such

as support services and attractions and tourist resources within

one days return travel time. It has physical and administrative

boundaries dening its management, and images and perceptions

dening its market competitiveness. Local destinations incorporate

various stakeholders often including a host community, and cannest and network to form larger destinations.3

Starting from the destinations we can distinguish four main types

of stakeholders who are part of the tourism economy, and whose

collaboration is a key point to deliver successful initiatives:

1. The Public Sector: which includes local, regional and national

authorities; tourist boards; public attractions (national and

regional parks, archaeological sites, museums), transports,

local development agencies, European networks.

2. The Business Sector (the tourism industry), which includes

tour operators and the travel agencies, the hotel and catering

sectors, private attractions, trade associations, chambers of

commerce.3. The Knowledge Community, which includes International

Organisations, Academies, Training Organisations, Research

Centres, Think Tank, Media.

4. The Host Community which includes local citizens.

enhancing the quality of environments and the wellbeing of host communities

on which they depend. This is important in the short as well as the long term,

as increasingly tourists are looking to see evidence of this caring in the choices

that they make. Joining Forces. Collaborative Processes for Sustainable and

Competitive Tourism, page 12, UNWTO, 2010.

3 A Practical Guide to Tourism Destination Management, UNWTO, 2007.


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Sustainable Destinations

Public

Sector

Business

Sector

Knowledge

Community

Host

Community

Tourist

Satisfaction

Each tourism product as well as each tourism initiative is the result

of the above stakeholders interaction4.

A good coordination among all these actors contributes to

make destinations sustainable, to maintain a high level of touristsatisfaction ensuring a meaningful experience.

The sustainable development of tourism requires a sound planning

and management process, which needs to be knowledge based, to

include the management of key sustainability principles and to put

in action sustainable policies, guidelines and recommendations.

4 Within the Vesevo case study: the public sector was represented by the Vesuvio

National Park and the 13 municipalities involved; the Business Sector, from tour

operators and travel agencies, as well as from the consulting group involved in

the project, the knowledge community from the Vocational Schools, the Vesuvio

Observatory, UNESCO, the regional and national press, the Host Communities

from citizens involved in the Organisations of the events, local producers, and

Legambiente.


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2.2 Sustainable Tourism Principles and

Indicators

Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economicand socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable

balance must be established between these three dimensions to

guarantee its long-term sustainability. (UNWTO)

Socio Cultural

Economic Environmental

The Golden Triangle

The golden triangle of sustainability tourism is represented by

three dimensions. Thus, sustainable tourism should:

1. Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute

a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential

ecological processes and helping to conserve natural

resources and biodiversity.

2. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities,

conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional

values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and

tolerance.

3. Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providingsocio-economic benets to all stakeholders that are fairly

distributed, including stable employment and income-earning

opportunities and social services to host communities, and

contributing to poverty alleviation.

The use of indicators is an eective tool in addressing sustainability

principles at programme and project levels.

In PM4ESD we recommend the adaptation of an internationally

and/or nationally and/or regionally recognised set of indicators for

achieving our sustainable objectives. It is possible to use them to

build a sound business case.

In the global market place there are more than 60 independent


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certicates for environmentally friendly or sustainable tourism

services, destinations and tour operators all over the world 5.

The World Tourism Organisation has been promoting the use of

sustainable tourism indicators since the early 1990s, as essentialinstruments for policy-making, planning and management

processes at destinations. UNWTO has developed together

with the Rainforest Alliance and the United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP), The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) are a set of 37

voluntary standards representing the minimum that any tourism

business should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain

the worlds natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism

meets its potential as a tool for poverty alleviation.

Over 40 of the worlds leading public, private, non-prot, and

academic institutions joined together to analyse thousands of

worldwide standards and engage the global community in a broad-based stakeholder consultation process.

Today, the GSTC are being used by businesses and organisations

around the world to better understand the complexities of

sustainable tourism and to make sustainability a hallmark

methodology in the way we all travel, learn, and do business.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria are used to come to a

common understanding of sustainable tourism, and represent the

minimum that any tourism organisation should aspire to reach.

Criteria are organised around four main themes:

1. Eective sustainability planning

2. Maximising social and economic benets for the local

community

3. Enhancing cultural heritage

4. Reducing negative impacts to the environment

The criteria are part of the response of the tourism community to

the global challenges dened by the United Nations Millennium

Development Goals. Poverty alleviation and environmental

sustainability including climate change are the main cross-

cutting issues that are addressed through the criteria.

