The first UNWTO Silk Road Ministers’ Summit, held at ITB 2011, has concluded with commitment to enhanced cooperation to achieve the objectives of the Silk Road Action Plan, a collaborative framework for advancing tourism development across 25 countries (Berlin, Germany, 9-13 March 2011).

 

“This is an exciting period in the development of Silk Road tourism,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, welcoming Tourism Ministers and Ambassadors from over 25 Silk Road countries. “The Silk Road is a powerful brand for leveraging continued tourism growth in Asia and the Middle East, while utilizing online technologies and social media. Nevertheless, there are still many barriers to be overcome as we work towards our objectives, including improved travel facilitation for tourists.”

At the Summit (9 March), UNWTO highlighted the importance of promoting a consistent and cohesive Silk Road brand identity across destinations. The results of preliminary online market research were revealed showing the Silk Road as the world’s most searched and sought after international travel route. UNWTO also introduced a web initiative which it has been developing with TripAdvisor, designed to promote all of the Silk Road destinations on one unique, informative and interactive online platform.

Ministers, Vice Ministers and Ambassadors from over 25 countries participated in the Summit, sharing their views and experiences on how they could benefit from cooperating with other destinations to drive development through the Silk Road brand. Tour operators urged the destinations to consider the importance of increasing accessibility, tourism infrastructure and the development of a reliable product.

UNWTO outlined the Silk Road Action Plan activities implemented so far and presented key objectives for the coming years. Priorities include comprehensive brand research and the establishment of a Silk Road brand toolkit. Travel facilitation is also high on the agenda.

Following the Summit, Mr. Rifai joined President and CEO of Messe Berlin GmbH, Mr. Raimund Hosch, on a VIP Walk on the Silk Road, meeting the Ministers on their stands and visiting the new Silk Road pavilions.

Other Silk Road events at ITB included the Silk Road Tour Operators’ Networking Event where outbound and incoming tour operators met to explore new business opportunities along the Silk Road and the Silk Road Hour, a collection of short films featuring the destinations of the Silk Road, screened daily at the ITB Cinema.

Relevant links:

UNWTO Silk Road Programme

UNWTO Silk Road Action Plan

 

Women make up an important percentage of the tourism workforce, but more work must be done to close the wealth and skills gap between men and women employed in tourism, according to a new World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)/UN Women report launched at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin (11 March 2011).

According to the ‘Global Report on Women in Tourism’ - the first survey to map women’s participation in the tourism sector worldwide - tourism, one of the world’s largest generators of wealth and employment, provides a wide range of income-generation opportunities for women, particularly in developing regions. Women are almost twice as likely to be employers in tourism as compared to others sectors. Tourism also offers leadership possibilities, with women accounting for one in five tourism ministers worldwide; more than in any other branch of government. Nevertheless, women are often “concentrated in low-skill, low-paid and precarious jobs”, typically earn “10% to 15% less than their male counterparts” and tend to perform jobs such as cooking, cleaning and hospitality, states the report.

Gladys Acosta, UN Women Director for Latin America, pointed out that women’s contribution to the tourism sector is often invisible. “In the Caribbean for example, 84% of contributing family work – unpaid – to tourism activities is provided by women. This is one of the key areas to address in promoting gender equality in tourism,” she said.

“This report highlights the crucial role tourism plays in empowering women politically, socially and economically,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. ”But it makes it very clear that more must be done to close the gender gap, in particular ensuing equal pay for men and women for equal work, raising employment quality and ending all discrimination”.

The report shows relevant data in five main areas: employment, entrepreneurship, leadership, education and community, comparable by regions. It provides policymakers and operators recommendations on how to promote more gender sensitive policies and integrate gender equality into corporate decisions, including strengthening the legal protection of women in tourism employment, providing higher-levels of training and greater opportunities for women to develop their businesses. “Greater gender equality will contribute to the overall quality of the tourist experience, with a considerable impact on profitability and quality across all aspects of the industry,” says the report.
 

Relevant links:

Preliminary Findings

Note to Editors:

Since 2008, UNWTO and UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) have been working together to bring gender issues to the forefront of tourism, promoting gender equality, women’s empowerment and the mainstreaming of gender issues in national tourism policies and corporate decisions
 

The next ten years look set to be “the decade of travel and tourism”, says UNWTO Secretary-General opening the ITB Travel Trade Show (Berlin, Germany, 9-13 March).

 

Meeting at ITB against a “background of a recovering economy and significant geopolitical shifts”, the world is faced with the diverse and complex challenges of unbalanced economic growth, high unemployment, rising oil prices and the environmental imperative. As world leaders face up to these challenges, tourism can lead “a new decade of fairer, stronger and more sustainable growth” said Mr. Rifai, “and be one of the most effective agents of development”.

“As traditional economic sectors lose dynamism, it is clear that a second wave of service sectors, including tourism, are emerging. These are the industries that have exhibited particularly strong growth over the past few years. And these will be some of the most dynamic and economically significant industries and development agents of this decade,” he added.

Relevant links:

Read the full speech

UNWTO activities at ITB 2011

 

Tourism’s sustained growth and its capacity to tackle global challenges – from economic crises and persistent unemployment to environmental pressures and the poverty imperative – can only be achieved through collective action. This was the central message coming out of the Global Tourism Forum Andorra 2011 (GTF) (Andorra la Vella, Andorra, 6-7 March).

The GTF has concluded in Andorra with calls for the international tourism community to move the tourism agenda forward sustainably and in full coordination and collaboration.

