Capacity Building on Sustainable Tourism: Policies for Delivering Social, Environmental and Economic Benefits in the Asia-Pacific Region 17-20 November 2015 (Jeju, Republic of Korea)
Background “[O]ver the past years, tourism has proven to be a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity and a fundamental contributor to the economic recovery by generating billions of dollars in exports and creating millions of jobs.” – Taleb Rifai, UNWTO Secretary-General In 2014, international tourist arrivals recorded 1,138 million with a 4.7% increase compared to the previous year１. It has occupied 9% of global GDP, creating one in every 11 jobs worldwide ２. Particularly, Asia and the Pacific region showed the strongest growth in tourism population, welcoming 263million international tourists in 2014. The region’s major destinations including Japan, Taiwan, Republic of Korea, China, India and Australia are expected to continue the firm growth by 5% average and the increasing trend also applies to sub-regions such as South East Asia３. As tourism has gained more importance and popularity within the economic, social and political arena, however, some negative consequences and problems have emerged. Ecological degradation and loss of cultural heritage are among its threats. Also, people started to realize the colossal investment in tourism facilities could not be equated with the success of tourism industry and the tourists’ fulfillment. In this sense, tourism has become internationally recognized within the UN dialogue like the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (1999) for the question of ‘quality tourism’ rather than its quantifiable volume. The dominant agenda on tourism development has moved its focus from ‘how much developed’ to ‘how well developed’ and the need for sustainable tourism comes to the front. Finally, sustainable tourism has been positively and clearly adopted in the final draft of the Post-2015 Development Agenda as articles of sustainable development goals for poverty alleviation. In this regard, the workshop will raise awareness on sustainable tourism and entails a solid grasp of its principles, strategies, some challenges and financial cooperation by looking at case studies through the live voices of the international/national/local practitioners. It will help local actors effectively develop relevant policies to conserve and promote their natural and cultural heritage for the communities’ social, environmental and economic benefits.
１
[Online] Available at http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2015-01-27/over-11-billion-tourists-travelled-abroad-2014 [Online] Available at http://www.wttc.org/-/media/upload/gs15/gtac%20document%20final.pdf ３ [Online] Available at http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2015-01-27/over-11-billion-tourists-travelled-abroad-2014 ２
1