The European Commission has also been developing and testing a

list of key indicators for measuring sustainability of tourism policies 6.

With the work conducted by the UNWTO on indicators, there has

been an attempt to identify few indicators (the most relevant for theEuropean market) which could have been easily used at destination

level in the EU, irrespective of the destination size. The idea is, in

this case, to really downsize the many indicators existing worldwide

5 http://destinet.eu/tools/fol703514/fol442810

6 The European Commission has launched a tender in July 2011 (deadline

16th September 2011) to investigate the feasibility of a Europe-wide system

of indicators for the sustainable management of destinations and to make

recommendations to local/national/European stakeholders for its implementation.

Furthermore, in view of allowing more and more informed decisions from the

authorities in charge of tourism policy development in the EU, a European Virtual

Tourism Observatory, technical body providing know-how and expertise and

undertaking regular monitoring and reporting on the basis of reliable indicators, is

in the process of being conceived and should be launched by the end of 2012.


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to few indicators which would need data easily accessible at all

levels, even at local level (NUTS III classication) and smaller.

For these reasons a rst series of key indicators were identied

thanks to the help of the Tourism Sustainability Group (TSG) of the

Commission, advisory body to the tourism unit composed of 32

experts (mainly academics, but also administrators and UNWTO

ocials). The TSG indicators have then been tested at two levels:

at regional and at municipal level. At municipal level, they have

been tested in 14 very small and less-known destinations (winners

of the EDEN award7). At regional level they are now being tested

in some pilot regions among the most touristic ones, thanks to

the helpful collaboration of the Network of European Regions for a

Sustainable and Competitive Tourism (NECSTouR)8.

Finally we would like to mention other two specic schemes

implemented by the European Commission: QUALITEST and

ECOLABEL.

The QUALITEST tool has been designed for evaluating the quality

performance of tourist destinations and their related services. It

can be applied to any type of urban, rural or coastal destination

in Europe. The tool was developed using the life cycle of a typical

holiday experience. The tool therefore focuses on the service

points that occur throughout this lifecycle, and incorporates them

into the indicators. In principal it is relevant for any type of tourist

destination and its associated tourism and transport services .9

ECOLABEL10 is a voluntary certication for environmentally friendly

tourist accommodations. The logo on Tourist Accommodation

Service tells you:

1. Limits energy consumption (e.g. use of high eciency heatgenerating capacities)

2. Limits water consumption (e.g. reduction of water ow from

tap and shower/minute)

3. Reduces waste production (e.g. single dose packages for

food service shall be avoided)

4. Favours the use of renewable resources (e.g. at least 50% of

the electricity shall come from renewable energy sources) and

of substances which are less hazardous to the environment

5. Promotes environmental education and communication

(guests are provided with tips on how to behave in an

environmentally friendly manner)

In PM4ESD Sustainable Criteria are a pivotal aspect of the quality

criteria and the planning process; they will be fundamental in order

to build a sound Business Case and to deliver long-term benets.

7 EDEN European Destination of Excellence EU project. For more information:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/eden-destination/index_en.htm

8 www.necstour.eu

9 http://destinet.eu/tools/measurement_instruments/qualitest-manual-evaluating-

quality-performance-your-tourist-destination-and

10 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/ecolabelled_products/categories/

tourist_en.htm


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2.3 Governance

Sustainable tourism development requires the informed

participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong politicalleadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building.

Achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process and it

requires constant monitoring of impacts, introducing the necessary

preventive and/or corrective measures whenever necessary.

Sustainable tourism should also maintain a high level of tourist

satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience to the tourists,

raising their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting

sustainable tourism practices amongst them 11.

The Tourism industry is characterised by a diversity of private and

public stakeholders. Good governance is required for constructive

dialogue, information sharing, communication and shared decision

making about common issues and interests.

Eective project management for sustainable tourism therefore

requires fostering conditions for good collaborative governance

including:

Vision and leadership

Public-private partnership

Clear roles and responsibilities

Clear operational structures and processes for framing,

conducting debates, decision-making and positive

communication

Engaged and participative communities

Developing and sharing expertise and knowledge Transparent and accountable decision-making

Key concept: stakeholder management is vital for a successful

project in sustainable tourism.12 Each project should include the

informed participation of all relevant stakeholders.

