{"id":2078,"date":"2016-07-14T15:21:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T22:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2016-07-14T15:21:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T22:21:35","slug":"tourism-a-catalyst-for-peace-and-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/07\/tourism-a-catalyst-for-peace-and-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism, a catalyst for peace and development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"World Tourism Organization<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Press Release<\/p>\n

Madrid, Spain, 14 July 2016<\/p>\n

PR No. 16055<\/p>\n

Tourism, a catalyst for peace and development<\/h3>\n

Tourism can play a key role in building peace and supporting reconciliation processes, concluded the UNWTO Conference on \u2018Tourism, a catalyst for development, peace and reconciliation\u2019 held in Passikudah, Sri Lanka between 11 and 14 July. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Community engagement and empowerment, capacity building and training, and public\/private sector partnerships are key factors in advancing a culture of peace through tourism in post-conflict societies. Participants recalled the importance of placing tourism at the heart of the peace and reconciliation agenda, to ensure the sector can deliver on its capacity to generate development and social inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism is a vehicle for trust and goodwill. Cultural understanding can change attitudes and build peace. Tourism\u2019s role in peace building is also \u00a0enacted through its contribution to poverty alleviation, cultural preservation and environmental conservation,\u201d said President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena in a message to the Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor most of the last thirty years, this place has been a warzone. Today, Passikudah is an example of how people affected by conflict have picked up the pieces and rebuilt their lives. We would not be meeting here if it were not for peace,\u201d said the Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs and Lands of Sri Lanka, John Amaratunga. \u201cWe will work to provide an example to the world on how to rise from the ashes of conflict to become a leading tourism destination,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe face a deficit of tolerance. Tourism brings people together; it opens our minds and hearts\u201d, said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai, opening the Conference. \u201cYet to gain peace we need to give people opportunities for a better future; we need to create jobs and bring them hope,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Petra National Trust conducted a number of informal surveys that suggest that when tourism is poorly managed, societal tensions persist, local communities\u2019 connection to their heritage weakens, responsible practices around tourism sites suffer, and local culture and values erode,\u201d said HRH Princess Dana Firas, Chair of the Petra National Trust, Jordan, in her keynote address.<\/p>\n

The Conference focused on four main topics: the contribution of tourism development to peace, local community involvement and \u2018peace sensitive tourism\u2019, public\/private partnerships, and marketing in post-conflict destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an historical event in an area once torn apart by war. We trust that tourism development in Sri Lanka will bring more opportunities to the people and particularly the youth of the country,\u201d said Paddy Withana, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism, closing the event by recalling that the conference welcomed perspectives on how that can be done in full respect of communities and traditions from across the country.<\/p>\n

On the occasion, five Sri Lankan companies \u2013 Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC, Lanka Hotels & Travels PVT Ltd, Laugfs Leisure Limited, Siddhalepa Ayurveda Health Resort and Theme Resorts & Spas Pvt Ltd. – signed the Private Sector Commitment to the UNWTO Code of Ethics for Tourism, pledging to upload and promote the values of the Code. The signing ceremony was witnessed by UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai, the Sri Lankan Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs and Lands of Sri Lanka, John Amaratunga, and Hiran Cooray, Member of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics.<\/p>\n

Additional information:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The conference website<\/a><\/p>\n

Tourism and Peace book<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo album of the conference<\/a><\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNWTO Media Officer <\/strong>Rut Gomez Sobrino<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/strong>Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60<\/p>\n

UNWTO Communications & Publications Programme
\n<\/a><\/strong>Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 \/ Fax: +34 91 567 8218<\/p>\n

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)<\/a>, a United Nations specialized agency, is the leading international organization with the decisive and central role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how. Its membership includes 157 countries, 6 territories, 2 permanent observers and over 500 Affiliate Members. Follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Flickr<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Tourism Organization Press Release Madrid, Spain, 14 July 2016 PR No. 16055 Tourism, a catalyst for peace and development Tourism can play a key role in building peace and supporting reconciliation processes, concluded the UNWTO Conference on \u2018Tourism, a catalyst for development, peace and reconciliation\u2019 held in Passikudah, Sri Lanka between 11 and 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[653,351,890,490,496,719],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supporting-people-a-community-a-cause","tag-journey","tag-peace","tag-tolerance","tag-tourism","tag-travel","tag-understanding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-xw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2079,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}