Central Asian Silk Road Sub-Regional Meeting:“Reinforcement of sub-regional management coordination and knowledge”
The head of the UNWTO Silk Road Programme Ms Alla Peressolova participated in the Central Asian Silk Road Sub-Regional Meeting: “Reinforcement of sub-regional management coordination and knowledge: Sustainable Tourism and development initiatives” and gave a presentation on new opportunities for sustainable tourism development along the Silk Road in Central Asia.
The sub-regional Meeting was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 24 May 2017, organized in the framework of the UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office programmes with the financial contribution from the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust Project: ‘Support for Silk Roads World Heritage Sites in Central Asia (Phase II) and UN Development Programme in Kazakhstan.
Within the framework of the meeting agenda, the presentations revealed the issues of preservation of historical sites along the Great Silk Roads and the ways of attracting tourists' attention.
During the Central Asian sub-regional meeting, participants discussed recommendations and practical measures to present issues of the entire Silk Roads and Ms Alla Peressolova stressed the importance of joint efforts to promote the Silk Road tourism, create new tourism products and preserve the heritage.
Approaching the Silk Road as one entity would allow, on one hand, to develop tourism-related business, infrastructure and local entrepreneurship, and on the other hand, to ensure the preservation of cultural and natural heritage along Silk Roads.
During the discussions, participants stressed the importance of identification of the key convenient destinations for visit along Silk Road routes and development of marketing and advertising strategy for Silk Road corridors, as well as integration of more effective statistics system in the field of sustainable tourism. Special attention was payed to the involvement of the local communities in a more active manner for implementing projects and solving problems.
Participants from Central Asian Republics have developed and adopted a final document entitled the "Almaty Manifesto", which is considered to be one of the main results of the meeting.
More information here.