11 Joining Forces, Collaborative Processes for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism,

page 18, UNWTO, 2010.

12 Please refer to chapter 6 for Stakeholder Management


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2.4The Project Life Cycle

in the Tourism Sector

In this section the life cycle of a project and the project genesiswhich apply within the tourism sector are designed. This section

will support the project manager in approaching sustainable

projects with methodology and vision.

As a rst concept we need to get familiar with the three steps of the

project life cycle structure.

Closure

Delivery Stages

Initiation

The starting point of each project is the Project Mandate13 whichauthorises the project initiation.

The Initiation allows an organised and controlled start, i.e. organise

and plan things properly before leaping in.

The Implementation step is represented by stages. It allows an

organised and controlled middle, i.e. when the project has started,

to make sure it continues to be organised and controlled. Each

middle stage includes three management activities: stage denition

and planning, stage control and product delivery.

The Closure Step allows an organised and controlled end, i.e.

when you have got what you want and the project has nished, by

tidying up the loose ends.

Finally, in order to realise long term benets for local communities

13 When a project starts, it means that a Project Mandate has been signed and

approved; it means that a sound business case has already been evaluated.

The Project Mandate in PM4ESD is a crucial document which contains all the

Terms of Reference.

Within the Vesevo case study, the Project Mandate was represented by the

following documents:

The project contract signed between the lead Organisation and the National

Park of Vesuvio

The feasibility study (with all annexes), submitted from the partnership and

positively evaluated from the National Park of Vesuvio

The budget approved from the National Park of Vesuvio

Annexes which include policy papers


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and sustainable destinations you need to plan for the Benets

Management actions which will be implemented after the closure

stage.

The project has a start and end, and what happens during the lifespan, is the moment of the truth. During this life time we need to be

able to achieve sustainable objectives. It is the delivery time, which

is the concrete opportunity to transform project plans into actions.

The main actors are: the Project Manager, the Team Managers and

the Project Board.

However in PM4ESD, we approach projects from a broader

perspective. We need to link the project to the ow of activities that

take place before the initiation stage, as shown in the following chart:

The Project's Life Cycle

Controlled Initiation

Controlled Closure

Project Mandate

Post ProjectBenefit Organisation

Delivery Stages

Stage Definition & Planning

Stage Control

Product Delivery


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What is vital to the approval of sustainable tourism projects is what

happens before the Project Mandate.

The process which allows a good Project Mandate and then a

good start, need to be explored.A good project manager needs to be aware of the knowledge, the

context and the needs on which the project relies.

Sustainable tourism projects are strictly connected to sustainable

policies and programmes. A project has the power to translate

theories and policies into concrete actions and sustainable

benets.

The policy is played at international, national and local levels. The

policy produces guidelines and programmes, the project delivers

actions.

Each project has its own policy background which needs to be

monitored during the whole lifecycle of the project.

In the table below we list the main sustainable tourism European

policies.

Title Type of document Institution

Europe, the worlds No

1 tourist destination a

new political framework

for tourism in Europe

(2010)

Communication European Commission

Agenda for a

sustainable and

competitive Europeantourism (2007)

Communication European Commission

A new political

framework for tourism in

Europe (2010)

Council ConclusionCouncil of the European

Union

Partnership for

Democracy and Shared

Prosperity with the

Southern Mediterranean

(2011)

Joint Communication

European Commission

and the High

Representative of the

Union for Foreign Aairs

and Security Policy

Guidelines on

Biodiversity and

Tourism Development,

Secretariat of the

Convention of Biological

Diversity (2004)

International guidelines

for activities related

to sustainable tourism

development in

vulnerable terrestrial,

marine and coastal

ecosystems and

habitats of major

importance for

biological diversity

and protected areas,

including mountain

ecosystems

United Nations


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Title Type of document Institution

Tourism and Biodiversity

Achieving Common

Goals TowardsSustainability, 2010

Recommendations

on tourism and bio-

diversity

World Tourism

Organisation (UNWTO)

Harnessing Tourism

for the Millennium

Development Goals,

2005

DeclarationWorld Tourism

Organisation (UNWTO)

Each project should be consistent with the main policies which

impact its own scope and activities.

