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The
World Tourism Outlook "With
international tourism forecast to nearly triple in
volume in the first 20 years of the next century,
we felt that the Code of Ethics was needed to
ensure the sustainability of our industry," said
WTO Secretary-General Francesco
Frangialli. Photo: Watch for
our story featuring Globe
2002
and environmental concerns for Canada's remote
areas (above) including the Arctic
tundra. Investors and
public authorities are required to carry out
environmental impact studies before beginning
tourism development projects and to involve local
residents. Other articles involve the rights of
workers in the tourism industry and the freedom of
movement of people across national boundaries. The
code was developed after extensive consultation
with governments, trade associations, labour
unions, private sector companies and
non-governmental organizations. It marks the first
time that a document of this type will have a
mechanism for enforcement, which will be based on
conciliation through the World Committee on
Tourism Ethics. "Internet is the
perfect medium for public-private cooperation in
tourism and it is revolutionizing all aspects of
the tourism sector," said Business Council CEO Jose
Luis Zoreda. Delegates also endorsed a new system
for accurately measuring the economic impact of
tourism activity called the Tourism Satellite
Account and urged member nations to begin
implementing the system as a way of raising
awareness about the vital role of tourism in their
national economies. "The meetings
surpassed our expectations, both in the quantity of
high-level participants and the quality of the
topics debated-all of them relevant to preparing
our tourism sector for the next millennium," said
Cesar Gomez, director of Chile's national tourism
service SERNATUR, which hosted the General
Assembly. Swaziland and Hong Kong (China) were
approved as new members of the
organization. Tourism for
peace In addition,
Germany was chosen to host World Tourism Day
festivities on September 27 next year in
conjunction with the Universal Expo in Hanover
under the theme of Technology and Nature: Two
Challenges for Tourism at the Dawn of the 21st
Century. Iran will host World Tourism Day
celebrations in 2001 with the theme of Tourism: A
Tool for Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations in
association with UNESCO's declaration of 2001 as
the 'Year of Dialogue'.
Photos
by Muguette Goufrani
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and WTO Tourism Code of Ethics
With
the intention of protecting the earth's natural
environment and cultural heritage from the non-stop
growth of international tourism, world leaders
approved a Global Code
of
Ethics for Tourism during a summit meeting in
Santiago. The code, developed by the World Tourism
Organization (WTO), sets out a 10-point blueprint
for safeguarding the resources upon which tourism
depends and for ensuring that more of the
skyrocketing profits from tourism benefit residents
of tourism destinations.
The
Global Code of Ethics for Tourism includes nine
articles outlining the 'rules of the game` for
destinations, governments, tour operators,
developers, travel agents, workers and travellers
themselves. The tenth article involves the redress
of grievances through the creation of a World
Committee on Tourism Ethics. For example,
travellers are required to learn about the customs,
health hazards and security risks of countries they
are preparing to visit before departure, while
destinations and tourism professionals are held
responsible for repatriating tourists in the case
of the bankruptcy of a travel service provider.
The five-day WTO General Assembly, held in Santiago
from September 27 to October 1, attracted some 800
delegates from 110 nations around the
world-including 60 ministers or secretaries of
state for tourism. Other items on the agenda
included a day-long session on Tourism &
Cyberspace and the release of a new study published
by the WTO Business Council Marketing Tourism
Destinations in the Information Age.
In a first of its kind decision, Japan and South
Korea agreed to jointly host WTO's next General
Assembly in the cities of Osaka and Seoul in
2001-just one year before the two countries are to
jointly host the World Cup football championships.
"More than anything else we will try to translate
the theme of 'peace through tourism' into practice
through the joint hosting of the General Assembly,"
said South Korea's Vice Minister for Tourism and
Culture Soon-Kyu Kim, adding that he hoped the
international meeting would focus world attention
on reunification of the divided Korean peninsula.
WTO has received bids from Croatia and Nigeria to
host the General Assembly of 2003.
Deborah
Luhrman
Tel. (34) 91-567-8100
Fax (34) 91-567-8218
Email:
dluhrman@world-tourism.org