PRESS CONFERENCE ON TOURISM BY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON TOURISM BY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

At a Headquarters press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Jeb Brugmann, Secretary-General of the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, said that for tourism to survive and be sustained, it had to work with local communities or stakeholders who knew best what was needed to maintain the unique characteristics that made tourist destinations attractive.

Mr. Brugmann, together with Simon Upton, New Zealand's Minister of Environment and Chairman of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, and Geoffrey Lipman, President of the World Travel and Tourism Council, were briefing the press on the results of the governments/major groups dialogue sessions in the meetings of the Commission, in which representatives of industry, local governments, non-governmental organizations and trade unions have participated. The dialogue has been focused on global tourism and the environment.

Speaking on behalf of local government representatives, Mr. Brugmann said that one thing that came out of the discussions was that ultimately sustaining a tourist destination or a local tourism economy would involve a dialogue and a partnership with local stakeholders. By the time of the General Assembly review of Agenda 21 implementation in 2002, he said there would be real concrete examples of ways in which tourism economic activity had contributed to sustainable development of cities and places around the world.

He said a number of problems relating to tourism had been placed on the table during the dialogue, such as things that made the industry unsustainable. The concept of sustainable tourism was broadly endorsed. It was agreed that it had relevance for all, particularly for local governments, and the partners would work together to determine how the tourism economy could become a mechanism to develop communities in a sustainable way.

Mr. Upton said the dialogue had proved to be a valuable event. A number of recommendations had been made for multilateral agencies, along with practical, concrete suggestions. One such suggestion was the need for videos describing the environmental and cultural world to which tourists were travelling, so that as they arrived they were sensitized about some of the important issues. A small dose of sustainable development literature visually could do more "in just one hit" to actually improve what happened on the ground than any amount of resolutions adopted by such bodies as the Commission, he said.

Mr. Lipman, speaking on behalf of the travel industry, said that both sides of the industry had learned the need for multi-stakehood. They had come out of the dialogue convinced that it was a good thing to have both the process and the exchanges. They agreed that the travel and tourism industry was a good one, which could be a change agent for the environmental,

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ecological, economic and social benefit in the twenty-first century. One view was that the contributions they would make should filter down to emerging States, in particular to local governments. Another held that tourism was invasive and had an impact on resources and growth patterns, and needed to be checked to ensure that it was sustainable. Mechanisms should be put in place to effect those checks.

He said that industry recognized that it had something to contribute and that much of what was said about the tourism industry being a driver of social and economic change was correct. However, the mechanisms still had to be put in place.

Mr. Lipman said the industry believed that Agenda 21 for travel and tourism provided a framework for action between the public and private sector, as well as between the different stakeholders and international, regional, national and local levels. His group had announced on the first day of the conference a partnership with the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives to link together ongoing activities in Agenda 21 for travel and tourism.

Kenneth F. Hine, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association, in brief remarks, added that he had been struck by the growing recognition on both sides of the travel and tourism industry that there were things that they shared in common, as well as goals both were anxious to achieve.

Mr. Lipman said he had found a good measure of support for an industry campaign to promote the tourism industry among children. Called "The Dodo", the campaign was aimed at educating children to be good tourists and included a series of cartoons. Trade union representatives had suggested the involvement of the music sector to send messages to people, he said.

A correspondent asked whether there was a model by which a particular tourism activity could be determined to be sustainable. Mr. Lipman said there had been discussions about that during the dialogue. It was determined that local governments would be particularly critical as a partner in the future development of tourism, because they had the best knowledge about what was appropriate -- or not -- for a particular location.

Mr. Upton added that tourism development could not be handed down from on high or forced upon people. Local communities must be genuinely involved in determining what was sustainable. A mechanism was needed to ensure that tourism development was sustainable in the physical, cultural and social sense. For that to happen, local stakeholders had to be involved in an integrated way in setting those limits.

Mr. Lipmann said that during the dialogue some processes were identified. There was support for Agenda 21 for travel and tourism, based on

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the global principles from the original Agenda 21. It had to be applied regionally, nationally and locally with multi-stakeholder groups. There was also support for the local Agenda 21 process as a model. As a result of the dialogue, it had been decided to identify a number of locations where those processes could be tested.

In reply to other questions, he said there were a number of issues on which further discussion was required, such as the issue of whether local authorities should be given the power to tax the tourism industry for infrastructural work.

Mr. Brugmann said it should be recognized that there were some very critical issues that would determine whether tourism was sustainable. Those had not been fully addressed. There was a lot of debate around the issue of carrying capacity or limits to growth and sharing of costs. Those issues had to be negotiated, he said.

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