For example, the Vesevo project was based on the following

strategies and guidelines:

1. Operational Programme Campania Region 2000-2006

2. Strategic Policy Paper for the development of the Programme

Vesevo

3. Specic technical guidelines for the project

4. Technical Plan of the Vesuvio National Park

5. The Unesco Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible

cultural heritage

We have designed the entire process in the chart Pre-Project Stages.


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Project Mandate

Pre Project Stages

Policy

Programme

Project Framework

Pre-ProjectFeasibility Study

Project

COMMITMENT

MANAGING ORGANISATION


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2.5The Management Context

Initiatives for sustainable development of tourism have a management context

characterised by the rather complex delivery landscape of tourism. The responsibility fordierent levels of management and for the delivery of dierent services and products in

this sector, sits with a diverse collection of actors/stakeholders in the eld.

2.5.1 LevelsofGovernance

The PM4ESD Methodology discerns three dierent levels of governance:

The Policy level

The Programme Management Level

The Project Management Level

These three levels need to be connected one to another in order to deliver sustainable

projects.

The Programme Management level need to be aligned with the strategies set up at Policy

Level. In return, the Policy level should respond to feedback and lessons learnt from the

programme and project management levels.

Each level involves various stakeholders, some of whom may be common to more than

one level.

The Project Management level needs to build projects based on policies and strategies.

Policy

Strategies

Guidelines

Regulations

Programme

Project

National Governments

International

Organisations

EU Institutions

Regional Governments

Lobby

THREE LEVELS OF GOVERNANCE

National Governments

International

Organisations

EU Institutions

Regional Governments

National

Regional

European

International

Operational

Programmes

Operational

Programmes

EU

Workprogrammes

Tourism

Programmes

Tourism Projects

Local Development

Projects

Rural DevelopmentProjects

Cultural Projects

Heritage Projects

Tourism Related

Projects

Project

Public Organisations

Private Organisations

No Profit

Partnerships


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3 / The PM4ESD Approach

3.1 Introduction

PM4ESD recognises the need to build solid and ecient practices

in Project Management in order to guarantee a continuousimprovement approach to the discipline aimed at assuring ever

more successful outcomes for projects and more specically

for their continuous sustainability. In order to achieve this, the

PM4ESD approach establishes some simple yet essential factors

any Project Manager (PM) should be aware of when embarking in

a project.

These factors cover the variable objectives of a project (which

must be kept under constant control to ensure a successful nal

delivery), lessons taken from previous experiences (which can

greatly help the PM and also reduce/improve the management

activity), any applicable Best Practices (these do not have to be

only about Project Management but any best practice applicable

to the project ahead) and a solid foundation for the Management of

the Project given by a clearly dened set of Principles which cover

all aspects of the project management activities. In the following

paragraphs we will look at these factors more in detail.


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3.2 Success of a Project:

Explanation of the 6+1 Variables

Tourism projects are dened by nature by a set of characteristicsand variables that the Project Management Team must consider

and control throughout the duration of the project itself in order

to ensure maximum chance of sustainable success. Tourism

projects should always be considered the means by which Change

(in its broader meaning) is introduced in a destination, in a local

community.

All projects are subject to many variable factors which the PM must

monitor throughout the project lifecycle to ensure a controlled

delivery of the projects products within a dened set of objectives.

These objectives are measured in terms of: Timescales, Cost,

Quality, Scope, Risk and Benets. PM4ESD includes an additional

variable: Sustainability. The PM needs to make sure that theproject is delivering a product which complies with sustainable

criteria and the sustainability of the projects solution in the future

stages of the product lifecycle and not only during the project.

These seven factors (6+1) of project performance to be controlled

can also be used as indicators of project progress and ultimately

as a good way to measure the rate of success of the project

management activities. It is therefore very important for the PM

to have a clearly dened set of objectives, in line with sustainable

tourism policies and criteria, from the start of the project, as these

will form the basis of the entire project preparation, planning,

control, and overall evaluation.


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Timescales

Costs

Quality Scope

Risks

Benefits

Sustainability

Project

PROJECT VARIABLES

Timescales

Tourism projects are characterised by a pre-project process,

which is pivotal to design a successful project. But since we are

approaching the project, we are in the lifecycle of the project with aspecic start date and a specic end, the moment of truth starts.

