Wouter Schalken is a Senior Tourism Development Specialist. Wouter has around 28 years of experience in diverse and multi-faceted interventions in tourism market development and operations. Before joining ADB, Wouter worked for a wide variety of multi- and bilateral development agencies across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. He has designed and managed tourism support interventions across Asia, Africa, and the Middle-east that improve competitiveness by enhancing industry standards and targeting investments with linkages and synergy between public domain facilities and private enterprises as well as strengthening the enabling environment through policy and strategy formulation. Wouter is widely recognized for his demonstrated expertise in private sector tourism development in fragile and infant tourism markets and for supporting tourism planning and management system at national and local levels. His technical expertise covers facilitating private sector investments, investment in public domain tourism infrastructure, concessions, joint venture creation, promotion, and human resource development in tourism. His skills-set is completed by extensive experience in disseminating tourism insights through training, presentations, and publications.