Past Sustainable Tourism Events
Summer 2006 Speaker Series: The Role of Communication in Sustainable Tourism Development
Tourism is one of the world’s largest economic sectors, and it is expanding rapidly. Tourism development, planned and managed well, can be a powerful means to support economic growth and poverty reduction, natural and cultural resources conservation, and other important goals. Development communication can be a key tool to support effective and sustainable tourism activities. It is aimed primarily at strengthening relationships and facilitating stakeholder participation in the design and implementation of development policies, programs, and projects to ensure that activities respond to local needs, foster local ownership, and are sustainable over the long term.
In June 2006, USAID, The World Bank, and the United Nations-World Tourism Organization (UN-WTO) hosted a successful two-week online dialogue among tourism practitioners around the world about how to most effectively use communication skills, tools, and techniques to advance sustainable tourism development. Session moderators developed summations of the ideas and experiences shared during the e-Forum, and these summations were used as a springboard to stimulate further discussion. Several key issues and ideas were raised during discussions in five thematic areas, and they were revisited throughout the speaker series (dates and topics as below).
| July 12, 2006: |
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- Communication for CSR: Evaluation of Participants Input in Session III (PDF 99KB)
- Role of Communications in Sustainable Tourism: TIES Perspective (PDF 1.371MB)
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| July 19, 2006: |
Developing Tourism Policies and Strategies (PDF 332KB) |
| July 26, 2006: |
Involving Local Communities (PDF 948KB) |
| August 2, 2006: |
Interpretation and Orientation, National Geographic Society |
| August 9, 2006: |
Linking Sustainable Tourism Products to Markets (PDF 325KB) |
To access a PDF of the merged proceedings of the forum and summer speaker series on the role of development communication in sustainable tourism, click here (PDF 1.763MB).
E-Conference: The Role of Development Communication in Sustainable Tourism
May 29-June 9, 2006 |
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Organizers:
- The World Bank/Development Communications Division
- USAID/Development Communication and Sustainable Tourism Unit
- UN-WTO/Department for Sustainable Development of Tourism
The e-conference brought together development practitioners, tourism professionals, decision-makers, academics and communication specialists representing various national institutions, private sector and media organizations, NGOs, international institutions, and donors active in the field of communication and sustainable tourism to:
- Share their experiences, information and perspectives;
- Consolidate knowledge on development communication in sustainable tourism programs;
- Discuss the role that communication can play in designing and implementing sustainable tourism strategies and projects at national and local level; and
- Identify and share lessons learned and best practices.
Discussions centered on five thematic areas:
- The role of communication in planning and implementing sustainable tourism policies and strategies (Communication for tourism policies/strategies)
- Communication and local communities in tourism development (communication for community involvement)
- The role of communication in promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in Sustainable Tourism Development (Communication for Corporate Social Responsibility);
- The role of communication in linking sustainable tourism products to markets (Linking to markets); and
- Interpreting tourism destinations and orienting visitors (Interpretation and orientation).
More information can be found here.
USAID and Sustainable Tourism: Training Course for Field Officers
February 19-25, 2006
Tourism is now generally recognized to be one of the largest industries in the world. It has grown rapidly and almost continuously over the past twenty years, and is now one of the world’s most significant sources of employment and GDP. Tourism particularly benefits the economies of developing countries, where most of the sector’s new tourism jobs and businesses are being created. This rapid growth has encouraged many developing nations to view tourism as key to promoting economic growth.
USAID is increasingly using tourism programs and activities to achieve Agency goals of reducing poverty and improving livelihoods in the world’s less developed countries. USAID sees sustainable tourism development as having enormous cross-sectoral potential for accomplishing strategic objectives related to economic growth and poverty reduction, biodiversity conservation, and natural resources management, and it is viewed as a powerful tool for addressing other important cross-cutting agendas such as gender equity, global health, education, and local governance.
In February 2006, a seven-day training course in Sustainable Tourism for USAID field staff and host-country partners from all regions was presented by the EGAT Bureau’s cross-sectoral and interagency Sustainable Tourism Working Group. The training focused on:
- Increasing understanding of the basic principles of sustainable tourism and knowledge of the tools
and techniques available;
- Developing capability to analyze whether tourism would be a good tool, and identifying entry points for utilizing tourism to accomplish Agency goals;
- Explaining how to approach tourism project design and implementation, outlining activities that build sustainability; and
- Illustrating realistic expectations about what can be accomplished in 3-5 years, with examples of indicators for measuring success.
The training was held at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge outside of Arusha, Tanzania’s “safari capital,” and two day-long field trips during the training took participants out to Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks to explore community-based tourism initiatives, discuss successes and challenges with area tour operators, and meet with park staff at Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks, which both have new visitor facilities and outstanding wildlife-viewing opportunities. More information can be found here.
November 1-18, 2005
This innovative online ecotourism forum, sponsored by Planeta.com and EplerWood International, will provide professionally moderated, up-to-date results on small and medium enterprise priorities for funding and investment decisions for sustainable tourism in developing countries. It will look at potential barriers for entrepreneurs and communities engaged in sustainable tourism development and will facilitate the participation of key business, finance, and market players worldwide to discuss the needs of their industry.
The forum will lead to a more thorough understanding of the types of support small and medium enterprises need to foster more local economic growth, community benefits, poverty alleviation, conservation, and sustainable development. The online dialogue will be followed by a synthesis document posted on Planeta’s website.
Visit the web site for more information: http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/emerging.html
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