Projects are temporary in nature. They will have a dened and

controlled start, a planned development and a known and controlled

end (normally identied with a nal delivery of the project products

and a report). Timescale is one of the two standard monitoring

factors (cost being the second one) used to monitor overall

progress of a project comparing actual data against forecasts.

One of the major factors aecting the success of a project is often

an unclear denition of the project timescales. More often than not

this indicates that the temporary project organisation is involved

in the operational and maintenance (and therefore post-project)

activities related to the product. This in turn creates problems withthe correct apportionment of responsibilities and the calculation of

running costs versus development costs of the project itself.

Cost

Projects need to produce value for money and their products

are meant to provide added value to the users (tourists and local

communities). For this reason the projects need to be aordable.

Many projects are nanced from the start with a specic budget

set for the entire duration while some other projects might have a

rolling budget (for example: The management of an Archaeological

Site can be considered a maintenance project with rolling costs).

However, this does not necessarily mean that there will be no risk of


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overspending or opportunities for cutting expenditures. Thus Cost

is considered one of the major standard factors to be monitored

during the project.

QualityDepending on the nature and context of a project, Quality can take

dierent forms. However, in PM4ESD, Quality means making sure

the projects deliver products that are t for purpose and that meet

all the criteria required by the clients: tourists and the citizens.

Moreover, in PM4ESD Quality takes on a broader meaning, where

the Sustainability of a projects solution becomes a qualitative

criterion that the project must meet. In simple terms PM4ESD

projects are planned around the quality of the products to be

delivered, giving a greater understanding of what the project is

supposed to create and reducing the risk of over/under scoping

it, and making sure the Projects Solution meets any Sustainability

criteria set by the policy makers.

Scope

Scope is often a factor that greatly impacts Timescale and Costs.

Scope is the denition of what a project is meant to deliver versus

what it will not. For example, a customer buying a ticket for a tourist

attraction might assume that meals and transfers are included

in the costs while many tour operators might consider these as

extras. The PM must therefore have a clear denition of what is

required from the project in terms of products to be delivered as

a vague understanding of the scope very often translates in what

is known as scope-creep, where the delivery goes beyond the

requirements creating delays or overspending, or the requirements

are short of what is needed for the project to deliver the expectedresults and consequently benets.

Risks

Another characteristic of tourism projects is the fact that they

are inherently subject to a higher level of uncertainty than normal

operational activities, as covers activities for the creating and/

or modifying of products outside of the established operational

processes and procedures. The PM must therefore be prepared

to manage a higher number of risks when managing projects.

PM4ESD recognises two types of risks related to tourism projects:

external and management risks.

Benets

It is not uncommon to read in the press of projects that have notproduced the desired benet albeit having delivered all the required

products, within budget and within the allocated timescale and

quality criteria. For example a new Expo pavilion meant to attract

thousands of tourists is nished in time and within scope and

budget but the actual tourist turnover is below expectations. This

is sometimes due to the fact that there is no clear understanding

of what the project is meant to deliver in terms of improvements

derived from the change. The PM needs to have a clear

understanding of the reasons why the project is being created and

the projects purpose. This in turn needs to be evaluated against

the investment to be made, to make sure that what the project


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produces is capable of achieving the desired improvement, which

is calculated in terms of Benets. In PM4ESD benets are split in

the following categories: social, economical, cultural, technical,

and environmental.

Sustainability

In PM4ESD the sustainable variable is a fundamental success

factor.

A Sustainable project aims to reduce the negative impact of

tourism activity and to increase the range of positive impacts.

Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic

and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable

balance must be established between these three dimensions to

guarantee its long-term sustainability.

Sustainable projects should:

1. Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute

a key element in tourism development, maintaining essentialecological processes and helping to conserve natural

resources and biodiversity.

2. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities,

conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional

values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and

tolerance.

3. Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing

socio-economic benets to all stakeholders that are fairly

distributed, including stable employment and income-earning

opportunities and social services to host communities, and

contributing to poverty alleviation.

4. Maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction.

5. Raise their awareness about sustainability issues and

promoting sustainable tourism practices amongst them.

In this context, PM4ESD applies the use of sustainable criteria, as

a practical and scientic tool to planning and monitoring activities.

In the rest of the manual we will constantly refer back to these 6+1

variable objectives, although they will be referred to as Tolerances,

as it is by setting the maximum/minimum permissible deviation

from these objectives that the Project Management Team is able to

monitor and report on the progress of a project.


