Background

Purpose

To support and to provide advisory services and guidance in the tourism sector to the Development Agency of Serbia (DAS) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Unit in the process of attracting and facilitating new investments.

Objective

To support the DAS and FDI Unit in facilitation of current and identification of new investment projects in Serbia related to sector of hospitality/tourism, while leveraging know-how, investor network and proven strategies for attracting domestic and foreign investments.

Background

Improving investment climate plays a central role in growth and poverty reduction. To improve the institutional infrastructure for supporting the development of business environment in Serbia, the Development Agency of Serbia (DAS) was established in 2015. In the previous period through “Improving the Investment Climate in Serbia” project, DAs was capacitated in terms of some structures, capacity building and procedures to effectively attract new investments and manage the existing projects. The structures developed through previous project was well placed and had good coordination role, helping both the DAS and investors to make promising progress in attracting more direct investments. However, there is a need for further strengthening the DAS capacities and coordination role of the FDI Unit.

The Development Services Agreement between Government of Serbia and UNDP is envisaged to provide a framework for services requested by the Government, for ongoing initiatives of the Government, for which it bears full accountability. Most development services envisaged under the Agreement relate to support to policy making through research, advocacy or policy alternatives, aimed at fulfilling priorities as articulated in the Government plans, presented before Parliament, and in line with progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The overall objective of the continuation of FDI Unit is to support effective coordination of all institutions in the Republic of Serbia, relevant for improvement of the investment climate, which in turn directly affects the country’s sustainable growth and development. This particularly will be needed in the next post-pandemic period and as an answer to economic impact of Covid-19. In that sense, UNDP will engage assistance for supporting policy work enabling investment projects, facilitating, and attracting individual FDIs and for continuation of the capacity building of the Development Agency of Serbia.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

Government of the Republic of Serbia recognized the great potential of the Spa tourism within Serbia both from the aspect of the utilization of the vast availability of the natural resources as well as from the aspect of attracting domestic and foreign tourists to Serbia. In that regards, in order to support direct investments in this sector, the Government of Serbia introduced new Regulation on determining the criteria for granting incentives to attract direct investments in the hotel accommodation services sector. Although Regulation proved to be very successful, during the process of project implementation are identified several areas that represent impediments that need to be improved and more systematically addressed in order to ensure further growth of this sector and additional benefits to the economy.  

One of the identified bottlenecks for investments in tourism represent the lack of regional and local planning documents and systematic definition of the tourism development priorities by the municipalities which need to attract investments. This creates obstacles for both the investors and the government. From an investor’s standpoint, it brings insecurities for their investments while the Government is not able to foresee a long term and systematic planning of investments in necessary infrastructure, which consequently needs to address the current and future needs of certain areas as well to ensure sustainable use of valuable natural resources.

Therefore, the Consultant shall provide support in the activities related to:

• Integrated planning of tourism development and related activities, i.e. development of reports related to Strategic Master Plan in line with relevant legal and strategic framework (Law on tourism, Tourism Development Strategy, Spatial Plan, Law on investments etc)
• Liaison with international spa operators to enhance the presence of renowned spa brands in the Republic of Serbia.

The Consultant shall be responsible for the following:

1. Report on description and requirements for a priority tourist destination

The report shall contain:

• Location description of the selected priority touristic destination (locations shall be selected in consultation with DAS and FDI Project team and in line with the relevant Strategic Marketing Plan for Tourism)
• Spatial-Planning Development Framework
• Technical Assessment of the Area (such as the environmental analysis and demographic statistics)
• Land basis and assessment of the capacity of the area (such as building density maximum capacity of new tourism projects for the area)
• Market evaluation of the resource-attraction basis
• Conclusions

In the process Consultant shall perform the following activities (collection of data using relevant secondary sources, terrain surveys - visits to key attractions, resources, as well as analysis of the existing strategic, planning and other relevant documents and interviews with key stakeholders. The Report will have the Annex with list of all consulted stakeholders, terrain surveys, and analysed documentation.)

2. Report on market analysis

The report shall contain the analysis of:

• Global European tourism trends; General trends in global health and wellness tourism; European wellness and spa industry; Wellness real estate overview (global market of wellness real estate, wellness lifestyle real estate and wellness community, Benefits of wellness lifestyle real-estate etc.),
• Overview of the elderly housing capacity market (Population growth in Europe and demographic change, Characteristics of senior living housing capacities - SLH);
• Tourism in Serbia (supply and demand); Analysis of tourism trends in spas in Serbia;
• Tourism trends of a selected tourist destination; Benchmark projects;

3. Report on the Business-Management Model of a selected tourist destination

. The report shall contain:

• Understanding of the Management concept (such as the management agreement and terms and conditions);
• Management practices supporting the Development of the selected tourist destination;
• Business Mission and activities of the Master Developer;
• Destination Manager Activities;
• In the process, if necessary, the Consultant shall perform the following: initial collection of data using relevant secondary sources, terrain survey - visits to key attractions, and resources, analysis of the existing strategic and other documents, and conduct interviews with key stakeholders. The Report shall contain the Annex with a list of all consulted stakeholders, terrain surveys, and analysed documentation.

4. Report with Tourism Marketing Plan for the selected priority destination

The document shall contain:

• Development of Promotional Activities for the selected priority destination;
• Development of Marketing Infrastructure (platforms and channels that are to be utilized);
• Proactive plan for destination marketing and sales (B2B, B2C, events planning, sales and marketing trips).