“During this Forum I trust you will determine how to set tourism development on a path that will always be both competitive and responsible, taking into consideration new challenges,” said the Prime Minister of Andorra, Jaume Bartumeu, as he officially opened the GTF.

The GTF is envisaged as a “truly global and open platform for debate and exchange” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, addressing over 200 representatives from the public and private sector, United Nations agencies, regional and international organizations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), academia and civil society; brought together to chart new pathways for tourism growth.

“The tourism sector is a huge employer, creator of economic security and contributor to society,” said Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, addressing the Forum. “It is essential to development and can champion the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals”.

The Forum centered on the challenges and opportunities of competitiveness and responsibility for the tourism sector. Ministers of Tourism, industry leaders and heads of travel organizations outlined the necessary steps for a more competitive tourism sector, such as strengthening private-public partnerships and addressing taxation on travel through concerted action. The Secretary of Tourism of Mexico, Gloria Guevara, pointed to a common agenda between the private and public sector as a central condition for competitive growth. Issues of local community involvement in tourism development, best practices and the three pillars of sustainability – economic, environmental and social – were central to discussions on responsibility.

Side events throughout the day addressed further tourism issues, including the increasing relevance of mega events for tourism, organized by Visa, at which the Minister of Tourism of South Africa, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, shared his experience of the economic and social legacy resulting from the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The WEF launched its Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011 and the contribution of traditional and new media to communicating tourism’s importance was debated during an event organized by UNWTO global media partner CNN.

The GTF was preceded by a High Level Retreat, at which tourism leaders from across the sector met to share insights and expertise on how to further mainstream tourism in the global agenda and its role in sustainable development.

Relevant links:

Conclusions and presentations will soon be available on the GTF website

The Forum as it happened on UNWTO’s twitter account

Photos of the Forum

 

UNWTO and Croatia have agreed to further advance sustainable tourism and maximize its contribution to economic growth, job creation and development in the country. Planned joint activities include the holding of the ‘First International Conference on Tourism and the Media’ in Zagreb next September.

Visiting UNWTO Headquarters on 15 February, the Croatian Minister of Tourism, Damir Bajs, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, in which both parties commit to deepen their existing collaboration. The MoU will translate into further cooperation on key issues such as governance, sustainability, competitiveness, innovation and promotion.

One of the first outcomes of this new cooperation framework will be the holding of the ‘First International Conference on Tourism and the Media’ to take place in Zagreb, Croatia. The Conference, jointly organized by UNWTO and Croatia, will focus on how to improve the editorial positioning of tourism in the media, stressing the sector’s relation with economic growth, country image and international positioning.

“This is a new quality in the already existing partnership relation between Croatia and UNWTO,” said Mr .Bajs. “I am especially glad that Croatia will be hosting the first ever international conference on tourism and the media. This conference will deal with the influence of the media and tourism on various segments of the economy and the overall image of a tourism oriented country”.

“This meeting has been extremely constructive and we very happy that as a result, Croatia will be holding this important conference,” said Mr. Rifai.

In the last decade Croatia has consolidated its position as a principal tourism destination in South-Eastern Europe. In 2009, thanks to a strong tourism strategy which included the enhancement of visa facilitation, support to the increase of airlift capacity and several agreements with tour operators, Croatia received over 9 million international tourist arrivals and US$ 9 billion in tourism receipts. Results for 2010 show continued growth with an impressive rate of 5% in international arrivals.

“Croatia is a true tourism success story and we look forward to continuing in this spirit of collaboration,” added Mr. Rifai.

 

Nominations are officially open for the 2011 UNWTO Ulysses Awards. The Awards seek to recognize highly innovative tourism projects which have contributed to tourism policy, governance, and other areas, such as the environment, socio-economic development and new technologies.

The UNWTO Ulysses Awards reward initiatives and projects undertaken by public tourism institutions, tourism enterprises and non-profit institutions that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of tourism through innovation, in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The UNWTO Ulysses Awards are aligned with the objectives of the UNWTO Knowledge Network, a worldwide community of innovation supporting knowledge management initiatives in tourism.

UNWTO confers three awards for each of the following categories:

• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Governance
• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Enterprises
• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations

The winners will be selected by an international jury of tourism experts and will be awarded during the UNWTO Ulysses Awards Ceremony, to be celebrated in Madrid, Spain, on 31 May 2011.

Nominations will be accepted until 31 March 2011

Previous winners include:

The Ministry of Sports and Tourism of Thailand, the General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (Saudi Arabia), the Costa Rica Institute for Tourism, the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council (USA), Tourism Kwazulu Natal (South Africa), the Ministry of Tourism of Brazil, SEGITTUR (Spain), Tourism Portugal, the Slovenian Tourism Board and Valencia Tourism (Spain) in the category of public tourism institutions.

Riu Hotels and Resorts (Cape Verde), Intelligent Leisure Solutions and Discover Travel Group (Brazil), JSC Gero Serviso Garantija (Lithuania), ACCOR, Modul University Vienna (Austria) and the Catalan Association of Travel Agencies (Spain) in the category of enterprises.

BIRD - Biodiversity Research and Development Center (Nepal), the Business Foundation European Community Chile (Chile), the Dinastía Vivanco Foundation (Spain), the European Network of Tourism Villages, Québec Tourism Industry Corporation (Canada), the Foundation of the Spanish Railroads (Spain) and The Travel Foundation (UK) in the category of non-governmental organizations.

Please address your application to:

Eduardo Fayos-Solà
Executive-Secretary
UNWTO Knowledge Network
innova@unwto.org

Relevant links:

UNWTO Ulysses Prize and Awards