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India is one of the world's great reservoirs of history, cultures, philosophies, and religions. The Buddhist circuit is a route that follows in the footsteps of the Buddha from Lumbini in Nepal where he was born, through Bihar in India where he attained enlightenment, to Sarnath and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh in India, where he gave his first teachings and died. The Buddhist circuit is an important pilgrimage destination for the 450 million practicing Buddhists as well as travelers interested in history, culture, or religion. Investing in the Buddhist Circuit is the result of first-time collaboration between the Government of India's Ministry of Tourism, the State Governments of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the private sector, Buddhist monasteries and sects, and the World Bank Group. The work was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. Extensive on-the-ground data collection, consultations, and analysis were conducted. The outcome is a framework for public and private sector investment that secures and enhances the experience of the sites while unleashing the full job creation potential of tourist spending at the towns and sites, and along the Buddhist circuit. The strategy outlined in this document seeks to grow the economic impact of tourism along the Buddhist circuit by attracting higher-spending tourists and linking them to local goods and service providers. This strategy recognizes that both public and private sector investment is required to drive demand and improve quality of experience while respecting, preserving, and enhancing the religious value and significance of the sites. For more publications on IFC Sustainability please visit www.ifc.org/sustainabilitypublications.

Accommodation & tourism Industry --- Artisans --- Cultural Heritage & Preservation --- Industry --- Literature & Folklore

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Economists have either avoided or struggled with the concept of culture and its role in economic development. Although a few theoretical works-and even fewer empirical studies-have appeared in the past decades, this paper tries to build on a multidisciplinary approach to review the evidence on whether and how culture matters for development. First, the paper reviews available definitions of culture and illustrates ways in which culture can change and create favorable conditions for economic development. Second, the paper discusses the challenges of separating the effect of culture from other drivers of human behavior such as incentives, the availability of information, or climate. Finally, the paper argues that globalization has led to the emergence of a set of progressive values that are common cultural traits of all developed economies.

Anthropology --- Cultural Heritage & Preservation --- Cultural Policy --- Culture --- Culture and Development --- Development --- Economic Growth --- Economic Theory & Research --- Environment --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Policies

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Tourism is one of Latin America's fastest growing industries but the impact of tourism on the poor and the effects on lagging regions are under debate. Many studies have evaluated the growth impacts of the tourism sector but few have analyzed the impact of tourism on the economy and poverty at the subnational level in developing countries. As a country marked by a "dual economy," Panama shares with other Latin American countries a fast growing, modern urban sector side by side with impoverished rural and peri-urban populations. Tourism has been growing in Panama and contributes at least 6 percent of gross domestic product. This paper presents the results of a top-down assessment of the impact of tourism spending on growth and poverty at the regional (province) level in Panama using a Social Accounting Matrix model. As revealed by this study, the tourism sector has large multiplier effects on the Panamanian economy and has the potential for significant benefits to the poor. But tourism's poverty benefits are neither automatic nor ubiquitous. They depend on where and how supply chains are structured and on the way tourists spend their money.

Accommodation & Tourism Industry --- Cultural Heritage & Preservation --- Cultural Policy --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Multiplier effects of tourism --- Poverty and tourism --- Regional impacts of tourism --- Tourism and Ecotourism --- Transport Economics Policy & Planning

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The consensus among scholars and policymakers that "institutions matter" for development has led inexorably to a conclusion that "history matters," since institutions clearly form and evolve over time. Unfortunately, however, the next logical step has not yet been taken, which is to recognize that historians (and not only economic historians) might also have useful and distinctive insights to offer. This paper endeavors to open and sustain a constructive dialogue between history - understood as both "the past" and "the discipline" - and development policy by (a) clarifying what the craft of historical scholarship entails, especially as it pertains to understanding causal mechanisms, contexts, and complex processes of institutional change; (b) providing examples of historical research that support, qualify, or challenge the most influential research (by economists and economic historians) in contemporary development policy; and (c) offering some general principles and specific implications that historians, on the basis of the distinctive content and method of their research, bring to development policy debates.

Beliefs --- Bridge --- Craft --- Cultural Heritage & Preservation --- Cultural Policy --- Cultural studies --- Culture and Development --- Cultures --- Development Economics & Aid Effectiveness --- Diversity --- Economic growth --- Economic Theory & Research --- Geography --- Health --- Historians --- Historical research --- Historiography --- Literature --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Memory --- Myths --- Nutrition and Population --- Population Policies --- Reading --- Rituals --- Social sciences --- Tradition --- Traditions --- World history

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This is a background paper to the Pacific Possible report. For many Pacific Island countries, tourism is the main economic opportunity to generate incomes and jobs. This report suggests that increasing tourism demand in four areas could drive growth of tourism arrivals in the Pacific: Increasing demand from Chinese tourists, retired persons, high income individuals, and cruise ship operators. It sets out key actions to capitalize on these potential sources of increased demand and ensure the development of the tourism sector in an environmentally, socially, and culturally sustainable manner.

Airports --- Alternative Energy --- Analysis of Economic Growth --- Charters --- Climate Change --- Cultural Heritage --- Cultural Heritage & Preservation --- Cultural Policy --- Economic Management --- Economies of Scale --- Environment --- Grants --- Income Tax --- Infrastructure --- Labor Markets --- Natural Resources --- Roads --- Small Islands --- Social Protections and Labor --- Taxes --- Tourism and Ecotourism --- Transport --- Vehicles