Tourism as a Tool For Development
While tourism has enormous potential to contribute to development, it needs to appropriate governance systems that give power to act in the people and communities: that was one of the main messages emanating from the WTO Forum in the Algarve, held 1 to 3 June in Vilamoura, Portugal.
The Forum, which aims to bring theory and practice in tourism as a tool for development and good governance, brought together over 300 representatives from public and private sectors, who joined eminent scholars to conclude several months of debate online and seek consensus on tourism strategies for the next decade and beyond.
The world faces increasing challenges and changes that require innovative strategies and policies. Governments, businesses and civil society need to devote attention to knowledge management in tourism to better understand their operation and forces that act on the model today, especially on key issues such as development, climate change and governance. We need to bring all these actors in participatory solutions: possible and is an achievable goal, “said UNWTO Secretary-General Tale Raffia, inaugurated the Forum.
Regarding governance, the Forum underlined the importance of participation and efficiency. Institutions and various actors, whether public or private, as well as civil society, are to benefit from innovation, ensuring maximum use of open networks of information technologies and communication. Cooperation and knowledge-based decisions are the basis of good governance.
The findings also highlighted the need to develop new indicators to measure the real impact of tourism development and its impact on climate change. These indicators should also allow a better balance between the challenges of climate change and the use of tourism as a development tool.
The forum of the WTO in the Algarve was organized by the Knowledge Network of the WTO, with the able support of one of its most active members, the University of Algarve. Participants agreed to establish a platform to take forward the work begun in recent months within the Knowledge Network of the WTO and the Forum and create a community of tourism knowledge, providing a supportive framework for policy development, governance and change climate.