5. Report on liaison activities with international spa operators to enhance the presence of renowned spa brands in the Republic of Serbia

The consultant shall draft the list of the activities performed related to liaison with international spa operators to enhance the presence of renowned spa brands in the Republic of Serbia. For this purpose, the Consultant shall conduct the following activities:

• Draft a comprehensive list of relevant international spa operators based on their brand recognition, market share and value, financial and investment capacities, potential for commercial and management partnerships, etc.
• Draft agendas and key messages of joint promotional events between international operators and SDA including the proposed list of promotional and marketing materials of key priority destinations to be presented;
• Develop a proposal of site visits for international spa brands and investors, both foreign and domestic

6. Report on the analysis of the Regulation on determining the criteria for granting incentives to attract direct investments in the hotel accommodation services sector with recommendations for improvement

Special focus in the analysis shall be placed on the following:

• Analysis/Assessment of the criteria of the Regulation (analysis shall include existing projects supported through the Regulation, applications that did not fulfill criteria, and parameters of recent similar projects that did not apply for the incentives) in order to align the criteria for granting incentives with industry trends and identified priority Products and Areas;
• Priority Products and Areas supported through existing regulation as well as areas that could be further utilized through their addition in the supporting scheme;
• Other identified relevant aspects of the Regulation.
• Based on the performed analysis the consultant shall further prepare a report with recommendations for improvement (such as the recommended criteria for granting incentives: Multi unit / multi location interest; eco-friendly projects; 95% of local employment).

The consultant will closely cooperate with UNDP Consultant for Strategic Tourism Investments in synchronizing efforts and reports pertaining to selected tourism destination planning.

Duties, responsibilities and key milestones

The consultant is responsible for the following deliverables:

* The timelines may be slightly adjusted once the contract is signed with the consultant in order to align with actual project implementation.

All reports shall in Serbian language and electronically submitted.

All deliverables shall be quality reviewed and accepted by the UNDP Portfolio Manager, in consultations with the Technical Advisor for Investment Climate.

Competencies

• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills (English and Serbian);
• Ability to work in teams and share ideas and knowledge;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Demonstrates integrity by modelling ethical standards;
• Full computer literacy in the use of MS Office package, especially Word;
• Excellent written communication skills and analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant collected data and findings for the preparation of quality analysis.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science in Economics, Business Administration, Hospitality Management or other related field

Work Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in the hotel business with 5 years in management capacities;
• At least 5 years of experience in conducting analysis and formulating business strategies ;
• Demonstrates advanced knowledge of hotel procedures with special focus on spa hotels.

Languages and other competences:

• Fluency in Serbian and English.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS.

Application Procedure:

 Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their applications via UNDP Web site: UNDP in Serbia under section “Jobs” no later than 28 October 2021.

 Application should include: 

• CV in English language containing date of birth, contact information (home address, phone number, e-mail) and timeline of work experience (including description of duties).  
• Offeror’s Letter (only PDF format will be accepted) confirming Interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment. Can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.undp.org.rs/download/ic/Confirmation.docx. The Offeror’s Letter shall include financial proposal specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement with a breakdown of costs.

In order to apply please merge above listed documents into a single PDF file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.

The shortlisted candidates may be asked to provide copies of diplomas and any other certificates providing evidence of their education and experience in relevant fields.

 Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the e-mail vacancy.rs@undp.org. The procuring UNDP entity will respond by standard electronic mail and will send response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

Financial Proposal

Travel 

This is home-based engagement therefore no travel envisaged under this Terms of Reference.

Evaluation

Additional Information:

• Individual Contract (IC) will be applicable for individual consultants applying in their own capacity.  If the applicant is employed by any legal entity, IC would be issued upon submission of Consent letter from the employer acknowledging the engagement with UNDP. Template of General Conditions on IC could be found on: https://rs.undp.org/content/dam/serbia/downloads/General%20Conditions%20for%20Individual%20Contracts.pdf
• Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) will be applicable for applicants employed by any legal entity. Template of RLA with General Terms and Conditions could be found on: http://www.undp.org.rs/download/RLA%20with%20General%20Terms%20and%20Conditions.doc. In the case of engagement of Civil servants under IC contract modality a no-objection letter should be provided by the Government entity. The ‘no-objection’ letter must also state that the employer formally certifies that their employees are allowed to receive short-term consultancy assignment from another entity without being on “leave-without-pay” status (if applicable), and include any conditions and restrictions on granting such permission, if any. If the previous is not applicable ‘leave-without-pay’ confirmation should be submitted.

Engagement of Government Officials and Employees

• Government Officials or Employees are civil servants of UN Member States.  As such, if they will be engaged by UNDP under an IC which they will be signing in their individual capacity (i.e., engagement is not done through RLA signed by their Government employer), the following conditions must be met prior to the award of contract:

(i)       A “No-objection” letter in respect of the individual is received from the Government employing him/her, and;

(ii)     The individual must provide an official documentation from his/her employer formally certifying his or her status as being on “official leave without pay” for the duration of the IC.

• The above requirements are also applicable to Government-owned and controlled enterprises and well as other semi/partially or fully owned Government entities, whether or not the Government ownership is of majority or minority status.  

UNDP recognizes the possibility that there are situations when the Government entity employing the individual that UNDP wishes to engage is one that allows its employees to receive external short-term consultancy assignments (including but not limited to research institutions, state-owned colleges/universities, etc.), whereby a status of “on-leave-without-pay” is not required.  Under such circumstance, the individual entering into an IC with UNDP must still provide a “No-objection” letter from the Government employing him/her.  The “no objection” letter required under (i) above must also state that the employer formally certifies that their employees are allowed to receive short-term consultancy assignment from another entity without being on “leave-without-pay” status, and include any conditions and restrictions on granting such permission, if any.  The said document may be obtained by, and put on record of, UNDP, in lieu of the document (ii) listed above.