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Talk of the current crisis facing the industry in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States dominated the meetings, which were hosted first in the Republic of Korea and then in Japan as a test event in the run up to the 2002 World Cup football championships.
The General Assembly, which began on September 23rd in Seoul, was attended by some 700 delegates representing 118 countries, including 56 ministers or secretaries of state with the rank of minister. Delegates were quick to condemn the attacks and the negative consequences they are having on tourism worldwide. Mr. Frangialli said. The World Tourism Organization released an immediate analysis of the impact, reporting that tourists are postponing holidays and switching to destinations that are closer to home. WTO also reduced its short-term forecast for tourist arrivals in 2001 from 3% growth to 1.5% growth. A strongly worded resolution expressing solidarity with the people of the United States and calling for international cooperation to erradicate terrorism was adopted by delegates and sent to the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations for consideration. At the urging of members, WTO also came up with an Action Plan to help stimulate a rapid recovery of the tourism industry. The plan calls for the formation of a joint public-private Crisis Management Committee that will act in three main areas: collection of real time market information on how the sector is responding; strengthening of WTO activities in the area of safety and security; and assistance to governments in rebuilding a positive tourism image-particularly for countries in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. But the General Assembly was optimistic about long-term prospects for tourism. "Experience has shown that tourism has great resilience and great power to recover from a crisis, if travel is down one year then pent up demand will result in extraordinary growth the next year," the Secretary-General said. WTO is maintaining its long-term growth forecast of 1 billion International tourists by 2010 and 1.5 billion by 2020. Tourism and Peace "How much bigger would have been our sense of unease on the Korean Peninsula, which is a most sensitive region in terms of security, if we had not chosen this avenue of peace and reconciliation, " the president said. At the opening ceremony in Osaka, His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan said: "In today´s world, the role of the World Tourism Organization has become more important than ever in promoting a mutual understanding among peoples that transcends national borders." 26 Decisions Another highlight of the 26 resolutions adopted by the General Assembly was the creation of a World Committee on Tourism Ethics to be charged with interpreting and applying the provisions of WTO´s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. The code-which was adopted by the General Assembly two years ago and has since been translated into 17 languages-provides a blueprint for the behaviour of the various players in the tourism industry, ensuring protection of the environment and cultural heritage as well as a balanced distribution of tourism benefits. The committee would also have responsibility for setting up a system of conciliation to resolve any disputes arising from the code. Delegates approved the new membership of five countries in the World Tourism Organization-Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cape Verde, Honduras and Yugoslavia-and they approved the new membership of Saudi Arabia pending the completion of application materials. Representatives of Saudi Arabia attended their first WTO General Assembly, indicating increasing openess by the Moslem world towards tourism. A new two-year budget and programme of activities for the period 2002-2003 was approved, allocating 20.8 million euros for WTO´s work in eight programme areas: cooperation for development; statistics; market intelligence; human resource development; quality of tourism development; sustainable development of tourism; information technology; and communications and documentation. In addition, a special programme annex was included for the first time to help boost tourism to the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli (France) and Deputy Secretary-General Dawid de Villiers (South Africa) were unanimously re-elected for a second term for the period 2002-2005 on motions presented by Spain and by Japan. The Secretary-General promised to continue the work he has started and begin a new initiative to strengthen WTO´s position within the United Nations family by making it a specialized UN agency by 2003. He also outlined nine broad challenges that his second term would address:
· A better understanding of the economic importance of tourism through satellite accounts, · Site and infrastructure congestion from increasing tourism flows, · Encouraging the liberalization of trade in services while respecting sustainable development, · Control of the cultural and social impacts of tourism development, · Tourism's contribution to understanding among nations and the promotion of a culture of peace, · The introduction of new information and communication technologies, · The contribution of tourism to the fight against poverty and in creating employment, · A growing need for a balanced partnership between public and private sectors, and · The growing decentralization of responsibilities and the efficient management of destinations.
Jordan was elected to head the WTO Executive Council, with the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Dr. Taleb Rifai to chair the meetings. Themes and host countries for upcoming World Tourism Days were decided, with Costa Rica to host World Tourism Day 2002 under the theme Ecotourism, the key to sustainable development and Algeria to host World Tourism Day 2003 under the theme Tourism: a driving force for poverty alleviation , job creation and social harmony. It was decided by secret ballot that China would host the next World Tourism Organization General Assembly in 2003.
Millennium Conference To provide greater depth to the deliberations of the WTO General Assembly, it was followed by the Millennium Conference of Tourism Leaders. The president of the Maldives, H.E. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, provided a keynote address on ecotourism and former South African president Nelson Mandela, in an inaugural message, underlined the ability of tourism to address two of the greatest problems of our time: peace and poverty alleviation. "Tourism has now acquired the status of the biggest and fastest growing economic activity in the world, the challenge is to harness the power of this industry effectively in the fight against poverty," according to Mr. Mandela. The conference focused on tourism trends, protection of the natural environment and cultural heritage and tourism technology. It resulted in the Osaka Millennium Declaration, a document summarizing the main points and suggestions made by speakers on each topic. For more information: Deborah Luhrman / Alla Peressolova Tel. (34) 91-567-8100 WTO Press and Communications Fax (34) 91-567-8218 Email: comm@world-tourism.org |
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WTO
Travel Industry Items
Osaka,
Japan: A unified and defiant global tourism
sector emerged from the meetings of the
World Tourism Organization´s 14th
General Assembly and the Millennium Conference of Tourism
Leaders, which concluded in
Osaka, Japan today.
"WTO´s
first General Assembly of the new millennium has been
an historic one for us," said
Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli. "It
is the first time we have ever split the
meetings between two venues-Seoul
and Osaka-and it is the first time we have had to
deal with such enormous
challenges."