THE United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the government of China will be organising the First World Conference on Tourism for Development, with a view to advance tourism towards UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Meetings will be held in Beijing from May 18 to 21 under the theme ‘Tourism for Peace and Development’. The programme includes three main forums on May 19 – Summit on Sustainable Development through Tourism, Tourism for Poverty Reduction and Tourism for Peace – as well as a ministerial meeting on May 20.
The high-level segment will bring key decision-makers together to discuss how countries can align their national development strategies with the SDGs and the role of public and private partnerships in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Explaining tourism’s potential to contribute to development, UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai, said: “Tourism is one of the most dynamic economic sectors, with significant global reach, and as such can make an important contribution to the achievement of the SDGs, particularly in the areas of job creation, sustainable consumption and production and the preservation of natural resources.”
The decision to hold the conference in Beijing came after Chinese officials decided to promote rural tourism as an effective means to fight poverty.
China also launched a nationwide tourism development plan to lift 17 per cent of the country’s impoverished population out of poverty by 2020.
