The International Year of Sustainable Tourism joins the EcoRun
PR No.: PR 17068
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has signed an agreement at its Madrid headquarters to support the Carrera por el Medio Ambiente (Race for the Environment), also known as the “EcoRun”. The event, holding its seventh edition in 2017, will take place on 4 June at Madrid’s Casa de Campo.
The EcoRun is one of the most emblematic events held in Spain on the occasion of World Environment Day. The seventh edition of this event, which takes place in Madrid’s Casa de Campo park every year, coincides with the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, a global campaign led by the World Tourism Organization. With the slogan “Travel. Enjoy. Respect.”, the International Year aims, among other things, to make both tourists and the rest of the population aware of the importance of caring for the local environment and culture when visiting a destination.
“Tourism and sport have been linked for centuries and sustainability is also the engine of both sectors, so the EcoRun is the best way to showcase the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development and to raise awareness among people of the importance of their actions when they travel,” said Márcio Favilla, the UNWTO’s Executive Director for Operational Programs and Institutional Relations.
World Environment Day was declared by the United Nations General Assembly through a resolution adopted on 15 December 1972. Since 1973, it has been celebrated every 5 June, the same date as the opening of the 1972 Stockholm Conference, whose central theme was the environment.
In parallel with its sports activities, the EcoRun also features activities for charitable causes, such as the collection and recycling of plastic bottle caps to help underprivileged children who need treatments or orthopaedic devices, in collaboration with the SEUR Foundation, or the collection of used mobile phones for the Movilsolidario.es initiative.
The profits from the run will go to projects of Mundo Unido Cooperación for technical training on solar energy for women in rural areas of Guatemala.
Additional information:
Official registration for the EcoRun
Participants will be provided with a timing chip, a commemorative technical shirt, a runner’s bag, as well as free massage and podiatry services, coat check, raffles and children’s entertainment.
International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017
Contacts:
UNWTO Media Officer Rut Gomez Sobrino
Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60 / rgomez@unwto.org
UNWTO Communications & Publications Programme
Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@UNWTO.org
Carrera por el Medio Ambiente – EcoRun, Silvia Hernández
Telephones: 902 05 09 58; 91 598 68 94 Mobile: 650 06 80 51
E-mail: directora@carreradelmedioambiente.com