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3.3 Success Factors, Lessons Learned,

Best Practices and Principles for Projects

3.3.1 Success Factors

What helps a PM in delivering a successful project?

Is it enough to have a clear set of objectives such as Timescales,

Cost, Scope, Quality, Risk, Benets, Sustainability?

Are there other factors which inuence the projects success or

failure?

While having a clearly dened set of variable objectives is of value

to a PM, these alone might not be enough to ensure a project is

successful.

There are many other factors that impact on the development of

a project, and these may vary depending on the projects: nature,context, size, complexity, formality and environmental factors.

We can nd some common aspects which greatly inuence the

outcome of projects.

For example, projects need to have clear objectives but also we

must make sure that these objectives are attainable and realistic.

Other success factors include:

Ownership of a project - The PM and the Project Management

Team should have a clear understanding of the reasons for

the project; who for and what for; as this might be a factor

inuencing the tailoring of the project activities to better suit

the project environment. For example, is it a Government

owned project or a Local Council one? Dierent ownershipmight translate in dierent stakeholders taking part in the

decision making processes.

Support and participation of the major stakeholders/

interested parties to ensure a controlled development of the

project.

A clear and feasible planning of the various management

stages is essential to reduce the level of risk but also to avoid

scope-creep.

Communication amongst all interested parties and a clearly

dened hierarchy within the Project Management Team to

help control the project and prevent or manage adverse

events.

The right choice of people for the Team to ensure that the

required skill set to deliver the projects products is available.

Motivation of the parties involved in the project to foster

better collaboration and hence a greater awareness of each

others responsibilities.

In PM4ESD these success factors are accompanied by some sector

specic aspects which deal with the principle of Sustainability.

This includes the concept of a project delivering a product with

the potential for long-term benets, which continue to improve the

social and economic wellbeing of communities into the future and


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are not limited to the lifecycle of the project. The benecial impacts

of a project product, therefore, do not end with the achievement

of the projects objectives and benets but promote a sustainable

environment where the positive impact on the environment and

local culture endures in the long term, while the economy and

employment opportunities for local people are improved.

3.3.2 Lessons Learned

Projects are unique in nature. Although the context might be the

same for various projects, or the products and even the clients,

the uncertainty and variable objectives that dene the project

environment give each individual project this characteristic of

uniqueness. As a result, organisations can learn from previous

experiences and pass on to future projects the lessons gathered

during the projects lifecycle. Lessons such as the use of a

particular technique, nding out that a particular tool is obsolete,

having to change team members because of a lack of skills shouldbe recorded, analysed and reported to help future projects plan

more eciently. For example, if a particular supplier of catering

and hospitality services proves to be unreliable, it would be wise

to record this and evaluate it for future events in order that the

supplier is avoided and the search extended elsewhere.

Learning from Experience is a fundamental principle and Best

Practice aspect of PM4ESD.

3.3.3 Best Practices

A common denition of Best Practice is: A process, technique or

innovative use of resources that has a proven record of success

in providing signicant improvement in cost, schedule, quality,performance, safety, environment or other measurable factors that

impact the health of an Organisation.

It is through the continuous gathering of experience from previous

successes that an Organisation can ensure the continuous

improvement of its project management and therefore an increasing

chance of project success.

This can enhance Organisation-wide best practice related to

project management and lead eventually to the creation of Centres

of Excellence which become the focal point for the application of

standards and policies in the day-to-day running of projects.

An organisation which applies best practice in project management

strives to deliver ever-higher standards of performance in areassuch as cost, quality, timescale, benets and overall success.

The application of best practices within a continuous learning

environment is advocated by PM4ESD.

3.3.4 Principles

The PM4ESD approach to Project Management in the Sustainable

Tourism sector is modelled on the PRINCE2 project management

method. As such PM4ESD also bases its foundations on 10

principles that need to be veried and adhered to in any project.

i) Continuous Business Justication

A Project needs to be justied at its start and throughout its duration,


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and the justication needs to be documented. This justication is

given by the relationship between the Cost/Benet factors which

demonstrates the balance of the purpose of the project against the

investment needed for the development. This relationship will be

covered in more detail in the Business Case section.

ii) Learning from Experience

Projects are unique and challenging. Therefore, project teams

should seek to learn from the experiences of others and from

previous/current events. Evaluating, what has gone right/wrong

within a particular activity or part of our project allows us to

recreate/avoid that particular event in order to improve eciency in

current or future projects.

iii) Roles and Responsibilities

Project Management Team members should be aware of their

roles within the Organisation Structure of a project and understand

what is asked of them. Also, the hierarchical structure of the teamshould be well dened to improve the overall performance of the

work during the project. Moreover, stakeholders should be clearly

represented within the Project Management Team thus improving

and promoting a wider understanding and support.

iv) Managing by Stages

Projects are divided and planned into management stages. A

Stage in a PM4ESD project constitutes a partition of the project

characterised by management decision making.

A management stage is a collection of activities and products

which are delivered as part of a milestone for which a decision

point has been planned. These in turn are planned (for eciency

and to reduce the impact of risks) on a stage-by-stage basis.

While there might be a need for a global project plan covering the

entire span of the project, the PM will plan manageable pieces of

the project by splitting it into management stages aimed at the

delivery of one or more milestones.

v) Management by Exception

To improve uidity and eciency in the daily activities of a PM,

authority is delegated to him/her by the higher levels of the

Organisation. This gives limited decision making power to a PM

during the running of a management stage.

However this authority is limited by tolerance thresholds for

cost, timescales, quality, scope, risk, and benet. Should the PMforecast a deviation from any of these tolerance levels she/he will

have to seek prior approval from the higher level of authority before

any corrective action can take place.

vi) Focus on Products

Projects are driven by the deliverables they are meant to produce.

For this reason all the project management activities (including

planning) should be product focused rather than work based, since

it should be the required product that dictates the necessary activity

and not vice versa. Moreover, the denition and understanding of

a products specication (including its quality and/or acceptance

criteria) promote a much higher understanding of what is required


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and improve the chances of a successful project.

vii) Tailor to Suit the Project Environment

Every project is unique in terms of nature, context, complexity,

formality, length etc. For this reason each project might be subjectto a dierent level of application of management standards.

Although the PM4ESD approach is an adaptation of the PRINCE2

project management method specically for the Sustainable

Tourism sector, the PM is encouraged to evaluate each individual

project during the initial stages to ascertain the level of application

of the PM4ESD approach needed.

viii) Collaborative approach

Collaboration is particularly relevant to the aim of achieving

competitive and sustainable tourism for two reasons:

Tourism as an industry sector is very fragmented. The visitor

experience that constitutes the product is made up of many

dierent elements which are supplied by a whole variety ofenterprises and bodies from the private and public sector.

The issues associated with sustainable tourism are complex

and a wide range of stakeholders are aected by its impact.

This requires a holistic approach which delivers a range of

outcomes.

In this context sustainable tourism requires a strong process of

collaboration at policy, programme and project level, to allow

collective decisions taking and jointly agreed or collective actions.

The World Tourism Organisation has identied twelve dierent but

related motives and reasons for multi-stakeholder collaboration

and their associated benets:

to reect multiple aims and agree common targets

to ensure inclusiveness and equity

to sharpen focus and coordinate action

to raise awareness and engage those with power over

outcomes

to link components in the tourism value chain

to strengthen long term support and commitment

to pool knowledge and skills

to strengthen resources and funding

to widen contacts and strengthen communication

to add value and creativity

to share costs and risks economies of scale

to cross boundaries

All reasons are relevant for projects in PM4ESD.

ix) Sustainability

Tourism projects in PM4ESD environment need to be sustainable,

assuring the application of sustainable tourism criteria and long

term benets. In PM4ESD sustainability is at the same time a key

success factor and a principle.


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x) Policy

Projects are supportive of overarching sustainable policy

objectives; they need to be consistent with the policy framework,

at local, national and international level. The PM needs to analyse

the policy context during the whole lifecycle of the project.


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3.4The PM4ESD Structure

The PM4ESD Model is composed of a series of dierent elements

covering clearly dened aspects of the project managementdiscipline. Specically PM4ESD is divided into Processes and

component knowledge areas that support the PM in carrying

out the activities described by the processes. However, PM4ESD

also includes extra post-project activities related to the Benet

Realisation and evaluation cycle for projects in the Sustainable

Tourism sector, as well as specic development requirements

dictated by the nature of sustainable projects (see Chapter 2).

PM4ESDComponentsBusiness Case

Risk Issue & Change Management

Organisation

Quality

Planning

Progress Control

P

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